Morgantown native Nathan Kinsley has worked in construction for more than 25 years. A fifth-generation contractor, he learned about construction and a hard work ethic from his father.
In 2010, Kinsley’s first company, NGK Contracting, went bankrupt due to his struggles with addiction. On his road to recovery, he did some temporary jobs with his brother’s company, but he still wanted to do something on his own. He started Impact Construction in 2016. Kinsley hires men who are also recovering from addiction to give them the opportunity to work and find their way. Impact has nine workers, all of them in recovery.
On employing recovering addicts People who have drug addiction problems and alcohol problems are really smart individuals. They’re extraordinary. They’re independent and self-motivated. The problem that we had as drug addicts is that we didn’t know what we wanted to do and we didn’t have enough direction or responsibility. So that’s what I give these guys. I give them the responsibility, and they take their own direction. I just give them a little bit of guidance.
On recovering addicts as workers They are some of the hardest workers you can find. Addicts are such good people at heart. You know their souls are good and they’re very trustworthy when they are clean. I trust these guys with my vehicles, my tools; I give them keys to my house. I just give them 100 percent trust. I trust them with everything I have.
On his workers I think having a group of nd we always finish our jobs. recovering addicts on a regular day helps all of us stay clean. It’s about them, but I also want them here for me because I don’t want to have a crew full of using individuals. Me being a recovering addict myself, I can’t jeopardize my own personal recovery and have people on my job getting drunk and getting high every day.
On guiding recovering addicts The guys that are working a program and the guys that come out of treatment need support. They need help. They are great individuals who just need to be understood. One of the best things that my dad taught me was to always keep my word and be honest. That’s number one on our team. When these guys commit to something, they follow through with it. We have to have high integrity. It’s just something that we do.
On Impact Construction Everybody that we work for wants us to come back and do more work. We are more geared for commercial than residential jobs. We do work for West Virginia University. We partner with 84 Lumber and build residential homes for them. And as far as quality of work goes, we always keep a clean job site. We’re neat and efficient. We work hard, long hours and we always finish our jobs.
written by DEMI FUENTES RAMIREZ
photographed by CARLA WITT FORD
Leave a Reply