Local carpenters assist in building a training facility for Arc of Indiana

MUNCIE, Ind. - Feb. 16, 2015 - PRLog -- As part of an ongoing project, Local 1016 of the Indiana/Kentucky/Ohio Regional Council of Carpenters (IKORCC) has been collaborating with other building trade unions to construct a hotel training facility for individuals with disabilities. This project is the brainchild of the ARC of Indiana, an amazing organization committed to helping people with intellectual and developmental disabilities realize their goals of learning, living, working and fully participating in the community.

"There is nothing greater than knowing that my skills and training are helping to build something so amazing right here in my community," said Drew Lloyd of the IKORCC. "This is a one-of-a-kind project where participants are trained in a working hotel by the hotel's hospitality staff. This is the kind of project that causes you to go home at the end of a hard days work feeling great about what you are doing to not only build your community, but also help those in need."

After receiving hospitality training, individuals will have the opportunity to apply learned skills through an internship at the Courtyard by Marriott.

The new hotel facility will be located by the Horizon Convention Center in Muncie. Through the efforts of Muncie Mayor Dennis Tyler, the entire hotel is being constructed by local trade unions and is a great example of a community supporting its friends and neighbors in local union trades with roughly 20 union carpenters working on this project.

"When local trades are hired to complete a project, everyone wins," said Dennis Tyler, Mayor of Munice. "We know projects will be completed on time and under budget, and we get to keep our money here while providing jobs for our local community members. The local trades are made up of good, hardworking people, and we've really enjoyed working with them. Every project given to our local trades is completed with the highest quality."

"It was very important to us from the very beginning that we have strong Indiana partners involved in the project. We were not looking at partners who were just experts in their field, and we insisted on partners that believed in our mission and knew we were building so much more than a hotel and training institute," commented Kim Dodson, Arc Innovations Executive Director. "From our first conversation with the Carpenters Union, we knew they
got the mission of the project and they believed in creating opportunities as well. It has been a wonderful partnership and we are thankful to have them on our team."

"This project is the first of its kind in the nation," said Roy Loveless, IKORCC Representative. "We fully support the Arc of Indiana's mission to empower people and inspire change, and we feel that this project does just that. We are so proud to be contributing to a labor-friendly project that will improve lives and create opportunities for individuals with disabilities in our community."

For more information about this project, please contact Roy Loveless at rloveless@ikorcc.com.