Danny, construction manager, CORCAN

Danny - CORCAN

I absolutely love what I do. I worked in the construction field for many years, I gained a love for construction. Then I got a job here and got to work directly with the offenders. You learn from them as much as they do from you. It's rewarding to see them pick up the skills when people have gave up on them, and they work hard to try and get back into society.

Pick up the Skills

Danny
Construction Manager (CORCAN)

Hi, my name is Danny and I'm the construction manager for CORCAN in Ontario.

Today we're at our training facility at Collins Bay Institution.

This building is used as a training facility for our offenders. We typically build modulars here for other government agencies. A modular is a construction building that can be in multiple pieces. We build it that way so that we can ship them on Ontario roads. They are built with conventional framing so that we can teach our offenders on-site typical framing procedures.

Currently we have 20 offenders. We could hold probably up to 30 offenders depending on how many projects we have on the go.

You get a lot of satisfaction seeing them grow. This shows them the soft skills of having a job, showing up to work on time, not being late, having to tell us about appointments. And then there's the hard skills of doing a job, working with others, learning skills. We offer apprenticeships here in carpentry, electrical, plumbing and welding. So they can also find a field that they enjoy and hopefully when they get out they can find a job in that area.

Some of the challenges are some of them have never used power tools before, they've never learned to use a tape measure. So we have to start right from bare minimum and teach them how to use a skill saw safely, there are a lot of aspects of that. There's the unknown. We don't know what the offenders are in for so sometimes that's at the back of your mind. But this is a well-designed program that looks after those issues and our staff feel comfortable.

What makes me proud about my job is the work we do directly with the offenders. They get to see something from start to finish and they're very proud of it and that makes us proud that we're doing a good job and we're contributing to their future. I absolutely believe that we are making a difference in helping individuals. They'll be able to gain these soft skills, these hard skills, and be able to use them in life, whether that be getting a job in construction, or being able to work on these homes themselves and show satisfaction and gain that knowledge and that trust that they can do things on their own.

Changing Lives.
Protecting Canadians.