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Construction Careers Education and Career Pathways Navigation Program
Like many nonprofits during this tumultuous year, Oregon Tradeswomen was challenged to shift our training, programming, and services in this time of social distancing due to COVID while still meeting the needs of our community, our industry, and the many women looking to start careers in the skilled construction trades.
Our team turned the challenge into an opportunity to build something bigger, and better, and our updated program and service offerings in 2021 means more women will have access to our training and expanded resources and support, including:
- Women outside the Portland Metropolitan region
- Women in rural communities
- Women living on Tribal Lands
- Women serving as caretakers during COVID restrictions
- And many others
In 2021, Oregon Tradeswomen will launch our re-envisioned Construction Careers Education Sessions and will provide additional information, resources, and support to women seeking to enter the skilled construction trades.
We will offer monthly webinars where jobseekers can learn about the many exciting and dynamic opportunities in the skilled trades, learn how to navigate the nuances of registered apprenticeship, the construction industry, and navigate a successful career in the industry.
Whether someone needs more skills, has some experience and needs help putting together a trades resume and preparing for an interview, or needs a bit more support before starting an apprenticeship-readiness program, our Construction Careers Education and Career Pathways Navigation Program team will be there to help.
Stay tuned for a schedule of events coming in January 2021! We look forward to putting more women to work!
Labor Day Message from Oregon Tradeswomen’s Executive Director
Original photo by Alfred T. Palmer – Image credit to United States Library of Congress
The first Labor Day in the United States was celebrated in 1882, almost two decades before women had the right to vote and before the U.S. Department of Labor recognized the contributions of women to the Labor Movement by creating the Women’s Bureau. Nevertheless, women contributed to the Labor Movement before it was even called a movement.
Women like:
Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, who was once called the “most dangerous woman in America”, fought to protect child workers and push for enforcement of child labor laws. She became an organizer for the United Mine Workers and stood up to big companies and organized coal miners to demand better conditions for workers.
Velma Hopkins, an African-American organizer with Local 22 of the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers of America-CIO. She mobilized 10,000 workers in North Carolina to unionize R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.
Dolores Clara Fernández Huerta, a labor leader and civil rights activist who, with Cesar Chavez, co-founded the National Farmworkers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers. She was tireless in her fight for worker rights, immigrant rights, and women’s rights.
Frances Perkins who, having personally witnessed workers jump to their death during the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, helped to pass strong labor laws after becoming the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet as Secretary of Labor in 1933.
Ai-Jen Poo who worked to organize domestic workers in 2000, and was key in the passage of the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in New York. The bill legitimated domestic workers and gave them the same lawful rights as other employees, such as vacation time, and overtime pay.
Hattie Canty, the legendary African-American unionist was one of the greatest strike leaders in U.S. history. After her husband died, she raised eight children on her own and dedicated her life to improving the working conditions of others. She fought for a living wage and for the engagement of People of Color in the Labor movement. Her patient leadership helped knit together a labor union made up of members from 84 different nations!
The women noted here are just a few of the very many who made sacrifices for worker’s rights.
As we mark the 100th anniversary of the creation of the U.S. Women’s Bureau, Oregon Tradeswomen would like to honor them, and all who have fought and continue to fight for our nation’s workforce.
Oregon Tradeswomen is grateful for our partners in the Labor Movement, here in Oregon and across the country who work tirelessly for worker’s rights, dignity, and justice. We are with you in the fight today, and always, as today we honor our nation’s workers!
Kelly Kupcak, Executive Director
Oregon Tradeswomen
Hammer and a Helping Hand
Oregon Tradeswomen rang in the New Year setting up our new home in the Rockwood neighborhood, a feat accomplished with the help of our generous supporters. To say thank you, we are shining a light on some of our business partners who made this move possible. Starting with our friends at Hammer & Hand, a local general contractor started by two Reed College graduates, Sam Hagerman and Daniel Thomas, who began their carpentry careers by remodeling historic Portland homes. Hammer & Hand has since expanded to include new home-building, commercial construction, handmade windows and doors, and executing traditional and modern designs created by the Pacific Northwest’s top architectural firms.
Because the founders developed their skills as carpenters through remodeling beautiful historic buildings, they are guided by an ethic of quality, durability, and beauty in all of their projects. Hammer & Hand has made a name for themself as a national leader in high-performance and quality-assured durability having authored two editions of their Best Practices Manual, a compendium of their field-tested construction details, many informed by their experience in high-performance passive building. A third edition of this guidebook is slated for this summer.
