| Welcome
to the September-October issue of Provplan’s e-newsletter.
This issue highlights some of our community-based work
and the impact it is having on individuals, neighborhoods and
organizations seeking to help those in need. We lead with a
story about the free monthly workshops New Roots offers community-
and faith-based organizations, training that would normally
be out of reach for these small, and usually cash-strapped,
agencies. In its pilot year, Building Futures has placed more
than 20 urban residents in building trade union apprenticeships,
putting these young adults on paths to solid careers while also
helping to address the critical need for skilled construction
workers that Rhode Island is expected to face in the coming
decade. Fans of New Roots
training say the free monthly workshops truly target their needs Ms. Goepfert is talking about the free monthly trainings that New Roots Providence provides for community- and faith-based groups looking to strengthen their organizations and their ability to serve those in need. Topics generally fall within the areas of leadership and organizational development, program design, funding, and community engagement. To accommodate most schedules, New Roots offers each topic twice a month. “I needed these trainings to equip myself to advise the many small organizations I work with,” says the Reverend Matthew Kai, pastor of the West Side Tabernacle Baptist Church and vice president of the R.I. State Council of Churches, a partner in the New Roots initiative. Rev. Kai is also an active member, and former executive minister, of the Ministers Alliance of Rhode Island. He has recruited many of the organizations represented by this alliance for the New Roots trainings so that they can provide their services more efficiently and effectively.
“People really appreciate how knowledgeable the facilitators of these training programs are and how pertinent the material is to their needs,” Rev. Kai notes. “I haven’t missed one of them,” says Christine Lewis, who until early this month served as the acting fiscal officer at the Socio-Economic Development Center for Southeast Asians. Although she is staying on with the organization as its server administrator, she recently accepted a new job as the director of operations with Mass Nonprofit Net. [more on New Roots Trainings...]
After year-long pilot
program, Building Futures charts its own future By any measure, the first year was a success. With little in the way of formal recruitment, Building Futures received 154 completed applications for the program, twice the initial goal. Despite a downturn in the construction industry, 20 of those candidates have been placed in union apprenticeships and are fully employed. Another seven have successfully completed their training and are awaiting placement. In the short time since its inception, Building Futures has assembled an impressive advisory council representing all facets of the construction industry, educational community and financial sector. It has also found three key partners among construction industry employers – Blue Cross Blue Shield, Brown University and the City of Providence. All three have made a commitment to hiring Building Futures placements as apprentices in their construction projects. According to Blue Cross Blue Shield, nine of the workers on its new building downtown have come through Building Futures.
During the course of the year it became apparent, however,
that some candidates need more training and preparation than
Building Futures had initially anticipated to bridge the skill
gap. Pre-employment activities are now being expanded to include
both hard- and soft-skills training. “Soft skills”
are the very necessary life skills that a worker must have to
retain employment – punctuality, reliability, motivation,
financial management, finding dependable child care, etc. As
a result of its expanded focus on training, Building Futures
has been certified as a pre-apprenticeship program by the Rhode
Island State Apprenticeship Council. [more
on Building Futures...] The report concluded that from 2009 to 2018 Rhode Island will need approximately 6,000 new journey-workers: 2,000 to cover industry growth and 4,000 to replace older union journey-workers leaving the field. Although demand is likely to be modest in 2009 and 2010 because of a cyclical slow down in construction activity, it is expected to accelerate rapidly once the economy improves, according to the report. Authors of the study interviewed key informants to identify the reasons Rhode Island is failing to produce the needed numbers of skilled construction workers. These informants included contractors, developers, representatives from trade organizations and apprenticeship programs, and advocacy organizations such as BuildRI.
