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When it comes to transforming lives for the better, few people can hold a candle to Constructing Hope Executive Director Pat Daniels.

In her role she is a mentor, teacher, advocate and friend, not to mention a passionate fundraiser with a sharp business mind. In her 15 years with Constructing Hope, she has helped the organization grow from a small faith-based group conducting construction training courses for low-income and minority Portland residents into an independent non-profit group certified by the State of Oregon as a construction pre-apprenticeship program.

Along the way she has helped lift countless individuals and families out of poverty and into living wage jobs through the skilled trades, and she does it all while staying out of the spotlight and focusing on the hard work of promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in the trades while also guiding formerly incarcerated students into full-time employment.

鈥淎ll of our participants are low-income, coming from incarceration and long-term unemployed,鈥� Daniels said. 鈥淭o see their careers change and see their family structures change, that鈥檚 probably the most rewarding thing for me. They become leaders in their families and for their relatives.鈥�

Constructing Hope grew out of a 1990s program started by the Irvington Covenant Church in North Portland. Church members addressing the negative effects of gentrification on the large minority population in North and Northeast formed the Irvington Covenant Community Development Corp. in 1995. Daniels came on board to help with fundraising for the corporation鈥檚 budding construction training program in 2005.

鈥淚 fell in love with the work they were doing,鈥� Daniels said.

Just two years later it was certified by the state as a construction pre-apprenticeship program. It gained non-profit status in 2010 when it reorganized as an independent organization and formally changed its name to Constructing Hope.

鈥淪he doesn鈥檛 stop,鈥� said Mel Jones, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion director for J.E. Dunn Construction and chairman of the Constructing Hope Board of Directors. 鈥淗er constant drive to find money, her constant drive to find good staff people, her constant drive to expand the program; it鈥檚 not enough to bring in ex-convicts and give them a trade. She does the social part, too. She helps them find the apartments, helps them with expungements. I don鈥檛 know where she gets the energy.鈥�

Daniels said much of her motivation comes from her time working in human resources for the Port of Portland.

鈥淵ou are trained that if someone had a felony they were not going to be hired,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey could be the best hire, but you鈥檙e only looking for that box. I just would be like, 鈥榃hy don鈥檛 they get it together?鈥欌��

That changed over time as she realized those same people, when left with no opportunities, often fell back into crime, addiction and incarceration.

鈥淚 wanted to change that after I saw people and I heard their stories,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 thought about what I was and what I did, and I wanted to make a change.鈥�

Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. Executive Director Kelly Kupcak and Daniels quickly became friends when Kupcak moved to Portland to take over that role three years ago.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not a job for her, it really is a calling,鈥� Kupcak said. 鈥淚 remember meeting her and she was like 鈥榃hat you see is what you get.鈥� She鈥檚 a dedicated, hardworking, passionate person who really believes in the work she鈥檚 doing and is really committed to equity, and she鈥檚 never stepped back from the mission.鈥�

The mission of changing lives to prevent that fall back into the justice system is everything for Daniels.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 what makes me say 鈥業 don鈥檛 want to see people get to that point,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f they get out and get to our program, I want to treat them with respect 鈥� the respect they never got.鈥