Mr. Hammer

Founded in 2007, Mr. Hammer is a renowned Mexican trade school program that helps disadvantaged children and youth who seek to explore or enhance their career skills and experiences in building furniture and in carpentry trades. They retained a full-time carpentry teacher in 2011, and in 2012 moved to their current larger location in Chapala. Classes are held two or three times a week for students 10 to 18, and class sizes are limited to fifteen for safety purposes. 

These classes provide academic, technical, and social experiences so that our students can learn: 

   • basic woodworking skills to explore career pathways in this field 

   • basic woodworking skills for entry-level employment 

   • advanced skills for professional employment

   • learning how to build and maintain a properly-equipped woodworking shop 

Many of these students also attend public school, so their parents are burdened with fees, material costs and other expenses – they often have trouble funding the 1,400-peso monthly tuition for Mr. Hammer classes. It operates primarily through donated funds and through occasional sales of student products or custom projects the teacher undertakes. No government funding has yet been available. 

CSRC is working to fund a number of student scholarships – $1,130 USD per senior students per year and $650 USD for junior students – with an initial goal of $5,000 USD per year for the scholarship fund.