United Way of Santa Barbara County (UWSBC) staff members and Procore employees gathered recently at Franklin Elementary School to host two Brick by Brick building competitions to teach elementary students financial management, scheduling, and daily activity reporting.
Last fall, after a demonstration of Procore’s Brick by Brick game-like training software used by its employees, UWSBC and Procore saw potential for a new application of this program to help students at local schools develop problem solving, critical thinking, and other important educational skills.
In February, UWSBC recruited four partner schools in Santa Barbara County to pilot a competition involving 220 students in nine school classrooms competing to build a replica of the Procore headquarters through the Brick by Brick software.
Young learners have the opportunity to develop skills valued by the construction industry while engaging in an interactive learning experience, said Jessie Davidson, who manages educational content development at Procore and helped develop Brick-by-Brick.
“Students interact with Procore’s software while experiencing the challenges and excitement of real construction professionals,” Davidson said.
At Franklin School, 90 students participated and UWSBC and Procore interacted with all three 6th-grade classes.
United Way of Santa Barbara County and Procore have recently entered into a formal partnership with UWSBC serving as Procore’s charitable partner nationwide.
UWSBC is partnering with Procore headquarters in Carpinteria as a first step in providing opportunities for Procore employees around the world to give, advocate, and volunteer in their local community through their local United Way.
For more than a year now, Procore has been partnering with United Way through donations, event participation, group and individual volunteering, and strategic collaborations such as the implementation of Procore’s Brick-by-Brick STEM challenge at four Santa Barbara County schools.
“United Way of Santa Barbara County is proud to partner with Procore to bring this interactive and collaborative Brick by Brick program to local students and hope to expand the program to more schools in the new school year,” said Steve Ortiz, president/CEO of United Way of Santa Barbara County.