Maine school expands teachers program

Thanks to increased funding, the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine, will be expanding a scholarship initiative launched in 2018. The Teaching the Teachers program awards scholarships directly to educational and service organizations that teach woodworking to economically disadvantaged communities in the U.S. and abroad.

“Our intention is to give educators new woodworking skills and a vision of the educational woodshop that they can share in their own communities, to benefit disadvantaged populations,” says the center’s former board of directors president Dick Whittington.

For 2019, Teaching the Teachers is supported by the Mattina R. Proctor Foundation, the Horowitz Family Scholarship Fund, and the Betterment Fund. This allows the school to offer eight one-week scholarships for instructors of selected institutional partners.

Institutional partners nominate instructors for fully funded participation in the school’s one- and two-week workshops, as well as the eight-week Turning Intensive and 12-week Furniture Intensive programs. Scholarships cover all necessary expenses including tuition, materials, travel and lodging.

Current institutional partners include the Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor, Maine; Greater West Town Community Development Project in Chicago; Kids Making It in Wilmington, N.C.; Machias Memorial High School in Machias, Maine, and Messalonskee High School in Oakland, Maine.

The school is also teaming up with advocacy organizations that promote woodworking education for vocational training and economic development. Current affiliates include the Michigan Industrial and Technology Education Society, Northern Forest Center, and Woodwork Career Alliance of North America.

The school welcomes new inquiries from potential institutional partners such as community colleges, trade schools, Title 1 secondary schools with Career and Technical Education programs, and nonprofit and governmental social-service organizations.

For more, visit www.woodschool.org.