Bryan Crain, chief executive officer of the 52-year-old Orange County Rescue Mission, stumbled onto an in-house, jobs training program concept as he made small-talk with contractors working to remodel a kitchen on the 33-acre Double R Ranch.
“I want to equip people to — if they’re interested — take a first step in working a trade somewhere, so that at least when they show up at a job site, they’ll know enough to be able to start a beginning task,” Crain said of a budding jobs-training program he launched last year. “But we also want to equip people to just be handy and comfortable around tools and be able to look at a set of plans, and kind of understand what’s going on.”
The Orange County Rescue Mission may be on to something to help fill jobs in the construction industry, which is short on labor and rattled by the Trump administration’s deportation of undocumented workers.
Dave Coyle, chief executive officer of Santa Ana-based Coyle Construction Inc., pitches in on helping train people living at the Double R Ranch in rustic Trabuco Canyon. He’s doing it in response to a nationwide shortage of skilled labor, and has even hired a few of the people who’ve gone through the program — all of whom are rebuilding their lives hurt by alcoholism, drug abuse or some other personal crisis.
“Yeah, there’s a major shortage,” said Coyle of labor in the building trades.
According to a report from the Associated Builders and Contractors, the U.S. construction industry needs an additional 439,000 workers in 2025 to meet anticipated demand. A U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report in March said that employment for electricians and plumbers will grow over 6% through 2033, over 4% for roofing contractors, and 3.9% for residential building construction.
Also see: OC Rescue Mission opens its rehabilitation ranch to women and children
The Christian-based nonprofit, which provides housing and services for individuals and families experiencing homelessness in Orange County, is giving an updated look to its residential spaces at its Double R Ranch — where the Norbertine Fathers of Orange previously built the monastery and educational campus over six decades ago before selling the property in 2020 for $11.7 million.
The homeless at Double R in Silverado have a place to live and eat, help with their recovery, and a slot in the training program for construction jobs — called Firm Foundations — if they want.
The residents already work with horses, chickens, goats and other farm animals to build a work ethic — but now there’s training offered on how to use a circular saw, lathe, leveler, drill and other tools.
The in-house technical training is for people 18-65 years of age. The skills taught in the program cover the basics of carpentry, plumbing, electrical work and drywall installation. A total of 25 people have gone through two, 12-week training courses since first introduced last year, with more on the drawing board, according to Crain.
“What they are doing with job training is of high value,” said Tom De Vries, president and CEO of the Citygate Network, a Colorado Springs, Colorado-based organization of 320 faith-based crisis shelters. “At some of our nationwide training events, CEOs of other Rescue Missions have taken a closer look at it. Being in a network, we are able to look at innovative ideas and best practices for programs like this, and push for them to be picked up elsewhere.”
We asked Crain about how his in-house training program came about. His answers have been edited for clarity and length.
Q: Tell me a little bit about the OC Rescue Mission?
A: The rescue mission operates 12 programs across nine campuses in Orange County. Our flagship campus is the Village of Hope in Tustin, located in the shadow of the old blimp hangar that caught fire and burned down two years ago.
At the Village of Hope, we can accommodate up to 260 formerly homeless men, women and kids at any given time. The program that we run is very similar to what we’re doing now at the Double R Ranch. Until now, it’s been for single men who are coming out of a crisis situation. Sometimes it’s homelessness, sometimes it’s drug and alcohol addiction, or a mental health challenge. There’s even a percentage of people there that we just call ‘failure to launch,’ or younger guys who are just sputtering and having trouble finding their way.
Q: How did Firm Foundations come about?
A: The rescue mission’s program is designed to be for 18-24 months, and during that time, there will be a volunteer job assignment. That could mean working on the maintenance team, the kitchen, or at some point they’re going to be working with the animals at the Double R Ranch.
The guys that go into this program have never been around livestock, and it’s a great opportunity for them to develop a work ethic, and learn a new skill. If they don’t have a high school diploma, they will get their high school diploma while they’re in the program. And as they get towards the end of their program, we’ll get them slotted toward some sort of vocational training, or get them ready for whatever job they’re going to pursue.
