#givebigpittsburgh

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Support the causes you care about today by making a donation or spreading the word! #givingtuesday #givebigpittsburgh What is Giving Tuesday? GivingTuesday is a global day of generosity taking place today, November 30, 2021. GivingTuesday is a global generosity movement, unleashing the power of radical generosity to transform communities and the world. GivingTuesday was created in 2012 as a simple idea: a day that encourages people to do good. Over the past nine years, this idea has grown into a global movement that inspires hundreds of millions of people to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity. From: https://www.givingtuesday.org/resources/ What is Give Big Pittsburgh? Give Big Pittsburgh is an online giving day hosted by the Pittsburgh Magazine created to support the nonprofits doing great work in our community. Leveraging the national awareness of #GivingTuesday, hundreds of nonprofits throughout Pittsburgh and its surrounding areas will work together to raise awareness, collect donations, and build a stronger sense of philanthropy throughout their local communities. From: https://www.givebigpittsburgh.com/ (at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) https://www.instagram.com/p/CW5l630rMCi/?utm_medium=tumblr

[cjreuse]

We made it through April! And May is starting out with an opportunity for the Pittsburgh community to support local nonprofit organizations, including Construction Junction, who have all received a financial “body blow” by COVID-19. Pittsburgh Magazine is running another Give Big Pittsburgh campaign that will run through the entire month of May as an opportunity for all of us to provide generous financial aid for many nonprofits. Organizations like ours are not effective without your support and Pittsburgh isn’t a true community without our work to create jobs, provide essential services like food and housing, protect our environment and work with vulnerable populations.

CJ will use your support to purchase protective equipment as we begin reopening our operation in the coming weeks, keeping our staff, customers and donors safe. We have no firm date in place to resume on site shopping, donating, or donation pickups yet and will provide updates as soon as possible.

We are also in need of financial support to restart our Goodwill training program (when safely able to do so) and our deconstruction training partnership with the South Hilltop Men’s Group. Both of these critical partnership are not eligible for CJ to apply our PPP money if we choose to use that money as a grant, so it will be challenging to restart these programs.

We know that many individuals find themselves in difficult circumstances due to this crisis and the overall need is great. If you are able, please consider making a donation. If CJ is part of your giving, we would be extremely grateful.

[cjreuse]

Please visit our Give Big Pittsburgh page during the month of May to make a donation to support our deconstruction work and job training programs.

Each American generates an average of 4.4 pounds of waste every day. If you multiply that by 75 years you get 120,450 pounds or about the weight of a 2000 square foot house. Deconstructing instead of demolishing that house diverts an individual’s lifetime of production of waste!

Over the last decade, CJ has done nearly 1000 salvage jobs harvesting doors, windows, cabinets and trim before the structure is demolished. Projects have included homes, hospitals, churches, school buildings, offices, and municipal buildings. Our crew works hard to eliminate waste and bring in unique materials that are not often donated through our pick up or drop off services. Salvage opportunities for our deconstruction program are getting larger and more frequent.

The share of young construction workers has been in decline for over a decade. While this has far reaching impact for the building industry overall, it can be even more challenging to find remodeling contractors who want to work with reclaimed materials, given how labor intensive secondhand materials can often be. Our deconstruction training can be an entry point into the construction and renovation trades. CJ is committed to playing a role in identifying the next generation of laborers and craftspeople who want to work in the renovation/restoration/repair fields.

Thank you for supporting.

[cjreuse]

In 2019, CJ’s Goodwill team processed:

- 4,843 doors - Over 3,000 bundles of flooring - 17,101 bundles of tile.

They were also responsible for restocking and merchandising our selection of Amazon Paint and painting supplies. In 2019, we sold 3,539 cans of recycled content latex paint (1 gallon and 5 gallon). These trainees and their Goodwill managers are essential to CJ’s success. We are exploring new ways to get them involved in helping us process even more materials to make shopping reuse easier for you. This is a committed bunch of people!

Help to support our deconstruction work + training partnerships:

https://www.givebigpittsburgh.com/organizations/construction-junction-inc

[cjreuse]

2019 was a great opportunity for a new partnership that flourished for CJ. Our deconstruction crew was able to work with individuals from the South Hilltop Men's Group to expand our salvage operations. Our extensive work on the former Western PA home of engineer Michael Baker would be their first project with our crew, but not the last! They focused on removal of a substantial quantity of slate patio stone and the stone veneer that covered the home. This stone was a unique Colorado red stone, reportedly quarried from ancient sedimentary beds and transported by rail to Beaver, PA.

Last year our deconstruction crew also disassembled a barn for the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden. The structure was responsibly removed to make way for a new visitor’s center. We applaud the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden’s staff and their contractor, P.J. Dick, for working with us to create the extra time it takes to deconstruct. We were glad to once again have assistance on this big job from the South Hilltop Men’s Group as part of our job training efforts to work with organizations making a difference in their communities.

Help to support our deconstruction work and training partnerships:

https://www.givebigpittsburgh.com/organizations/construction-junction-inc

[cjreuse]

Over the course of our continued partnership with Goodwill of Southwestern Pennsylvania, we have worked to expand our training program to serve a broader range of individuals, beyond those with an intellectual disability to include other disabled individuals from transition-aged youth and from the PA Office of Vocational Rehabilitation.

Our program has grown to involve processing doors and tile, as well as merchandising those sections and the paint area in our store. Trainees also learn customer service and other skills needed for successful employment. One of our contacts at Goodwill described the partnership as unique for offering training in a "non-traditional environment", a description we proudly accept!

The reason we’re able to sell such a wide range of material is a testament to our amazing donors. Tile and flooring donations are often in loose bundles or broken cartons, and our colleagues in our Goodwill job skills training program are kept busy counting, matching and banding the tile together. In the process, the trainees learn to use a banding machine, to label tile bundles, and the retail skills involved in creating a great experience for shoppers.

Please consider supporting our deconstruction work and job training partnerships: https://www.givebigpittsburgh.com/organizations/construction-junction-inc

Thank you!