Construction Workforce Development

Panelists: 

Kiana Calloway (kcalloway@rootsofrenewal.org) is Executive Director of Roots of Renewal in New Orleans, Louisiana. (You might remember him from ReFrame Conference 2018.) Brick by Brick is their reentry work training program for formerly incarcerated young men ages 18 to 24. They purchase blighted properties and teach participants how to renovate them during a four-month construction job training program. The organization provides a living wage to each of our program participants. At the end of the program, the renovated home is sold at an affordable rate to a first-time homebuyer from the community, and they place each participant in meaningful long-term employment. 

Andrew Church (achurch@klf.org) is the Director of Knoxworx, a city-wide workforce development collaborative in Knoxville, Tennessee. It is a program of the Knoxville Leadership Foundation and a part of YouthBuild, which helps young people learn construction skills through building affordable housing for homeless and low-income people in their neighborhoods and other community assets such as schools, playgrounds, and community centers. The training is designed to help a young adult (ages 16 to 24) achieve their high school equivalency and receive a construction pre-apprenticeship certification. 

Nora Spencer (nora@hoperenovations.org) is the Founder & CEO of Hope Renovations in Carrboro, North Carolina. They offer a 10-week pre-apprenticeship training program that uses an industry-recognized training curriculum developed by the Home Builders Institute. The organization empowers underemployed women to pursue living-wage jobs in the construction trades by teaching trainees the basics of carpentry, plumbing, electrical, painting, etc. The women complete home repairs, modifications, and renovations for older adults in the community, alongside their all-female construction crew (sometimes in partnership with ReFrame member, Rebuilding Together of the Triangle). 

Resources mentioned in the webinar: 

-Housing Development Alliance's Hope Building program (https://www.housingdevelopmentallianc...) in KY is funded by a POWER Initiative grant (https://www.arc.gov/funding/power.asp) from the Appalachian Regional Commission (there are similar regional economic development agencies in other regions).
-Home Builders' Institute Pre-Apprenticeship Certificate Training (http://www.hbi.org/Programs/Training-...) - curriculum used by Knoxworx and Hope Renovations. More information can be found at https://www.nocti.org/CertificateProg....
-Workforce GPS (https://www.workforcegps.org) - online technical assistance website sponsored by the Employment and Training Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor.
-YouthBuild (https://www.youthbuild.org) - funded by the Employment and Training Administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor ((https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/yout...).
-Reentry Employment Opportunities (https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/reentry)
-Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) funding available from the U.S. Department of Labor.
-Pathway Home grant (https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/file...) from the U.S. Department of Labor.