Peninsula Habitat Home Map Timeline of Projects Green Building Land Aquisition Current Projects: Lincoln Ave, Redwood City Future Projects: Daly City Resale Homes: Gloria Way, Redwood City Completed Projects: Commercial Ave, So. SF    - Dedication Feb 2008    - Kick off Sept 2006 San Bruno Ave, Brisbane Glen Parkway, Brisbane Plumas Ave, Brisbane Brisbane Projects: Historical Perspective De Long Street, Daly City Habitat Way, Daly City Rolison Rd, Redwood City Hope Court, Redwood City Gloria Way, East Palo Alto Single Family Homes    - (East Palo Alto)    - (Redwood City &      Menlo Park) Home Camp Glenwood Peninsula Habitat Construction Site Offers Juvenile Offenders an Alternative to Incarceration Peninsula Habitat exists to build homes and futures for families who pour their hearts and souls (and sweat) into a home they thought they'd never have. Alongside them, volunteers wield power tools, paint brushes, and help also to build those homes and futures. But if you came to Peninsula Habitat last summer, you might have met some very unique volunteers. At first glance, they're just a group of fifteen boys with matching "Camp Glenwood" t-shirts, out for a day of community service. These boys were different. They came to build a house, yes, but there was more to it. If they weren't there, they may have been on the streets, surrounded by drugs and gangs and places where cutting class was far too easy, where stealing was a thrill. It was the stealing, among other things that had landed them in Camp Glenwood. Camp Glenwood is an alternative to incarceration for high-risk, male, juvenile offenders. As part of their time, anyone between the ages of 16-18 can apply to work for Peninsula Habitat, and they can learn how to build. The boys at Camp Glenwood gaze into the future as young men are apt to do. In that haze of uncertainty, they do know one thing: that they are only employable in the mighty task force of burger flippers and shelf-stockers. Until, that is, Peninsula Habitat welcomes them. Marcus Clifford, group director for Camp Glenwood said that their partnership with Peninsula Habitat is "a match made in heaven. For the first time these kids are able to give back to the community, and to be included there." This past summer, the Glenwood boys worked on the South San Francisco and Brisbane sites, putting in three full days a week for seven weeks and totaling 3200 collective hours. It was building, but it was education too. Phil Hubbell, who works at Camp Glenwood and co-founded the partnership with retired Glenwood teacher, John Woodhall, explains, "They ask 'What am I gonna do with my life? Work at a Kmart or Burger King?' They don't see that as a way out. But construction work they see that they can actually learn something and make some good money. The skills are real life skills." Clifford adds that they're also gleaning less tangible benefits. "The skills that these guys learn on the job site…can help them for the rest of their life, whether they figure it out now or five years down the road," said Clifford. "They learned patience. Not everything goes their way, and they have to try over and over and over again." Clifford also describes how the boys learn teamwork. When Dawn Adams, Site Building Manager for Peninsula Habitat, tells the boys they have to sheetrock a whole room by the end of the day, they have to work together to get it done. "The kids eventually grasp what Habitat is doing. They're a little overwhelmed when we first start talking about it. We tell them 'Hey, these are people who there's no way they could afford this house if Habitat wasn't building it for them.'" said Hubbell. The work reveals hidden facets of each individual. One boy, outwardly lazy and difficult to work with, proved that once he got his hands on a project, that he was capable of excellent work. Another boy whose father had taught him how to lay cement, discovered how to lead a small team in pouring a patio and walkway. And even the boys who Clifford describes as not "very good at much" learned how to apply themselves to doing sheetrock and even siding. Woodhall, 66, has returned for the past six years for the Camp Glenwood summer program at Peninsula Habitat, where he is a long-time volunteer, to teach the boys about discipline, citizenship, and love. He asks the boys to give their best, and he always gets results. Under his urging, a hard day of work can complete a task that might normally take a week. "I don't let them get away with stuff that kids do when they're punks, they'll harass people and all that" said Woodhall, then added "at the end of the program you see that the kids have learned to care about each other." Camp Glenwood boys may have been ordered there by the court, but after that it's up to them. Some of them leave Camp Glenwood, only to return months later. None leave untouched. "A lot of them lost their childhoods. They became adults very early, but Habitat can bring it back out of them and give them an appreciation for something they never knew existed," said Hubbell. "Habitat opens their heart and their doors. Thank you for giving these kids a chance."