Larry MacDougal, Business Edge
Shop co-ordinator Bruce Holstead enjoys focusing on people instead of just the product.

Imagine a workshop that builds lives alongside custom-made cabinets and furniture, and you'll start to get an appreciation for what's really going on at the woodworking shop operated by the Calgary Drop-In Centre Society (CDICS) in an industrial park located just east of Chinook Centre.

Now imagine why the training shop co-ordinator admits to a little gut-wrenching sadness when one of his trainees spills wood stain on his shoes.

But Bruce Holstead, a journeyman carpenter with years of high-end experience as a finishing carpenter in Calgary's new-home residential market, isn't worried about a little stain on a shop floor at the Woodwork and Production Centre.

By the time a trainee is ready to play a hands-on role in the staining process, Holstead has probably known the person for several months. He would have been there the day the trainee, a client of the CDICS, arrived for his or her first day on the job. He's also apt to remember the day the trainee showed off the first shoes he or she bought and paid for all by himself or herself - and he knows darn well they are the only shoes this employee owns.

In search of a job that focused on people instead of product, Holstead joined the CDICS staff in July 2000. Stationed in a small woodworking shop in the downtown core, he and other like-minded people worked alongside society clients who expressed an interest in the carpentry trade.

By 2002, they'd secured society support for a much larger job-training initiative and moved their crew into the current training centre at 5513 3 St., S.E. Today's shop, a well-tooled expansion of its modest beginnings, employs 14 to 16 paid staff at any given time, including two more journeymen carpenters and an administrative assistant. Infused with a commitment to the future, each paid trainee enters the program with a place to live - or an agreement to secure a place to live within the 30 days of starting their new job.

The first six months of the program are spent honing life skills and learning the basics of the carpentry trade. That's critical, since some enter the program virtually illiterate. Holstead figures more than 100 people have worked their way through the training program - and some began the process unable to read a tape measure.

Determined to graduate employees with the kind of top-end skills Calgary's booming construction industry demands, the second six months of the program sees the trainees assume supervised carpentry roles.

That's followed by another six months where they work on actual projects from conception to completion.

These range from simple bookshelves to bedroom furniture, extensive wall units and highly decorative cabinets for dining rooms and kitchens. All are made of solid wood.

While Holstead admits many of their customers first come to the centre as a way to support a program that gives people a physical hand up in Calgary's booming economy, they stay because of the quality of product the program delivers.

And buyers who assume the program will subsidize their top-end cabinets are likely to be disappointed.

In deference to industry support in terms of donations and employment opportunities for its trainees, the shop prices its product competitively.

"People can learn as much here in one year as they would learn some place else in two or three years," says Holstead, who has little trouble finding new jobs for his employees.

Indeed, opportunity knocks far more often than the shop can deliver.

The focus on a competitively priced, top-quality product is why the shop is nearing self-sufficiency. While each trainee is paid an hourly wage from the day they show up to work, a packed job board means the third phase is coming wonderfully close to being able to support the first two.

Like many determined to improve the lot of those who struggle to make a living, Holstead seeks no comfort in the status quo.

Instead, he hopes the shop's success smooths the way for more job training initiatives, several of which may eventually find a home on the same industrial park site, since the current woodwork shop covers less than one-third of the available space.

He's also hopeful the business community will continue to support the woodworking shop by donating tools, passing along some bulk-purchase price breaks and hiring shop trainees for their own businesses.

"We build some great cabinets and we build some great people," says Holstead, who proudly shows off bulletin boards crowded with photographs of those whose lives were changed by a chance to learn how to swing a hammer and apply a little wood stain.

All of which brings us right back to those shoes.

Even though he steadfastly maintains the program should be able to support the wages it pays, Holstead admits he sometimes wants more for the men and women he hires and he's open to the idea of donations that would top up their wages.

Each employee accepted into the program also gets a tool/safety kit worth about $350. It's the most valuable thing many have ever owned - and Holstead likes the idea some of the kits could be directly sponsored by individuals, service groups or companies.

Without backing down from the notion his transient crews need to learn to earn their own way in life, Holstead concedes he would also like to be able to hand new staff a pair of work boots and overalls as they advance in the program. These are must-haves on a real jobsite - and pure luxuries to those already struggling to buy a single pair of shoes or jeans.

Working alongside men and women struggling so hard to get their lives on track, Holstead says he gets to know how they think. His own experience as a finishing carpenter tells him wood stain on your work boots can serve as a kind of badge of honour.

But splashed across the only runners you own, it's an ugly reminder of where you've been ... and how far you've yet to go.

Web watch: www.cdics.com

(Joy Gregory can be reached at joy@businessedge.ca)