Hammer & Hand is a company of carpenters, and they don’t operate like a typical single-source “design-build” firm. Instead, their process involves partnering with an independent architect and getting the design team, the general contractor, and client together in a dynamic collaborative process that ensures a well-rounded approach to the project to satisfy budget, aesthetics, and buildability. Hammer & Hand’s goal is to makes each clients’ dreams a reality while building to last.
Their commitment to great work doesn’t end here. Hammer & Hand is dedicated to empowering their employees. Because of their commitment to workforce happiness, Hammer & Hand sees very little employee turnover and has team members who have been with the company for a long time, including career carpenters who have celebrated 15 and 20 year anniversaries over the past few years. Hammer & Hand is also committed to workplace diversity and actively hires women – including a few Oregon Tradeswomen graduates!
Hammer & Hand demonstrates their commitment to Oregon Tradeswomen’s mission not only by giving our graduates an exceptional place to grow in their careers as carpenters, but they made an incredibly generous donation to helping us acquire a training space of our own. Oregon Tradeswomen’s new headquarters in Rockwood, complete with classroom and workshop, allows us the capacity to expand our training to serve more women in more ways. We are grateful for Hammer & Hand’s investment in our growth as an organization and we look forward to the bright future we are building together.
Tradeswomen Leadership Institute 2019
On December 7, 2019, Oregon Tradeswomen held our annual Tradeswomen Leadership Institute (TLI) at the Sheet Metal Institute here in Portland, Oregon. The event drew more than 50 participants from a diverse spectrum of trades! We were thrilled to see such a successful showing of trade workers from our community and across our industry.
The event was organized in part by an advisory committee of tradeswomen who shared ideas and insights which informed the workshop content, including topics such as Surviving and Thriving in the Trades and Advancing Your Career from the Jobsite into Management. Workshops also provided resources on how to access financial supports and plan for retirement, as well as how to politically advocate for yourself and other tradeswomen.
Our Keynote speaker, Sonia Ramirez, Wage and Hour Administrator for the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, wrapped up the day with a passionate speech about her professional journey, and her path to leadership as a woman of color in a male dominated industry. Sonia inspired the whole room! We were also surprised and delighted to see Oregon Labor Commissioner Val Hoyle, who stopped by to show her support for the event as well.
Oregon Tradeswomen wants to thank the TLI Advisory Committee for their wisdom, enthusiasm, and superb ideas which made TLI 2019 so successful and well attended. Special thanks to the Sheet Metal Training Center Local 16 for hosting us for the day. We extend our gratitude to the speakers who shared their valuable time and advice with us, as well as our dedicated community partners and staff who helped make the event a success.
Check out photos from the event on Facebook!
We look forward to seeing you in 2020!
Metro Adopts The Construction Career Pathways Framework
In 2018, Metro regional government released a labor market study for the construction industry and the potential economic impact for our region’s workforce. Greater Portland is growing and the construction industry is growing with it. There is an anticipated need for 15,000 new construction jobs in the next 10 years at a time when 20 percent of the region’s workforce is nearing retirement age.
While construction has historically had a male-dominated and racially homogenous workforce, our industry is changing due to intentional efforts such as those spearheaded by Metro’s Construction Careers Pathways Project (also known as C2P2). As industry continues to report a continued shortage of skilled workforce talent, there is an opportunity to tap into existing resources to increase the number of women and people of color that make up a skilled, qualified and diverse workforce pipeline.
Through Metro’s initiative in bringing together public owners to build a regional model of diversity, equity, and inclusion in construction contracting, procurement, and workforce, we have an opportunity to create a shared prosperity model. Construction is one of the few industries still offers a family-sustaining career, with wages averaging $35 per hour and full benefits. Through access to good careers with good wages and benefits, we can create financial stability for our regional workforce, which can be life changing.
Diversifying the construction workforce not only directly addresses the labor shortage; it directly addresses issues of poverty and economic mobility within communities of color and working families in the region. Nationally, women make up only three percent of the skilled trades in the construction industry, and people of color make up nineteen percent nationwide. In Oregon, women comprise just under eight percent of the skilled trades, with minorities accounting for twenty percent statewide in the industry.