“Our interviews with key informants revealed a strikingly consistent message about the barriers to hiring quality entry level workers as apprentices,” noted Beth Ashman Collins, principal author of the study. “Candidates for apprenticeship are often physically and intellectually able to rise to the challenges of learning a given trade, but on the job, social issues frequently interfere with a new hire’s ability to be on time and on task for forty hours per week. The number-one issue reported by informants is candidates’ understanding of and responses to the unique construction industry work culture, and a seeming lack of motivation, maturity and responsibility.” (For this reason, Building Futures is now devoting considerable time to what it calls “soft-skills training.” See story above.) The executive summary goes on to say that “Construction trades are competing with universities and careers held in high prestige for a shrinking number of motivated candidates. …There is no organizational infrastructure in Rhode Island to recruit or prepare workers for employment as apprentices in the building and construction trades.” The study outlines the five chief challenges (and offers possible solutions) to the recruitment and retention of a skilled workforce in the construction industry. [more on Study...]
Supporting our children’s
‘first teachers’ Ready Families, a new initiative of Ready to Learn Providence, is making that job a little easier by sponsoring events and workshops designed to help families promote the intellectual, physical and emotional growth of their young children. Working with the R.I. Department of Education, Ready Families has developed a six-session course titled Fun Family Activities for Preschoolers. This course, which was piloted last spring to enthusiastic reviews from participants, brings families together to discuss simple activities they can do at home to increase the school readiness of their children. The free program, which is led by early-care professionals, provides families with dozens of fun and inexpensive ideas for developing the different domains stressed in the R.I. Early Learning Standards. These standards serve as guidelines for what a child should be able to do when he or she enters kindergarten.
Ready Families has scheduled two classes of this course this fall – one in English and the other in Spanish. These classes will be held on alternate Mondays at Knight Memorial Library from 5:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. (A light dinner is served at 5 p.m.) The first session of the English class will get under way on September 22. The Spanish class will begin on September 29. Children three years of age and older will be supervised by trained AmeriCorps members under the guidance of the librarians. [more on Ready Families...]
“It’s done me a lot of good to be in a community of like-minded people,” agrees Ms. Goepfert. “I feel supported. I don’t think I’ve missed one workshop. I haven’t seen one that didn’t interest me, and I never came away feeling it was a waste of time.” All three say that content from the trainings has helped them in very concrete ways to strengthen the organizations they work with. Rev. Kai says workshops on board development and function, press coverage, and fund raising have proven particularly valuable. Ms. Lewis says that although she already had a working knowledge of how to write a grant, the training she received from New Roots has helped her in writing the analysis portion of a strong, compelling proposal. Adds Ms. Goepfert: “Every aspect of what New Roots is offering is something I’m not learning from anyone else.” For a schedule of upcoming trainings, please go to www.newrootsprovidence.org.
[top] Other future goals include: [top] Study,
cont. Challenge Two: Aging of the Labor Force
Challenge Three: The Image of Construction Careers
in the Eyes of Motivated Young Adults Challenge Four: Insufficient System to Recruit or Prepare
People for Apprenticeships Challenge Five: Employer Participation in Training
Future Workers For a PDF of the full report, please click here. [top] Ready
Families , cont. In addition to this course, Ready Families is working with the Providence School Department, the Providence Public Library, early-care educators and the health-care community to sponsor a variety of activities all designed to enhance the well-being and school readiness of our youngest children. The initiative is funded by The Annie E. Casey Foundation. [top] |
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“I’ve
become addicted to the New Roots trainings,” says Faith
Goepfert, who sits on the boards of Shelter Services Inc. and
the Providence Intown Churches Association. “New Roots
has a knack for knowing what small organizations need to know.”
Building Futures, in partnership with The Providence Plan and
BuildRI, was launched just over a year ago to help the construction
industry meet its current and future labor needs, while also
creating career opportunities for low-income adults from the
state’s urban communities. With lessons learned from that
pilot program, and with the recommendations of a skills gap
analysis that Building Futures commissioned (see story below),
the initiative is now poised to play an even stronger and more
visible role within the industry.
No
one plays a more instrumental role in preparing a youngster
for school than the child’s family. No job is more important
– or more difficult.
