OTI’s Executive Director and Board Chair on Community Hotline!
Thank you to Monica Weitzel at Community Hotline for hosting Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc.’s Executive Director, Connie Ashbrook and Board Chair, Irais Gandarilla on the show May 13th!
Building Girls Scholarship Fund
Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. welcomes the support of the business community to help us fulfill our mission to engage more women and girls in the trades. Our newest opportunity is a scholarship fund program supporting the impactful work of our Building Girls program, namely, our summer camp.
OTI’s Building Girls program helps fill a critical gap for young women by offering ways to explore the variety of exciting, high-paying careers in the trades. Through supervised hands-on construction experience, positive skills coaching, and working directly with female role models, Building Girls fulfills an unmet community need introducing young women to career possibilities they may never have considered an option.
The program offers several opportunities for young women to engage in an exploration: Building Girls Work Crew, our Women in Trades Fair and our annual Building Girls summer construction camp. Currently, we are seeking scholarship fund contributions from businesses to help offset the cost and create more opportunities for involvement in our summer construction camp.
Girls’ summer construction camp is a fun and exciting adventure where girls have fun and learn through hands on activities. The camps are structured for middle school and high school girls, and is a great opportunity to learn trades skills and make new friends. The cost is $600 per girl to attend one week of summer camp.
With your contribution of $600 towards our Building Girls scholarship fund program, your business can help a girl learn the skills of the trades by participating in activities like building a play house, making concrete stepping stones, welding table bases and tile table tops, solder pipes, and so much more. Your company will also be listed as a supporter of the program on our web site, receive acknowledgement on our social media platforms and will receive a mention in our e-newsletter. You will also receive an invitation to visit the camp, or attend the camp celebration, to see your generous donation at work!
Please contact Dennise M. Kowalczyk – Development Director – at dennise@tradeswomen.net or call 503.335.8200, X 38 for more information. Please join us in promoting the success for girls and women in the trades through education, leadership, and mentorship by becoming a scholarship fund contributor.
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Pathways to Success Scholarship Fund
Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. welcomes the support of the business community to help us fulfill our mission to engage more women and girls in the trades. Our newest opportunity is a scholarship fund program supporting the impactful work of our Pathways to Success program, namely, our Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class (TACC).
The TAC class program offers a focus on apprenticeship through a 7-week, state-certified, pre-apprenticeship training class that helps women prepare for a high skill, high wage career in the blue-collar professions in construction, manufacturing and the utility trades. Class sessions occur four times a year. All interested participants must first attend an information session and then a rigorous screening interview with staff in order to be qualified to participate in the class.
TACC covers key elements that lead to a successful outcome for students as well as teaching the grit, perseverance, and timeliness skills that also contribute to professional readiness: basic math and measurement, job safety in addition to construction culture, using hand and power tools, and physical fitness training. All of this is included with the 30 hours of hands-on training experience working with professional tradeswomen. Due to the intense one-on-one instruction we offer in this program, the cost to cover associated expenses is $5,000 per woman. But our students attend at no cost to themselves!
Why is this? The majority of our students are in low-wage jobs, unemployed, or are being supported by their families. In fact, their average annual income is only $11,000. We raise funds from foundations and contributors to cover the cost of the class and help our students move from poverty to the middle class, and self-sufficiency.
With your contribution of $5,000 toward our Pathways to Success Scholarship Fund, your business can help a woman learn about skills and opportunities to pursue well-paying jobs in our community. Your company will also be listed as a supporter of the program on our web site, receive acknowledgement on our social media platforms and will receive a mention in our e-newsletter. You will also receive an invitation to attend class graduation to see your generous donation at work along with acknowledgement as a program supporter on the graduation program and the event invitation!
Our graduates are ready to hit the ground running. Please contact Dennise M. Kowalczyk – Development Director – at dennise@tradeswomen.net or call 503.335.8200, x38 for more information. Please join us in promoting the success for girls and women in the trades through education, leadership, and mentorship by becoming a scholarship fund program.
Tradeswomen Stories – September 25, 2015
The 2015 Tradeswomen’s Stories event is a unique opportunity to engage with both the trades industry and the art community. OTI is offering limited sponsorship participation to businesses seeking a unique community engagement opportunity.
This year’s Tradeswomen Leadership Institute will kick off with a compelling segement called Tradeswomen Stories: Whatever you do…don’t do that! Five tradeswomen will be immersed in the art of storytelling – sharing their true stories live and on stage – at one of Portland’s finest performance venues, Disjecta. This event will build community and create a powerful tool for tradeswomen to share their experiences.
Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. is partnering with Back Fence PDX for this exciting event featuring local tradeswomen. Their stories are often invisible in discussions about construction. These women face incredible adversity and break significant barriers to get and retain jobs that have largely only been accessible to white men for generations. During the past year, apprenticeship, trades, and manufacturing have taken a prominent place in national conversation about workforce, economy, and employment.
TRADESWOMEN’S STORIES: Whatever you do…don’t do that!
Friday September 25, 2015
Doors at 6:30 pm
Show at 7:00 pm
18+ Only
Tickets available to purchase online.
Disjecta
8371 N Interstate Ave
Portland, OR 97217
Tradeswomen Leadership Institute 2014
Business Member Spotlight: P & C Construction
Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. welcomes the support of the business community to help us fulfill our mission to engage more women and girls in the trades.
P & C Construction is one of our partners in this program and we thank them for their contribution to OTI. The company is a third generation, local business that has worked on several projects, including the Governor Hotel (now the Sentinel), the original Niketown, and Ronald McDonald House.
OTI thanks the staff of P & C Construction for its support of our programming as a business membership program participant!
If you want to learn more about our business membership program, please send an email to dennise@tradeswomen.net for details on how you can be involved.
A New, Community Partnership: Fighting Fillies!
Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. is pleased to announced a new community partnership with the Portland Fighting Fillies!
The all-female team is dedicated to promoting the sport of women’s football. This year, the team began its sixth season and will be playing in four home games. The group is part of the Women’s Football Alliance that was founded in 2008 and plays in the Northwest Division – the team was the division champion in 2010 and 2011! Their next home game is against the Portland Shockwave and is taking place on May 16 at 6:30 pm in Hillsboro.
As part of our partnership, OTI will be attending the home games so be sure to keep an eye our on Facebook wall to score free tickets!
Here is a great video capturing one of their practices:
State of Black Oregon 2015
Today, the Urban League of Portland released its report, State of Black Oregon 2015. The press and community launch took place on the Portland Community College Cascade Campus.
The report is the result of a two-year program of research that provides an updated look at how Black Oregonians are doing – in schools, jobs, and both urban and rural communities throughout the state. The first State of Black Oregon report was released six years ago.
At today’s launch event, new president and CEO of Urban League Portland, Nkenge Harmon Johnson spoke about the importance of not only supporting the work of the organization’s policy actions addressed in the 194-page book, but to also ‘look around the table and make sure the community is truly represented’.
Guest speakers included, Mayor Charlie Hales, Senator Avel Louise Gordly and Lisa K. Bates (Portland State University). Mayor Hales announced in his presentation that he has included in his budget a $2 million dollar line item to cover free recreation activities for kids at several community centers in Portland.
Michael Alexander, the outgoing president and CEO of Urban League of Portland, offered closing remarks and also stressed the level of urgency needed in changing the clear disparity in healthcare, education, employment opportunities and other quality of life issues for Black Oregonians.
State of Black Oregon Report 2015 is available to view through Urban League of Portland’s web site.
Legacy Award Opportunity with Women’s Foundation of Oregon
On behalf of the staff, board members, and tradeswomen members of Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. (OTI), I am excited and honored to share that OTI is a finalist for a Legacy Award grant from the Women’s Foundation of Oregon.
The Women’s Foundation of Oregon has a vision for Oregon where every woman and girl can thrive. This vision resonates significantly with the work and mission of OTI, which is dedicated to promoting the success for women in the trades through education, leadership, and mentorship. Our work is vital for women and girls in our state because we want to make sure that every woman and girl in Oregon knows about living-wage trades careers and that they can succeed at them. For women living in poverty, long-term economic security can be made possible if they enter the blue-collar professions such as carpenter, electrician, cement mason, machinist, and a variety of other skilled trades careers. OTI supports the vision put forth by the Women’s Foundation of Oregon by creating accessible pathways for low-income women and girls to thrive in all realms of life through living-wage trades careers that are in high demand from industry.
The members of the Women’s Foundation of Oregon will be voting on the finalist for the Legacy Award over the next two weeks. Please watch this compelling video they produced to introduce the three finalists for the Legacy Award:
We appreciate this tremendous opportunity to share our work with the diverse membership of the Women’s Foundation of Oregon. Thank you for considering Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. for this investment in helping women and girls in Oregon thrive to their fullest potential!
Nike Employee Grant Fund of The Oregon Community Foundation awards OTI
Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. (OTI) has received a generous $15,000 grant from the Nike Employee Grant Fund of The Oregon Community Foundation to support OTI’s Building Girls program’s Building Girls Working Together – a trades work experience in which low—income young women learn the value of on-the-job training and the rewards and benefits of a trades careers within an all-female learning environment.
