The Home Depot Foundation’s Nationwide MLK Week of Service: Transforming Communities and Empowering Students
Originally published on Built From Scratch
The Home Depot Foundation’s nationwide week of service runs from Jan. 12 - 19, 2024. This is in partnership with Home Builders Institute (HBI), 100 Black Men of America, Construction Ready and other local and national nonprofits. The goal is to help drive sustainable change and social equity across communities and introduce high school students to high-earning career opportunities in the skilled trades.
As part of this week of service, Team Depot, The Home Depot’s associate volunteer force, and nonprofit Big Picture Philadelphia upgraded Vaux Big Picture High School’s facilities in Philadelphia, PA. The teams worked with students to build benches and paint the counseling center, learning offices and picnic tables at the high school. This is where students regularly participate in professional development workshops. Beautification projects like this will also allow the students to demonstrate hands-on skills they’ve learned through the Home Builders Institute pre-apprenticeship program.
In Atlanta, GA, Team Depot joined with Westside Future Fund (WFF) and Hands On Atlanta to take part in service projects across the city. On Monday, dozens of associates volunteered at a local elementary school, building an outdoor classroom, landscaping and beautifying the property, painting murals, assembling blankets, organizing the library and more. WFF is a place-based nonprofit supporting equitable neighborhood revitalization on Atlanta’s historic Westside. Projects like this help preserve the community so it remains a place Dr. King would be proud to call home.
Across the coast, in Oakland, CA, The Home Depot Foundation is partnering with HBI and 100 Black Men of the Bay Area to guide students as they build new storage spaces for the Cypress Mandela Training Center. This nonprofit organization provides free pre-apprenticeship construction training and employment assistance to local underrepresented communities.
Other projects include helping build desks with local junior high school students in Coralville, IA, constructing benches and raised garden beds for a senior center in Leicester, MA, and making athletic equipment for a high school athletic program in Vancouver, WA.
Visit HomeDepotFoundation.org to learn more.
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