Without a pathway to financial independence and stability, women can become limited in their choices, in their personal safety, and in their long-term health and well-being. Lack of access to well-paid job opportunities is one reason poverty rates for women are substantially higher than those for men—here in Oregon, almost a third of households headed by single women live below the self-sufficiency standard according to the 2017 report, Count Her In, by the Women’s Foundation of Oregon. For women of color in Oregon, the situation is even direr as 86% of Black and Latino female-headed households with children do not have sufficient income to meet their basic needs.
The report notes that improving educational outcomes for Oregon’s women will not solve this problem as the earnings gap for women actually widens with more educational attainment. Because Oregon’s female workforce is concentrated in low-wage occupations, in fact 60% of all minimum wage workers in Oregon are women, connecting women to construction careers can mean economic stability for a significant percentage of our families.
This is why Oregon Tradeswomen joined with a host of other organizations across the region in support of Metro’s C2P2 model, working with public agencies, labor unions, workforce development organizations, and contractors, to leverage capital investments to grow and diversify the region’s workforce. By recruiting and supporting women and people of color in the skilled trades, we strengthen our construction workforce for decades to come while at the same time, creating needed financial stability for families and communities through this shared prosperity model.
As we make progress toward these shared goals, our region’s economy will be stronger and more equitable.
Wire a Light 2020 Dates Announcement
Would you like to learn about the possibilities a career as an electrician offers? The NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center is hosting SIX “Wire a Light” workshops for women who have an interest in the electrical trades. During this free workshop, you can learn how to wire a light, meet women electricians in the industry, and find out how to start your career as an electrician.
Dates & Registration:
February 6, 2020
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Register for the 2/6 workshop
April 2, 2020
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Register for the 4/2 workshop
June 4, 2020
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Register for the 6/4 workshop
August 10, 2020
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Register for the 8/10 workshop
October 1, 2020
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Register for the 10/1 workshop
December 3, 2020
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Register for the 12/3 workshop
Location:
NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center
16021 NE Airport Way
Bus Lines:
NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center is accessible via TriMet bus lines 74 and 87.
Do Good With the Give!Guide
Oregon Tradeswomen works nonstop to educate and empower women in achieving financial independence by pursuing careers in the skilled trades, while at the same time diversifying the industry. For the good work we do in the community and in the lives of hundreds of women and families, we were one of the local nonprofit organizations selected to participate in the Willamette Week Give!Guide again in 2019! The Give!Guide is a citywide fundraising campaign supporting 152 non-profit organizations, which also aims to inspire the habit of end of year giving among those under age 36.
The Give!Guide makes giving fun! Each week there will be a designated Big Give Day where your donation of $10 or more on that day enters you in a drawing to win something big! On some of the Big Give Days, donors under the age of 36 have twice the chance of winning!
The Big Give Days:
November 1
Give: $10 or more
You Get: A $500 shopping spree to Powell’s Books
If You’re 35 or Under: You have twice the chance of winning, as a second gift card will be given to one donor under the age of 36!
November 7
Give: $10 or more
You Get: New snow gear from Patagonia [$600 value], a two-night stay at Five Pine Lodge and four single-day lift tickets to Mt. Bachelor!
November 14
Give: $10 or more
You Get: A Sony RX100 VA mirrorless camera from Pro Photo Supply
If You’re 35 or Under: You have twice the chance of winning, as a second Sony RX100 VA camera will be given to one donor under the age of 36!
November 21
Give: $10 or more
You Get: Two tickets with parking to the Portland Trail Blazers vs. Minnesota (12/21/2019) game, two tickets with parking to the Trail Blazers vs. Milwaukie (01/11/2020), and a basketball signed by the entire team!
December 3
Give: $10 or more
You Get: Two nights at Brasada Ranch in a Luxury suite and a round of golf
If You’re 35 or Under: You have twice the chance of winning, as a second Brasada vacation package will be given to one donor under the age of 36!
December 5
Give: $10 or more
You Get: Two weekend passes to Feast Portland 2020, a $500 gift card from New Seasons Market, a $150 gift card to Tasty n Daughters and one year’s supply of goodies from:
December 12
Give: $10 or more
You Get: A Tender Loving Empire vinyl package and weekend passes to Treefort Music Fest, Sisters Folk Festival, McMenamins Sabertooth Fest, Oregon Jamboree, Harefest and two tickets to the select show of your choice at the Portland Jazz Festival.
(The vinyl package includes four new TLE releases on vinyl with digital downloads, a $100 shopping spree, a comfy crewneck, a campfire mug for your adventures, and a set of three art prints.)
