High school students build a tiny home from scratch
Thirteen high school students from Yorkton Tribal Council member nations are working with Your Choice Homes for seven weekends to build a tiny home.
The pilot project's goal is to empower the kids and provide them with a high school industrial arts credit, while building smaller housing for reserves.
While the students work on construction in Yorkton at the Castle Lumber Yard, Isabel O'Soup, chief of the Yorkton Tribal Council, said they learn electrical and carpentry skills, as well as plumbing, roofing and measuring.
"It's a little bit bigger than the typical tiny home … but they started right from scratch," she said.
The program goes over a different stage of build each weekend and the students get hands-on training and instruction from a contractor specialized in the specific trades.
"By the time the weekend was done, the house was up — the structure, the frame, the roof was done and was on. So it's going really good," said O'Soup.
When it's all done, O'Soup said she hopes it will be used as a show home in Yorkton before it will eventually go to member nations of the Yorkton Tribal Council.
"I think it would be like winning the NHL [Stanley] Cup," said O'Soup, reflecting on watching the kids in action this weekend.
"You just can't ever take that feeling of pride away from them. I think it encourages not only them, it encourages peers, and we'll have all kinds of carpenters, plumbers and electricians in our communities."
