How Catapult Transforms People’s Lives And Greg Hemmings’ Kitchen
SAINT JOHN – Catapult Training and Employment transforms the lives of people facing employment barriers by giving them training and on-the-job experience in a variety of trades and crafts. Local filmmaker Greg Hemmings is showcasing Catapult’s work in a video series of them building a kitchen table for his new house.
“We are going to be featuring the building of something very, very special in our house,” said Hemmings in the first of a six-part series by Hemmings House. “This is a piece of furniture that has a big story behind it. This piece of furniture is going to be our kitchen table.”
Catapult’s mission is to help give opportunities for people facing barriers for employment, such as people who have a criminal record, are refugees, or who have been out of the work force for an indefinite period of time.
One of the skills taught by the employment model is carpentry, with employees making a range of furniture from tables to cabinets to clocks.
“Basically it is a way to give people a start and work with them,” Colin McDonald, Director of Catapult Training and Employment, told Hemmings. “We really believe in the potential of people and that often life, whether through homelessness, poverty, mental health or addiction, buries their gifts and skills.”
“It is a place where they can renew their skills and change their live’s narrative; many of the people we have employed from Outflow’s men’s shelter.”
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The training centre used to be a funeral home, which turned out to be the perfect place for carpentry and making furniture, much to the delight of McDonald.
“Our stain room used to be the embalming room which has the same ventilation system that you need for a paint room; now its been re-purposed into a place where everything gets turned into something beautiful.”
For Jeremy Robinson, the furniture program has been a passion and outlet. “I put my heart into every single piece that I touch and I’m always constantly trying to learn new things.”
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Cody Kerr, works for Catapult Construction, became involved with Outflow when he was staying in the shelter. “They gave me an opportunity to prove myself and to work and to be here.”
Instead of going to donors and the government for funds, work placements and enterprises such as Catapult generates income, with all the money brought in from the businesses going right back into running the men’s shelter and providing meals for the community, explains McDonald.
“It changes the narrative about how we interact with the community and people’s roles in it.”
The series of episodes on Catapult is part of an ongoing project by Hemmings House called The Ragged Life.