“We are thrilled to receive this gift from The Nike Employee Grant Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation and are honored for their support of our program to introduce young women to careers they may not have otherwise ever considered possible,” said Katie Yablonsky, Building Girls Program Manager at OTI. “The curriculum of our program not only offers young women basic building and construction skills, but they will also receive various life-skills training to assist them in many aspects of their adult life such as nutrition, financial planning, and self-defense,” Yablonsky concluded.
OTI’s Building Girls Work Crew addresses the lack of trades careers education and training for young women. For four weeks, low-income participants, ages 16-24, will work 3 days per week alongside skilled and experienced tradeswomen. The curriculum focuses on the proper and safe usage of power tools, lifting heavy supplies and tools, framing walls, installing metal roofing, and safety etiquette, all in a positive and supportive environment. Participants will gain the physical skills, self-esteem, and confidence necessary for a career previously considered non-traditional for women.
In addition to the hands-on experiences, the Building Girls Work Crew also provides education in nutrition, self-defense, financial management, resume writing, job-search skills, and typical job expectations. These wrap-around services will assist young women in developing the skills necessary to be successful in the workplace, whether they decide to enter a trades apprenticeship, entry-level trades job, or a non-trades career.
OTI is dedicated to promoting success for women in the trades through education, leadership, and mentorship. OTI is grounded in the principles that women deserve and can attain economic self-sufficiency through pursuing careers in the building, mechanical, electrical, utility, and highway construction trades while helping and encouraging the industry at large to build a diverse workforce.
Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. thanks the employees of Nike and the Oregon Community Foundation for this generous gift!
MANUFACTURING ROUNDTABLE EVENT
Overview
The manufacturing industry is projected to need to replace more than 30,000 workers in the next decade, and increasing diversity within the industry is critical to ensure companies have access to the skilled, talented labor required for this important sector of our local economy. Manufacturing in Portland is comprised of more than 107,000 jobs, making up 11% of Portland’s total workforce. In Oregon, overall, 26% of our GDP comes from manufacturing.
On Wednesday, April 22nd, Bank of America and Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. convened a group of 22 manufacturing industry executives to introduce them to OTI’s forthcoming Women in Metals & Manufacturing program and to learn from them what they are looking for in an entry level worker.
During the 90 minute discussion, OTI learned firsthand from representatives from local manufacturing firms about 4 broad buckets of work to address prior to launching the new Women in Metals & Manufacturing program:
1) Input on the curriculum & framework of this new manufacturing program
2) Ideas about how to recruit for the program, create awareness, and market the program
3) How local manufacturing employers can be a part of the program with things like site visits, guest speakers & hands-on training opportunities,
4) How to facilitate connections to women role-models who are successful in their manufacturing careers
Oregon Tradeswomen also learned more about what skills are necessary for entry level employment in the industry and career advancement, and overwhelmingly, those industry representatives echoed the following skills:
- Mechanical aptitude
- Safety minded
- Ability to learn and apply learning
- Keen attention to detail
- Great attitude / Enthusiastic
- Teamwork Oriented
- Respectful
- Driven
The Structure of the Women in Metals & Manufacturing program:
The Women in Metals & Manufacturing program will consist of two parts:
- A one day, hands-on orientation session which introduces women to metals and manufacturing careers, pathways into these careers, and a hands-on activity designed to allow women to experience activities common in manufacturing jobs in order for participants to assess their level of interest and/or their ability to keep pace with the demands of a manufacturing career.
- A two-week program modeled on Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc.’s nationally recognized
pre-apprenticeship program, Women in Metals & Manufacturing will offer:- Education and training in shop math
- Blueprint reading
- Worksite expectations
- Developing a manufacturing resume
- Hands-on training activities
- Mentoring from women who are successful in a manufacturing career
- Field trips to local manufacturing companies
- Hands-on training in workshop safety and the safe operation of manual/computerized machines and precision tools
- Graduates will receive job placement assistance and vocational case management services upon program completion.
Timeline:
Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc.’s program staff will be distilling the feedback we received at this roundtable to help inform the curriculum of our Women in Metals & Manufacturing program. The new program is slated to launch in August 2015 with an orientation, and then the 2 week intensive training will be offered in early September.
Input Survey:
Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. welcomes additional feedback from the manufacturing industry to help inform our forthcoming program. If you would like to contribute, please download our survey and return it to:
Dennise M. Kowalczyk
Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc.
3934 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Ste.# 101
Portland OR 97212