As Chicago’s boom continues, new nonprofit trains women and minorities for trades
Date Posted: December 11, 2019
Posted In: Ideas, Workforce,
From Chicago Tribune: Labor unions and some of the biggest names in Chicago’s development community — attached to projects like Vista Tower, Lincoln Yards and The 78 — are teaming up with United Way of Metro Chicago to train thousands of people for careers in the building trades.
The nonprofit, called Hire360, is launching about a decade into a construction boom in Chicago, where the skilled labor pool has struggled to keep pace with demand for new skyscrapers.
The nonprofit’s emergence also coincides with public calls by Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to intensify efforts to bring jobs and investment to the city’s South and West side neighborhoods.
“The goal is to get more involvement with African Americans, Latinos and women in the trades,” said Jay Rowell, Hire360’s executive director. “We’ll work with anyone, but those are the groups we’re focusing on.”
Apprenticeship programs and diversity initiatives are nothing new in Chicago, but Hire360 is unique in that it extends far beyond a single real estate project or a company seeking workers, Rowell said. By bringing industry giants together into one organization, it creates an opportunity for a deep, long-term pool of new workers, he said.
“It doesn’t reach any scale if you do this as one-offs,” Rowell said. “This is a unique partnership.”
Hire360 is modeled after a similar program in Milwaukee, called WRTP/Big Step.
Partners in the Chicago project include development and construction firms such as Related Midwest, James McHugh Construction Co., Sterling Bay, Magellan Development Group, Power Construction, Lendlease, Farpoint Development and W.E. O’Neil Construction. Also involved are several labor unions and groups such as the Chicagoland Associated General Contractors and Chicago Federation of Labor.