CSA's Building Futures Program Wins MD Grant

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

The Community Services Agency’s Building Futures program has won an Implementation Grant from the Maryland EARN Program. EARN (Employment Advancement Right Now) is a new state job training program. The Implementation Grant follows the Planning Grant the Building Futures program won previously (CSA Wins Two Grants for 2014, 1/3/2014). “We are the PG/Charles County construction partnership, with the Painters and Carpenters as the main union partners, to provide craft-specific pre-apprenticeship training and training in the finishing trades to boost unionized companies’ competitiveness and to increase earnings potential for workers,” says CSA Executive Director Kathleen McKirchy. The grant will also enable BF to provide social services and mentorship support to help apprentices complete their apprenticeships, McKirchy added. “Huge thanks are due to The Finishing Trades Institute at Painters District 51 for their willingness to lead our labor-management partnership and commit to helping low-income residents obtain training and enter the careers in the trades.” The grants will “help more Marylanders get the skills they need to qualify for Maryland’s most in-demand jobs,” said Governor Martin O’Malley. “There is no progress without a job.”