December 19
Give: $10 or more
You Get: A Specialized FX 1 Commuter Bike from Bike Gallery.
December 26
Give: $10 or more
You Get: A vacation package from the Oregon Cultural Trust that will take you across the amazing state we are lucky enough to call home! Visit giveguide.org for more details.
Throughout the Give!Guide there will be free events where you can show up and do good in person! Meet the non-profits in the Give!Guide, eat and drink fabulous local refreshments, and dance to banging beats produced by members of our lovely Portland arts community!
Please add these events to your calendar:
Give!Guide Kickoff Party
November 1, 2019, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Jupiter NEXT
900 East Burnside Street
Portland, OR 97214
Give!Guide Presents: Bocha feat. KayelaJ (DHH Accessible)
November 22, 2019, 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Holocene Portland
1001 SE Morrison Street
Portland, OR 97214
Give!Guide Presents: Drae Slapz feat. Brown Calculus and Rasheed Jamal
December 12, 2019, 8:00 pm – 11:00 pm
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Blvd
Portland, OR 97227
If you are unable to make a gift, we encourage you to stay involved by attending the Give!Guide’s free events and sharing our campaign with your social networks! Any help is appreciated!
We cannot wait to DO GOOD with you!
Oregon Tradeswomen Graduate Receives Green Construction Scholarship!
Oregon Tradeswomen pre-apprenticeship student Chelsey Acker (foreground) helps frame a new tiny house at Dignity Village in Northeast Portland. This project is part of the curriculum for the current cohort of OTI pre-apprentices. (Josh Kulla/DJC)
During each cohort of our Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class, students have the option of extending their training to learn more about environmental careers. During a recent class, Energy Trust of Oregon and Earth Advantage let us know about a few scholarships available for their Sustainable Homes Professional (SHP) course as a way to get started into a career in green construction. Chelsea Acker applied and won one of the full-tuition scholarships worth $1,600! Congratulations, Chelsea, and thank you so much Energy Trust of Oregon and Earth Advantage!
Update 2/27/2019:
We are pleased to announce that Chelsea has successfully completed her Sustainable Homes Professional course and is now working full time at Green Hammer! She reached out to Earth Advantage after she got hired to send them a lovely thank you message:
“I am writing to extend many thanks and extreme gratitude to Earth Advantage. I am one of the SHP Scholarship awardees from the current SHP class. I graduated from Oregon Tradeswomen this past summer and knew I wanted to start my career in carpentry working for a company that focused on high performance energy efficient and sustainable builds. The SHP class was recommended to me as a way to learn more about building science and meet others who are active in this field. Within a few months into the course, I found myself passionate about building science, and applying for jobs. I was hired full-time at Green Hammer just a few weeks ago and it is my dream job! I can’t believe I am getting to begin my career with such an amazing company that aligns so clearly with my ethics, values, and passion. I honestly DO NOT believe that I would have gotten the job if it weren’t for this SHP course, and there is no way as a woman entering the field with little to no experience that I would have been able to afford this course on my own. I am extremely grateful and humbled by this opportunity and wanted to extend many many thanks for believing in me and giving me this chance. This course made is possible for me to enter into the trades with a focus on high performance energy efficient homes/buildings.”
Our Friends at Pepsi
Oregon Tradeswomen is thrilled to announce a new partnership with PepsiCo, born of our shared priorities: education, diversity, community, and sustainability. Recently, Jim Nam, Director of Government Affairs at PepsiCo and Neel Pender of local public affairs firm Three Arch Strategies joined Oregon Tradeswomen’s Development Director, Lisa Palermo, at Dignity Village, where Oregon Tradeswomen’s Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class (TACC) was hard at work helping build tiny houses as part of their hands-on learning. This intentional and self-governed community of about 60 houseless people was founded in 2001 and is providing an invaluable learning experience to TACC students. As our Training Director Amy James Neel, who organizes these field trips and hands-on learning days, explained to our guests, our students have the unique opportunity to build houses from the ground up, learning about carpentry, electrical wiring, and even how to install solar panels – all while giving back to a very worthy cause in our community.
