California Homebuilding Foundation Gets a $2.5M Grant

The California Homebuilding Foundation has been awarded a $2.5 million grant by the Donald and Carole Chaiken Foundation. The gift will support the Building Industry Technology Academy (BITA), a high school construction industry hands-on training program of the California Homebuilding Foundation.

The Chaiken Foundation grant will be dispersed to the foundation in a five-year period and exclusively support various hands-on and instructional training, scholarship, building industry workforce development programs and related activities of the BITA program.

“I feel very fortunate to have spent 50 years of my life in homebuilding, a business I love,” said Donald Chaiken. “By contributing to the BITA program, I hope to generate the interest of young adults in our industry and help them develop the skills needed for success. It’s one of the best ways I know to say thank you to our industry for the many good things it has brought my family and me over the years.”

In honor of the grant, the Building Industry Technology Academy high school construction training program has been renamed the Donald Chaiken Building Industry Technology Academy.

“The funds will be allocated exclusively to further educational opportunities for youth in California during this historic time for the entire homebuilding industry,” said Terri Brunson, executive director of the California Homebuilding Foundation.