At 20 years old, Eusebio Montoya is earning $22 an hour in the HVAC field, debt-free, saving money and planning for his future. Mere months ago, he was working retail for minimum wage, mentally drained and barely scraping by.
Everything changed when a high school teacher pointed him toward Project B.U.I.L.D, a free workforce development program in Naples. Through hands-on training, mentorship and daily support, the program helped him secure steady work, regain confidence and build a better life.
“I don’t know where I’d be without it,” Montoya said. “It can save a lot of people’s lives.”
He’s met other program participants who had little to nothing to their name, not even a toothbrush or toothpaste, when they joined the program.
“It made me realize how much these people really care,” Montoya said of the team, “and they don’t even know us.”
Aram Wheatley
For founder and CEO Aram Wheatley, that kind of difference is the entire point. Family and fieldwork shaped his vision for Project B.U.I.L.D. His grandparents were community activists in his hometown of Cambridge, Maryland, and it became a natural inclination to support others.
“If I see people, naturally, it’s just hard not to help them,” Wheatley said.
He went on to work for AMIkids Manatee, an alternative school for young males at risk of entering the juvenile justice system, in Bradenton. The school hosted challenge events that helped students stay active, focused and out of trouble after school. Wheatley, as a key trainer, witnessed the transformative effects on these students, particularly in reducing crime rates and improving school attendance rates.
He also recognized that students started counting on him as a role model.
“It wasn’t like I was forcing them; they wanted to be there,” Wheatley said. “There would be times where I’d be dead tired and not want to do anything, and they’d be like, ‘Man, are you coming to get us?’ You can’t say no to the kids. That’s the hardest thing in the world for me.”
When the after-school program lost its corporate funding, Wheatley covered the costs with his overtime pay. That sacrifice laid the groundwork for what is now a formal Naples-based nonprofit that trains youth in trades such as HVAC, carpentry, electrical work and plumbing, while also addressing housing insecurity, behavioral needs and life skills development.
The goal was and continues to be to keep kids off the streets and help them achieve stability. In that work, he recognized a growing need to support youth aging out of foster care, who often lacked essential skills and faced homelessness, which led to the program’s expansion.
Today, it includes training opportunities in the National Center for Construction Education and Research’s Core Curriculum, forklift operation, supply chain logistics, OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) 10 and OSHA 30. Students also develop soft skills, such as customer service, and receive instruction in inventory supply chain logistics. Project B.U.I.LD is also a newly registered pre-apprenticeship program with the Florida Department of Education.
For kinesthetic learners who have been out of school for years, Project B.U.I.L.D uses diagnostic testing and VR-based simulations to teach a range of skills, from tool safety to task sequencing.
But the program’s scope extends far beyond the classroom and the job site. Housing is provided through the Florida Department of Children and Families’ Challenge Plus Grant, which the organization receives from Southwest Florida Homeless Coalition. Local partners, such as St. Vincent de Paul Society, help furnish the spaces.
“The biggest thing is watching these young people go and get jobs from my program who are homeless or in terrible situations,” Wheatley said. “They get a job, and we’re able to house them.”
A collaboration last summer with Naples-based Empowerment Farm brought that vision into the community in a different way. Founder and CEO Tiffany Lehman invited Wheatley to the nonprofit working farm dedicated to community building, education and sustainability through hands-on farm experiences for all ages. Project B.U.I.L.D. participants ended up building six picnic tables and benches for the organization.
“We use them every day,” Lehman said. “It gives us the opportunity to tell their story. And [the program participants] extended the offer to build more. They were interacting with the chickens and other animals, having a great time. It was good to see it all full-circle working.”
These types of community-centered projects create not just job experience but relationship-building and a sense of pride — essentials that can’t be taught in a classroom alone.
Project B.U.I.L.D also partners with the Southwest Florida Homeless Coalition to provide the Bridges out of Poverty curriculum, which includes financial literacy and real-life scenario training.
“We’re teaching from the ground up,” Wheatley said. “We teach some of our students how to tie their shoes and use a microwave,” including a 17-year-old who put a fork in the microwave because he didn’t know any better.
“It’s so easy to assume when you look at the physical stature and age of a person that they should have this,” Wheatley said. “But that’s what this journey has really helped me personally to do: not assume.”
Looking ahead, Project B.U.I.L.D aims to serve more than 300 students per year and eventually expand statewide — which would require additional funding and community support, but also provide a proactive solution to helping at-risk youth.
“If we can start putting more funding toward the low-income community, that will prevent justice involvement, which will lead to a more healthy workforce,” Wheatley said.
Despite the heavy lift, Wheatley remains grounded in purpose and belief in every young person’s ability to create something better.
“The kids keep me going, simple as that,” Wheatley said. “My team helps me keep a positive mindset, and my family. Everybody pushing me helps me know that I’m doing the right thing.”
