Building Futures Grads Working for Better Lives

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)“Thank you for giving me a chance to have a trade to better my life” said Anthony Scott at the recent graduation ceremonies for the latest Building Futures class. The Department of Labor-funded program – run by the Metro Council’s Community Services Agency – rigorously screened, trained and graduated 20 men and women from the Washington DC area who are now ready to join the building trades.  “We want to represent Building Futures and honor this opportunity for greatness wherever we go,” Scott, the class valedictorian, told the gathering of graduate’s families, friends, and neighbors as they celebrated their accomplishments and looked forward to landing a construction job and launching a lifelong career.  “Our graduates are held to the highest standards in attendance, punctuality, attitude, and class participation,” said Client Services Coordinator Sylvia Casaro Dietert. “They receive hands-on and classroom instruction with an orientation to the trades, construction math, blueprint reading and drafting.” The students also earn certifications in OSHA 10, CPR, First Aid and AED, Flagger Safety, and LEED 101.  “All of our graduates feel confident that they can compete for a helper or an apprenticeship position,” added Casaro Dietert. Building Futures graduates have job applications in at Sheet Metal Workers Local 100, Electrical Workers Local 26, Cement Masons Local 891, and the Carpenters, and are working with the program’s new Job Developer, Andrea Thompson, who is assisting them with their job applications to local employers. - report by Sylvia Casaro Dietert, CSA; photo students at work (above) by Sylvia Casaro Dietert; photo of Site Coordinator Paula Johnson Williams and Graduate Lamar Freeman (below) by Donna Addkison, WOW