Building Futures Grads Working for Better Lives
Friday, March 30, 2012
(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