Habilitat Inc., Kaneohe, Hawaii, is a long-term residential treatment center for drug and alcohol addictions. The center has worked with thousands of people over its history. At the time of the interview, there were approximately 110 residents. The program’s focus is on addressing the behaviors that lead to the addictions, rather than treating the addictions as medical symptoms.
“We don’t have doctors and psychiatrists on staff prescribing drugs to treat the drugs,” said Jeff Nash, clinical director of Habilitat. “We address the problems, pressures, experiences that led to the addictions and help residents by building confidence, self-esteem, and skills to successfully cope with situations of everyday life. While addressing the personal issues, we also provide education and vocational skills training so that when they leave the program they can get employment to support their new independence.”
One industry that residents can be trained in is construction. Habilitat Construction Services is an independent construction firm that offers the local community a variety of masonry and landscaping services for residential or commercial sites. Services offered include driveway and sidewalk paving, tile wall construction, masonry repairs, vinyl fencing, chain link fencing, and demolition services. Habilitat’s landscaping services not only provide basic lawn and yard care but also creative ideas for landscaping designs. All profits from the construction business go to supporting Habilitat and its services.
For Habilitat residents accepted into the construction program, they work with an experienced crew to develop a good work ethic and marketable job skills. These skills assist the residents in gaining employment upon graduating from the program. The individual residents will develop a portfolio of completed projects that they worked on.
“With Topcon corporate support, we were able to offer Habilitat two state-of-the-art rotating lasers to use on projects,” stated Keith Grittner, machine control specialist with RDO Integrated Controls, an authorized Topcon dealer, with offices in Kapolei and Hilo, Hawaii. “They received two new RL-H4C auto-leveling lasers with heavy-duty tripods and LR long range laser receivers.”
“In addition to the product donation, RDO Integrated Controls donated training and on-going support,” Grittner said. “I provided a comprehensive training session to eight of Habilitat Construction Services’ project supervisors and workers.”
The new technology will allow Habilitat Construction Services to pursue more site grading projects, such as building pads, according to Grittner.
“It’s important to us that residents learn on the most up-to-date technology, since their skills need to be current to be attractive to employers when they complete the program here,” Nash said. “That’s why we appreciate receiving the Topcon-RDO Integrated Controls donation.”
Habilitat Construction Services has already benefited from the new lasers, which have been used on several projects already.
“The RL-H4C lasers are much more accurate than snapping string lines and using bubble levels,” said Alan Robinson, project manager and maintenance supervisor for Habilitat Construction Services. “We’ve been using it for transfer heights on long 40- to 50-foot expanses of walls, maintaining finish heights for ceramic tiling, and positioning the structural post foundations on a garage.”
Topcon and RDO Integrated Controls plan to make additional donations of product and training time to Habilitat. In fact, very recently Habilitat received a donation of five FC-25A 20-channel GPS data collectors complete with the MAGNET suite of connected workflow software.
“We’re happy to support Habilitat and it’s significant mission,” Grittner said. “We hope to remain partners with them for a long time.”