Eli Bryant, one of Oregon Tradeswomen’s dedicated TACC instructors, struck up conversation with Mr. Nam, expressing how important our program is to her and expanding on her own experience as a woman entering the trades. Unlike the students she teaches, Eli did not have an organization like Oregon Tradeswomen to prepare and guide her through the difficulties that many women face in the industry. When Eli was fresh and new, the men on her crew were not willing to take the time to teach her the tips and tricks that the rest of the men already had up their sleeves, like using the hairpin method when measuring something much taller than herself. She was forced to learn everything on her own, making mistakes along the way. Eli stressed how important Oregon Tradeswomen’s pre-apprenticeship class is precisely because it elevates women to the level of the men they are working with and prepares them to succeed. More than that, the program fosters a community and serves as a resource to women that Eli wished she’d had all those years ago. For all of these reasons, Eli prioritizes her job with Oregon Tradeswomen; as a stone mason and metalworker, she turns down jobs that won’t be flexible with her teaching schedule. Her work with Oregon Tradeswomen “is more important than anything [she has] ever done.”
After seeing our students in action and conversing with impassioned Oregon Tradeswomen staff, it was clear to our guests from PepsiCo that our organization exemplifies the guiding principles of their Performance with Purpose initiative. As a global company, PepsiCo is committed to serving local communities not only through transitioning to healthier food and beverage opportunities, making our food systems more sustainable but also investing in local programs like Oregon Tradeswomen that promote job training, gender parity and pay equity for women in the workplace.
Oregon Tradeswomen is likewise dedicated to making an impact in all these areas by starting with the women from our local community. Our training program provides them with all the skills and support they need to start a new career in the skilled trades and become economically independent. At the same time, we partner with other organizations during training to offer educational opportunities in exchange for work that has an impact on the community, such as new tiny houses for Dignity Village. Once graduated, we support our alums by connecting them with apprenticeship and job opportunities where they can apply all they have learned, continue to learn, and begin to pay it forward by repairing and building hospitals, parks, schools, bridges, and everything a community would need to flourish.
Our Summer 2018 TACC cohort graduated on August 28, 2018 and as we do with every graduating class, we celebrated these women and their hard work with a special ceremony and reception. PepsiCo’s Jim Nam presented Oregon Tradeswomen with a check for $45,000 to help us continue making a difference in the lives of these women and the communities they live in. We are privileged to have been chosen to help further PepsiCo’s Performance with Purpose goals and we look forward to the bright future we can build together!
Your Voice Matters!
When we turn 18, we are granted the privilege of being able to vote in local, state, and national elections. We cast our votes to help shape the direction our country, to reflect our values and visions in the form of laws and elected officials. Even still, many people choose not to exercise their right to vote. Be it accessibility, apathy, not liking any of the candidates, or just not believing their vote will make a difference, there are many reasons why people don’t vote.
When people think of voting, they often think of the Presidential election that comes every 4 years, but there are many more elections that are just as, if not more important! State and local elections can happen every year with new initiatives, city counsel members, state legislators, governors, judges, and much more on the ballot. These elections are often overlooked, but they can be the most important as they affect the communities we live in! For those who are disenfranchised with the electoral college or political system as a whole, this is a surefire way to feel like your vote is making a difference. That is because it is!
Every two years, our country holds federal elections. That means that every two years, 1/3 of all US Senators and all 435 representatives in the House are up for re-election. When there is not a President up for election, we call these elections the Midterms as they happen midway through a President’s four-year term. Who we vote into Congress can be even more important than who we elect as President because it is the House of Representatives and the Senate who pass the bills that the President signs into law. Of course Presidents are important, but our representatives in Congress are who we voice our wants, needs, and concerns to with hope that they will do something about them!
This year, 2018, is a Midterm election, and an important one at that. The country is divided and so we need more people to make sure their voices are heard and participate in their civic duty! It is IMPORTANT for you to vote because it is We The People who decide how this country is run.
The first step is to get Registered to Vote!!! If you are not registered, this may seem like a daunting task, but it is actually SO easy. For example, in Oregon, whenever you update your address with the US Postal Service, they give you the option to Register to Vote!
If you still need to register, you may do so online here (some states may differ): https://vote.gov/
To vote in the Midterm elections, you must be registered by October 16th as the ballots will be mailed out on October 17th. You will have until October 29th to safely mail in your ballot, but you may drop your ballot off in one of the many Official Ballot Drop-boxes across Multnomah County until Election Day (Nov. 6th) at 8:00pm.
We sincerely hope that you feel empowered to participate in this 2018 election. We understand it may seem overwhelming, but there are many resources available to you online to help you through the process, some listed below.
http://lwvor.org/home/voteresources/