Press Releases
Welfare Women Build Their Lives by Building a House
Released: April 01, 1999
Welfare Women Build Their Lives by Building a House
Las Cruces, New Mexico, April 1999--TeamWorks, a group of women on welfare who are transitioning to the workforce, are receiving instruction in homebuilding construction. They have started the low cost, highly energy efficient house.
The mission of the TeamWorks program is to improve the employability and long term social and economic success of its participants. It is a small, individualized and supportive program for TANF recipients that can last up to 12 weeks. The participants receive training in practical living as well as job skills. Presently, seven women are in a building trades track, and the balance are in childcare worker training.
The TeamWorks Projects House is 1,329 square feet of heated living space and totals 1,922 square feet. It is being built with Reward Wall Systems insulating concrete forms, an innovative and easy to use building system using expanded polystyrene (EPS) concrete forms. The Reward wall system is comprised of lightweight foam blocks made of two pieces of (EPS) held together with plastic ties.
The foam blocks are stacked like building blocks, aligned, braced, strengthened with steel reinforcing bar and then filled with concrete. The resulting wall is a solid continuous airtight, steel reinforced concrete wall surrounded by several inches of insulating EPS. Structures built using this system can achieve and effective R32 insulation value and save 50-80% on heating and cooling costs when built according to specifications. Each foam block weighs only about five pounds and takes the place of six concrete blocks.
Jim Tooley, the Reward Wall Systems distributor for the Las Cruces area, has supplied the classroom and on-site training as well as the building site, and the Retired Seniors Volunteer Program daily transports the women to the building site. "The Reward building system is ideal for this type of program," said Tooley. "The forms are very light weight, and the system goes together so easily no special skills are required to install it."
Deana Kessin, Administrative Director of TeamWorks, said, "I am proud of all the women who are working so hard to improve their lives. It takes a great deal of courage to enter a field of work that has been traditionally male oriented. I invite anyone who would like to attend this function to do so. The enthusiasm of the entire TeamWorks class is inspiring and encouraging. They are terrific!"
The innovative TeamWorks program is offered by the New Mexico Commission on the Status of Women, an organization dedicated to improving the lives of women in New Mexico.