Update: July 26, 2010 Program at Los Angeles City Hall: Empowering People With Disabilities

Have you ever seen a group of people with disabilities build an entire house in just three hours? We did it!

On Monday, July 26, 2010, PREVENT HATE, in partnership with the City of Los Angeles Department on Disability, commemorated the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) with an empowerment program directly on the lawn of Los Angeles City Hall at which U.S. veterans with disabilities built a house in just three hours. This was a public demonstration of PREVENT HATE and the Los Angeles Department on Disability’s joint training program that empowers at-risk and marginalized populations.

If a picture paints a thousand words, then a public demonstration paints millions. In just a few hours, we disproved many reasons for discrimination against people living with disabilities because we successfully demonstrated that when they are provided with adequate tools, training, and resources, they do contribute to their communities, including the workforce, productively.

Much thanks to the Veterans Affairs (VA) health center in Long Beach, CA for bringing vets with disabilities to build the house — all volunteers. They were awesome, worked hard, and showed that they are ready to conquer their obstacles and get back to work. In addition, here is a big THANK YOU to all of our sponsors, particularly SolarWorld, the event’s premier sponsor, who additionally provided solar panels for the program. For more information, here is SolarWorld’s press release.

Some of the specs about the house we built, which is an original design by PREVENT HATE’s training director, Barry Leneman, are as follows:

Low cost at $10.00 per square foot;
High strength compliance with UBC (Uniform Building Code) and IBC (International Building Code) for earthquake and hurricane;
Built rapidly with little to no waste;
Relocatable with minimal damage;
Well lighted and ventilated;
Ready for solar installation;
Eco-friendly materials;
Rapidly deployable;
Could be used during widespread emergencies, and/or to reduce homelessness, and/or to provide shelter during large infrastructure projects;
Easily constructed by people with disabilities;
Universally accessible and ADA-compliant;
Now available to be produced and used immediately anywhere in the world (contact us for inquiries).

This is how we prevent hate… through best practices in socioeconomic development. See for yourselves (and ignore the time stamps on the photos).

Getting started...

Barry Leneman, PREVENT HATE's training director, directing the vets.

Rapidly constructed

Los Angeles City Councilmember, Jan Perry, stopped by to check out the program and greet the vets

Constant teamwork builds houses and unity at the same time

The house is ADA-compliant and universally accessible to accommodate physical disabilities so that, even during widespread emergencies, the house will provide shelter to whomever needs it upon demand