Grantee Spotlight: Q&A with ecoREHAB

Jason Haney, ecoREHAB CEO

ecoREHAB was founded in 2009 by a Ball State University faculty member with a vision: to breathe new life into vacant houses and provide architecture and design students meaningful, hands-on experience. What started as a university studio course has since evolved into an independent nonprofit working at the intersection of neighborhood revitalization, sustainability, and workforce development. The organization acquires properties through city partnerships, grants, and donations, then renovates them from the ground up, often addressing issues like structural damage, outdated electrical and plumbing systems, and energy efficiency. In recent years, ecoREHAB has expanded its mission to include construction trades training for students ages 16–24—equipping young people with practical skills, purpose, and a pathway into the workforce. 

Ball Brothers Foundation has supported ecoREHAB since its start, and we recently caught up with CEO Jason Haney to talk about ecoREHAB’s evolution, the power of neighborhood transformation, and what’s next for this growing organization.

• ecoREHAB has its roots in Ball State’s architecture and design programs. What are a few milestone moments that have shaped the organization over the past 15 years?

  We are proud of the fact that ecoREHAB has never shied away from innovation. Because of this, we have been able to impact our local community in several different ways. Three examples of those milestone moments would include:

  • Completing the first renovation of a house that was a methamphetamine lab into a safe, livable home.

  • A collaboration with the Muncie Mission that resulted in several houses being renovated to serve as transitional housing for their clients in recovery.

  •  The creation of a pre-apprenticeship program called STEP, which is now part of the Muncie YouthBuild Program, that combines a workforce development program for youth 16-24 with affordable housing solutions.

• What does a typical ecoREHAB housing project involve—from the scope of work to the timeline and team on site?

  When doing home rehabilitation there is rarely anything that is typical. However, our goal with each project is to bring in as many partners as possible to maximize the educational opportunities and community involvement. For example, working with a BSU Construction Management (CM) class to offer an Immersive Learning opportunity for them to examine and “grade” a potential rehab project before we acquire a property.

  Then it will be up to our team of construction instructors and professionals to develop a curriculum of hands-on training opportunities to lead our STEP students through. We then work closely with our network of contractors to schedule time for them to lead our students through tasks that meet their specialty (i.e. plumbing, electrical, HVAC). It’s beneficial to all parties: our students gain firsthand knowledge from professionals working in the field every day, and contractors not only give back to their community by sharing expertise but can also treat the experience as an opportunity to interview potential employees.

• Tell us a little about your headquarters at “The Yard”—how it came to be, why the Old West End location matters, and what your board’s vision is for the space.

  The Yard has really changed the game for us as an organization and opened us up to so many opportunities. ecoREHAB has always taken pride not just in innovation but also in being a good steward of the support we have received.

  Early on that meant not spending resources on things like a brick-and-mortar location and working out of a van and tool trailer. But in 2020 and 2021 as we launched the pilot of our STEP initiative, we saw the impact the program was already having on our students and community and knew we would eventually need a home to our program. After knocking on doors and following leads that went nowhere, the Director of Community Development for the city of Muncie, Gretchen Cheeseman, recommended the former McCarty Lumber located in the Old West End (OWE).

  After serving the city for over 120 years as a lumber yard, McCarty closed its doors in 2011. For the next decade the property became an overgrown eyesore and encampment for the unhoused. The location for us was perfect as it is central to the work we were doing in the OWE as well as the 8twelve collation area and McKinley neighborhood. We contacted the owner of the property: Norfolk Southern. I shared with him about our program and the opportunities being provided to local youth and our vision for the property.

  After a little back and forth, NFS did something he said he had only seen once before in his 25-year career with the company…donate the entire property. In just a few years’ time with support from BBF, The Community Foundation of Muncie & Delaware County Inc., and Lowes, we have been able to bring new electrical service to the property, facade restoration on the main building and two outbuildings, and have some available conditioned meeting/classroom space.

  The future of the Yard is to serve as a community asset, providing research and training space to students from Ball State’s CAP, CM, and other programs, as well as to our own STEP students. We envision the Yard to be a regional training facility for such innovative objectives such as panelized construction, renewable energy for residential construction, and sustainable building materials to name a few.

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• What led to the expansion into construction trades training for high-school age students? And what does that program look like in action?

  Expanding into construction trades training came from my experience as a Field Operations Manager for Habitat for Humanity and a natural progression as an organization that has always valued education as a core tenet. There is one specific moment in which I experienced firsthand the power that comes with construction training. I was leading a group of women for a Habitat Women Build. There was one family attending that consisted of a daughter, mother, and grandmother. That day we were standing up the wall sections and securing them onto the floor decking with hammers and nails. After a brief explanation on the task at hand, the first wall panel was set up and the women started nailing it in. Well, all but one.

  The grandmother was standing behind the group wearing her nail apron full of nails, a hammer in hand, and a huge smile. I asked if she was alright to which she replied that she was “doing great; it is exciting to see everyone participating.” I then pointed out that everyone was participating but her. She looked down and said she was there to support her daughter and granddaughter, and that in 50 years of marriage, she was never allowed to touch her husband's tools. I brought her toward the wall and started a nail for her. After showing her how to hold the hammer and where to aim she somewhat nervously bent down and started hammering the nail. Admittedly it was a rather slow process, and I questioned whether or not I had done the right thing by insisting that she join in. After nearly ten minutes on the one nail, she looked up at me and said, “start another one.” I smiled and started a second nail for her.

  That nail only took half the time and by the end of the day she was going around to the other women volunteering and giving tips on how they should hold the hammer, where to place the nail, etc.! Her daughter and granddaughter came up to me and said they had never seen their mom like that before. She was full of excitement and confidence, doing something she didn't believe herself capable of doing. It was in that grandmother that I witnessed how this type of training can positively impact one's self confidence and positivity. While we are a pre-apprenticeship program that prepares individuals for the demands of the workforce, we also focus on building people up—helping them see what they are truly capable of and opening new doors for them.

• In your experience, what happens when neighbors start seeing visible change on their blocks—like a once-abandoned house coming back to life?

  In my two decades of home rehabilitation and new construction I have had the privilege of witnessing block after block in vulnerable neighborhoods get a new lease on life. Neighbors will come out of their home to interact with our students or volunteers to learn about the work we are doing. They will share how long they have been in the neighborhood and share the good and bad things about the area. Once they learn we are there to improve former eyesore properties, we tend to see their apathy dissipate, and exterior projects they had been putting off finally get completed because they don't want to be “the new eyesore”. A lot of times we are even able to connect them to other community resources that they may not even know about to improve their home. Most times we introduce neighbors to the new homeowner which opens the door to meaningful connections.

• What’s next for ecoREHAB? Are there upcoming projects or new ideas you're especially excited about?

  There are many great things we are excited about moving forward! Continuing to develop the Yard is a process of which we are really proud. We are currently working to build out a wood working shop that we will share with BSU where we can do more large-scale projects. We are engaged with the Construction Management Department at BSU to explore how we can both benefit from a collaboration as they start their new Residential Construction Management Major.

  But the initiative that we are most excited about is our Residential Panelization Program. The program gives us the opportunity to provide a more consistent curriculum for our students, produce more affordable housing solutions, and ultimately, we see this increase in production as an additional revenue source that will provide long term organizational stability and opportunity for growth of our STEP training program.