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Operation Fresh Start

Madison, WI

Re-building ...

Operation Fresh Start is a program in Dane County, Wisconsin, which trains young people to build houses while helping them achieve job readiness and their high school diploma. Sometimes the kids are in the legal system, or simply not suceeding in school. When they are finished with a house, OFS sells it to a low-income family. The kids, the houses and the new homeowners all get a fresh start.

The houses are small and typically candidates for demolition; little of the existing house is salvagable. Between the early 1970's and the mid 1980's, Design Coalition designed over 2 dozen of these major home re-buildings.

Left: interior of an Operation Fresh Start home and one of the new owners.

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