Since 1995, Habitat for Humanity Tucson has partnered with local high schools to give students the opportunity to learn and develop skills related to the construction industry while building a home for a local family.  Over the years, 45 homes have been constructed for 45 local families.  Sabino, Santa Rita, Howenstine and Sahuarita High Schools have all participated in the program.

A high school build home is started on campus and students enrolled in third and fourth year construction technology classes complete it to approximately 60%.  It is then placed on a trailer and moved through the streets of Tucson to its permanent location where it is finished by community volunteers.

Currently participating in the High School build program are Howenstine and Sahuarita high schools.  Habitat Tucson is also partnering with Santa Rita High School to continue to provide students with hands-on, real-world construction experience at the Habitat construction site twice a week.

Studies have shown that students enrolled in classes where they have hands-on opportunities – and, in this case, can give back to the community – are more likely to stay in school and do better on standardized tests.  Habitat is proud to have pioneered this innovative program.

Tucson Federal Credit Union supports Habitat's High School Build 2 Photos

Brent Family Dedication 03 04 09 16 Photos

High School Students Build Play House for Tucson Children's Museum 13 Photos

Habitat Tucson’s High School Build Program has:

• Provided a hands-on apprenticeship for more than 1,000 young men and women in technical vocational education classes at multiple local public high-schools. These students have learned construction trades by building homes for Habitat homeowners, have acquired applied skills in the core curriculum (including math and science) and have had direct-employment opportunities within Tucson’s building industry.
• Provided a hands-on, meaningful community-service and philanthropic experience for these students, who have worked with community volunteers to build the homes and to fund-raise for the cost of the homes.
• Funded the only home construction technology program in the southwest for secondary school students, helping to shore up the many decades of declining federal and state funding for several public school districts’ advanced technical-education programs.
• Developed the next generation of home builders and affordable-housing advocates in Tucson. As home building has historically beenTucson’s largest manufacturing sector and is an industry that cannot be outsourced or off-shored to another country, we need to develop the industry’s capacity, talent, and work-ethic within the next generation of Tucsonans, especially as our workforce and our community ages.
• Provided a helping-hand to more than 45 hard-working low-income Habitat families whose 100+ children would not now be living in a Habitat home were it not for the students in Habitat’s High School Build Program.