About Us
Who We Are
We are timber frame builders and educators that works closely with First Nation communities to empower their people through proven timber joinery practices and new infrastructure. We take on timber frame building contracts and facilitate educational workshops for First Nations communities.
Andre Kennedy
For the past decade, Mr. Kennedy has been involved in the instruction and coaching of skiing. For the first 3 years he was an instructor, and for the past 7 he has been a coach for high-performance freestyle skiing at the provincial level (Alberta). He holds a National Coaching Certificate through NCCP (Part A and B), which he completed at the University of Calgary.
His construction experience includes 6 years in stick-frame construction, assisting at all levels of residential construction. Over the past year he has been focussed on Timber Framing methods, and has completed the Island School of Building Arts course.
Bernie Chingee
Bernie has extensive experience working in his father’s forestry company, including hand falling roles. Since 1998 he has been self-employed, operating firms in silviculture, logging and resorts. His extensive entrepreneurial experience in the logging and hospitality industries make him well suited to any timber framing task.
What we do
Our courses help communities become more self-sufficient, using timber sourced from their own communities or nearby. Working directly with a team of members, training them using James Mitchell’s timber framing book as reference in a hands on setting, where they will learn to build using timber frame joinery. We will help in securing of government funding for a project, the investing in tools and equipment that communities will keep for future projects. Above all, we strive to improving the lives of the people who attend our courses by teaching them valuable skills and the community at large by creating new infrastructure for all to thrive from.
In addition to our onsite timber framing courses, we will be running a variety of educational workshops on our property in Summit Lake, BC for communities that working with a smaller budget. Our workshops are intended to provide important training to anyone interested in sustainable and employable building practices. We work hard to help communities access government funding that is often available for education and skill development purposes.
Our mission is to provide a space to bring communities and their members together, creating a network of skilled First Nations workers.
Why we do it
By giving people skills in building we know it can create a sense of empowerment within the individual. It can bring purpose and confidence to learn more. The members of our courses can use the skills within their communities or will be able to apply the skills in finding work elsewhere.
For the collective and can help a community work for a common goal bringing people together. Our hopes is to motivate communities to take on self sufficient building practices using their natural resources.