We’ve had guys go through a bus driver course with the Orange County Transportation Authority, or learn how to become a certified barber or nursing assistant. There are different tracks that we kind of push people toward. In doing all of this, we realized that there is an opportunity here for guys to develop general skills in the construction trades.
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Jacob Boulin, a resident at Orange County Rescue Mission’s Double R Ranch in Silverado, talks about his life and learning construction skills on Thursday, June 19, 2025. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
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Jacob Boulin, a resident at Orange County Rescue Mission’s Double R Ranch in Silverado, talks about his life and learning construction skills on Thursday, June 19, 2025. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
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Q: What did you see as a need for Firm Foundations?
A: We’ve been noticing the last few years that there’s so many people out there with college degrees that are having trouble finding work. We consider ourselves to be a back-to-work program. We don’t have four years for you to get a degree. We want to get you back working as quickly as possible, but in a position that’s going to help you work towards a career.
So we thought, wouldn’t it be interesting if we could do a basic overview of construction trades program for the guys that are in the Double R Ranch program, not necessarily because they’re going to go immediately work for a general contractor — although we’ve had a couple of people do that — but also, in part, because people have just lost the ability to be handy. We wanted them to learn the basics of just being comfortable around construction equipment.
Q: Do you see the OC Rescue Mission filling a void left with the loss of the Job Corps programs nationally?
A: Setting the politics aside, let’s talk about the people who are saying, ‘Hey, I was halfway through this program. Now I have nowhere to go.’ People were banking on this being their launching point to something else.
I wish they knew about the Rescue Mission, because we have room for single guys right now. If you were in the Job Corps program, and now you’re kind of aimless and don’t know where to go, yes, this is different. It’s not exactly what you were doing, but if you came into our program, you now have a place to live and food to eat. You’d be progressing toward a launching pad to be able to start a career somewhere.
So yes, it is different, but certainly it is an option. We’re probably not at the scale where we could take in 1,000 former Job Corps students, but at the same time, we are an option.
Q: Given the challenges of labor in the construction business, coupled with efforts to rebuild L.A. following the January wildfires, and the Trump administration’s push to deport undocumented workers, where does the OC Rescue Mission fit in?
A: If it really turns out that way (with the workforce shrinking), that means that these positions are going to pay even more, right? We’re then going to need to fast track people to learn these skills. There’s good and bad in all of that, but would I rather fast track someone to learn how to plumb a building than fly a (Boeing) 747? Yes.
Q: How unique is your training program and are there possibilities of expanding its reach?
A: Within Orange County, is there something like this? No, I would say we are extremely unique within Orange County or the Southern California area. Even within the rescue mission community, we offer so many avenues for helping people.
There are programs that are probably far more intensive, where people attend class every day. Some of that is drying up now because of funding issues.
We’re nowhere near being a replacement for where someone comes out and is ready to be an electrician apprentice. We’re just giving them a taste of everything. This came about because we saw the need, we pulled together some people within the trades, and we said, ‘Let’s give this a go.’
My dream would be that, if you come and talk to me in a couple of years, this has grown to the point where, after people do the 12-week training class, and if they show a certain interest in say, plumbing, or being an electrician, that we then offer the next step. We could bring in a specific instructor for electrical work, welding or whatever, and adequately equip our guys to be able to go out — soon to be our ladies, too — and work in a specialized field. So that would be my dream. We’re not there yet, but we also kind of spun this up with a modest budget.
About OC Rescue Mission
Headquarters: 1 Hope Drive, Tustin
President and CEO: Bryan Crain, 49, who joined as chief operating officer in 2015, promoted to president and CEO in 2023.
Employees: 107
Estimated budget: $29 million
How many people are at Double R: The Double R Ranch has the potential to house up to 98 people. For women and children, there are 16 rooms that can accommodate up to four people per room, for a total of 64 women and children. There also are 17 rooms for men, enough housing for up to 34 men with rooms each accommodating two people. As of June 23, the current occupancy of Double R Ranch for men is 21. Women will move into the Double R Ranch in July – some of whom also will participate in the Firm Foundations program.
