Resident Vocational Training Program

Overview

Resident Vocational Training (RVT) is a one-year program in which students can earn a certificate for commercial and residential cleaning, landscaping and painting. Our students must be residents of the Evansville Housing Authority. Generally, we accept 10 new students per year.

  • The first thing students do after filling out paperwork is set 5 personal goals for us to help them with throughout the program. Goals set by the students may include helping them to manage money better, get a bank account, purchase a car, obtain a driver’s license, own a home, pay off outstanding debt, get their GED, or sign up for college.
  • Students go through orientation to learn the rules that help govern the program and the overall success of the students.
  • Once the student goes through safety training and earns a 10-Hour OSHA Certification card, the real training finally begins. Landscaping in 100 degree days, painting houses without water or heat, and then cleaning.

Our program funding and the variety of projects come from our wonderful property managers who would generally hire a subcontractor to do this work. The work performed by the students generates funds to pay for our supplies and also helps the students earn $8.50 an hour for a 35 hour work week. Regular work schedules help our students plan their time to further help meet their individual goals. Most of the students have lost some government benefits because it is recognized by family services as income, but choose to stay with the program anyway.

EHA’s property managers have further assisted in the students’ success by agreeing to freeze their rent for up to two years, as long as the student is enrolled in college after the first year. Students may stay in the program until they graduate. We work around their class schedules and they give back to the program by helping to train and encourage the new students.
The RVT Program would like to recognize all of the effort and support we have received from Ms. Mildred Motley and Mr. Tim Martin. Without their foresight, this program would have never existed.

A special thanks to Mrs. Anna Melcher for allowing RVT students to advance in their education through the Cape program.

Thanks to the lovely Ms. Patricia Loehr, Instructor and Coordinator of the BSW Field at the University of Southern Indiana. Ms. Loehr provided an intern to assist in working with the students and their individual goals. Ms. Latoya Young has now graduated from USI and we are honored to have worked with her.