As communities across Simcoe County and Muskoka continue to feel the strain of rising housing costs and a growing shortage of skilled tradespeople, a Barrie-based social enterprise is marking nearly a decade of addressing both challenges simultaneously.
Community Builders, founded in 2016 by Brandon Day, is preparing to celebrate its 10th anniversary this September. What started as a grassroots initiative has grown into a multi-region organization working across Barrie, Muskoka, Sudbury, and Sault Ste. Marie.
“We started back in 2016. So we're celebrating 10 years come September, which is something I'm very proud of,” Day said in a recent interview with Barrie 360.
Day, a tradesperson by background, said the idea for Community Builders grew out of his own dissatisfaction with conventional construction work and a search for a deeper purpose. That search led him overseas, where he worked with Habitat for Humanity as a global village leader building homes in countries including Kenya, Zambia, El Salvador and Bolivia.
“I was just enjoying [the work] because you're in the community, you're working, living and eating with the folks that you're building with,” he said. “And I thought, how can I replicate something like this when I go back home?”
After returning to Canada, Day connected with Barrie-based Redwood Park Communities, where he saw firsthand that poverty and housing insecurity were not just global issues, but local ones as well. From those early partnerships, Community Builders emerged with a focus on creating legal secondary suites.
“Secondary suites are the fastest and cheapest way to create new units,” Day said.
Listen below to our interview with Brandon. It begins at the 38:55 mark.
But housing was only part of the equation. As the organization grew, Day said it became clear that solving the housing crisis also meant addressing the looming shortage of skilled trades workers. In response, Community Builders developed a paid, 12-week trades training program that runs alongside its construction operations.
“If you're going to ask them to stop their life for three months, they still need to be able to afford transportation. They need to afford their lunch. They need to pay their bills,” Day said.
The program serves people facing barriers to employment, including youth, women entering the trades, newcomers to Canada and those with criminal records. Trainees learn everything from framing to finishing, first in a controlled training environment and then on real, revenue-generating job sites. According to the organization, about 90 per cent of graduates move on to full-time employment.
Looking back, Day says he never imagined Community Builders would reach the scale it has today.
“I absolutely found my purpose,” he said. “I had no idea Community Builders would be where it is today.”
As communities across Ontario face the same interconnected challenges of housing affordability and labour shortages, Day believes the organization’s community-based, social enterprise model can continue to make an impact — one project, and one person, at a time.
More information about Community Builders’ programs, partnerships and services is available at communitybuilders.co.
