A pre-apprenticeship program will build two efficient houses in Central Falls
Wheeler Cowperthwaite|The Providence Journal
CENTRAL FALLS— Johnson Weah stood on a ladder, hammering nails into a joist on what will be a small shade structure at Calcutt Middle School in Central Falls.
Weah had already helped pour the concrete footings for two benches, cut the wood for the shade structureand put it together. The benches would be added later.
At 28, Weah, of Providence, is going through a career change. Until recently a residential counselor for children, he is following in his older brother's footsteps, trying to get into the building trades.
While he enjoyed working with children, the job didn't pay enough and he couldn't even think about one day retiring.
"I'm trying to provide because I have a son," Weah said. "It's do or die."
Weah just graduated from the Building Futures Rhode Island pre-apprenticeship program and is now working in its graduate program, performing basic construction work and waitingfor an open slot in a trade-union apprenticeship program.
The program provides basic construction skills to its students over five weeks to prepare them for the rigors of an apprenticeship with a trade union, increasing the retention rate to 80%, compared with 50% for those not in the program.
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While Weah is working at the middle school, the Building Futures program will soon break ground on another project in Central Falls, the construction of two energy-efficient single-family homes on Hood Street.
Mayor Maria Rivera said twoof her main goals havebeen to increase housing stock in Central Falls, which is already densely settled,and to increase the rate of homeownership, which has been depressed by the prevalence of multi-family houses in the city.
Building the two houses on the small city-owned lots fulfills both aimsand beautifies the neighborhood.
Building Futures Founder Andrew Cortéssaidit's a perfect match, as single-family homes are just the right size and complexity for the students to build, but demand has been shrinking as nonprofit developers move toward denser multi-family houses.
The homes won't be deed-restricted as affordable, but the city willsell them to Central Falls residents at cost. The prices should be brought down by a good deal on materials and the reduced labor cost of the Building Futures graduates.
Kevin Grattan, who leads the residential program, said the trade-off is that the students take longer to complete a house than a general contractor would, although the cost of labor is much lower.
A pipeline to union apprenticeships
Christian Rodrigues, 31, of Norwich, Connecticut, spent five years packing chips into boxes for Frito-Lay. A friend who graduated from the program told him about it.
"I wanted a career, to change my life, and I was tired of having an ordinary job.
Rodrigues quit the snack-makerafter first trying to get time off to complete the construction program, and now he is hoping to become a union painter or laborer.
"I want to be able to do something that I can show my children," he said.
Weah and Rodrigues arepart of Building Futures target audience, which skews older, with the average age hovering between 29 and 30.
Cortés said they have the most success with people who have more life experienceand often have commitmentsand work ethicthat make them good on job sites. Younger adults seem to have problems with time management and maturity.
Mainly, people want to get out of workinglow-paying jobs and find a way to support themselves, their familiesand plan for retirement, he said.
Of those who have graduated from the program since its founding in 2007, 42% have been in prison, most are men of color and nearly everyone comes from impoverished backgrounds, Cortes said.
With the exception of a few specific job sites, contractors and the unions do not care about criminal backgrounds, unlike many other professions, he said.
At 18, Isaiah Hanley was the youngest member of the crew at the middle school job site. He graduated from the program and got his high school equivalency, and is hoping to become a mason. Heis working on a rock wall at his house as he waits for an apprenticeship spot.
Hanley was never a fan of school, but he did like working with his hands. He considered joining the military, but four years was a very long commitment. A friend's father, a mason, suggested he apply to the program
"I have a path forward, a purpose I can work toward and see," Hanley said.
A win-win-win program
Luis Terrero, 32, of Central Falls, was driving by Calcutt Middle School on Friday on the way to drop his daughter off at daycare when he spotted the current batch of graduates working on the shade structures.
Now a journeyman carpenter with Local 732, he started off not knowing how to read a tape measure.
"Without the program, I would have never become an apprentice," he said.
Even though he had been prepared by the program for much of what to expect, he was caught off guard onhis first day as an apprentice at ajob site, a cold, snowymorning. He was not dressed for the elements, and he paid the price for having no gloves. He called his fiancéeafterward, crying.
He kept going to the job site, started working weekends for no pay so he could learn more of the craft, and after two yearsbecame a journeyman. Normally, that would take four years.
The program is beneficial to everyone involved, Cortes said. For employers, it means they have a steady stream of workers coming into the training programs. For the employees, it means high-paying, skilled jobs. For society, it means many people who have been, or are, marginalized, are given a way into the middle class, Cortes said.
Even the state, which helps fund the program, benefits, as it is the largest buyer of construction services, which require a skilled workforce.
Inside the program'sbrick building on Acorn Street in Providence, students have a few hours of classroom time each day before heading into a warehouse-like building.
In the warehouse,wood beams mimic the framing of a house and lines on the floor of the warehouse, where little dust has accumulated, mark where the walls were before they were deconstructed at the end of the program.
Near the front sits the frame of a steel bridge beingdisassembledso it can be reassembledby the next group in the program. Federal funds have increased the state's budget and timeline to replace bridges, and they always need more specialized workers for the jobs, Cortes said.
Open orientation through Thursday
The program opened orientation for its pre-apprenticeship program thisTuesday, Aug. 9, and will continue Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. and Thursday at 10 a.m. at its offices at 1 Acorn St. in Providence.
The program is open to anyone at least 18 years old.
The program pays participants a stipend for participating; the amount depends on grant funding.
Reach reporter Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@providencejournal.comor follow him on Twitter @WheelerReporter.
