Interest in Constructing Hope‘s pre-apprenticeship program is on the rise, and the Portland-based nonprofit is taking action to ensure it can keep pace.

A renovation is under way to improve Constructing Hope’s headquarters – the bulk of a 9,000-square-foot commercial building at 405 N.E. Church St., near the intersection with Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The project is intended to not only accommodate growth, but also educate the current cohort of pre-apprenticeship students – virtually all of whom are members of Portland’s BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) community.

“We were already in a place where we were in more demand,” Constructing Hope Executive Director Pat Daniels said. “So, we’re remodeling our building, and we are going to have a state-of-the-art building. My staff is brilliant; they came up with the idea of remodeling and opening the floor to show the plumbing, the floors and walls. The ceilings will be open for ductwork. It’s going to be amazing.”

The project was designed by Anne Raccine Fishe, Architect; work is in full swing, albeit with some limitations due to COVID-19. Hillsboro Electric employees are rewiring the building following extensive interior demolition by Mack Construction, a local firm that is carrying out its first significant project. Another small local firm, Professional Lath & Plaster, is performing framing and drywall work, Brothers Painting is handling interior painting, and Caliber Plumbing and Mechanical is taking care of plumbing and HVAC work.

“Students are working on the project too, working with contractors that took our curriculum and they turned it into hands-on work on the remodeling,” Daniels said.

Even some bigger firms, including Hoffman, JE Dunn and Pence, have contributed to the effort.

“It’s truly been a community project, where all hands have been on deck, and it’s coming to life,” said Angela Watkins, Constructing Hope’s board chairwoman and owner of Minority Construction Group, the general contractor for the project.

“It’s another piece of Pat’s heart, to be able to create a facility that’s large enough to do the things we need to do,” added Mel Jones, senior diversity and inclusion director for JE Dunn Construction’s Portland office and a Constructing Hope board member. “We want to create a facility that doesn’t look like a prison. Now it’s all brick and beat down, but we want these folks to come and show up and know there’s a future – and part of it was changing that appearance. The other thing was to make it more usable.”

Constructing Hope’s mission is to provide formerly incarcerated Portland residents with construction training and the possibility of a different life. Each class has around 20 students, mostly men. They learn about the construction industry and various trades in a rigorous 10-week course that exposes them to a variety of skills and industry professionals.

“They’ve already been in some extreme situations,” Daniels said. “They’re going to go do whatever it takes to take care of their family, and they find out it’s something they really enjoy, the instant gratification of the work.”

The group has been working out of the 90-year-old building for a decade now. One previous remodel made the space suitable for education. But three years ago, the board authorized Daniels and her staff to seek funding for another renovation in order to better serve students. Some money arrived in 2018 via a Prosper Portland grant, but then a series of setbacks in 2019 – including the temporary loss of nonprofit status – delayed the project. But 2020 saw things turn around in spite of COVID, as further donations came in – including $100,000 from Dave Dahl, co-founder of Dave’s Killer Bread – and contractors were lined up.

“We have stepped up this year as far as what we’ve done with fundraising, branding the program and making sure Pat has a succession plan,” Jones said.

Work is expected to wrap up in late spring, perhaps by May. There will be two new, large classroom and conferences spaces, including one equipped with a huge television. New reception and office space will open onto Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard rather than Church Street, as it was in the past. And the new spaces will have educational purpose: certain walls, floors and ceilings will be covered with plexiglass instead of drywall to allow plumbing, mechanical and electrical systems (plus framing) to be exposed for students to examine.

“It doubles our hands-on training space,” Daniels said.

The project is providing a better future for more than just Constructing Hope, Watkins said.

“I’m a woman of color, and I’ve had to overcome many obstacles,” she said. “And I’m definitely grateful to Constructing Hope for giving me one of my first opportunities to do a larger project. I’m a new company. I’ve been in business for about two years now, and I understand what small businesses go through.”

Whether pre-apprenticeship student or professional contractor, Watkins added, her message – and that of Constructing Hope – remains the same.

“I’m here to help open the door,” she said. “The next step is up to you. You have to be willing to take them in and help them progress to the next step.”

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While construction activities have not stopped in Oregon as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship training programs have.

Union and nonunion training centers alike have shuttered their operations in the past two weeks to avoid unnecessary face-to-face interactions. One is Oregon Tradeswomen Inc., which last month celebrated the opening of its new 8,000-square-foot shop and headquarters in Southeast Portland. Now its office is closed through March 31.

“I can tell you that all staff are currently working remotely,” OTI communications director Mary Ann Naylor said. “We were able to complete training in the new space, but we did cancel the graduation ceremony on March 12.”

OTI canceled an environmental worker training and delayed the start of its spring pre-apprenticeship training until April 14. In addition, the group’s popular annual career fair, normally held in May, has been rescheduled this year for Sept. 25 and 26.

“We’re in process of sorting out the details, and making backup plans,” Naylor said. “We are also looking at ways to up our technology game to provide components of our training and education in a virtual manner, including information sessions about our class, career education, and portions of our curriculum that currently happen in the classroom.”

Virtually all union-affiliated training centers in the Portland-metro area shut down in-person operations before Friday, said Robert Camarillo, executive secretary of the Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council. One of the only exceptions is Operating Engineers Local 701, which is continuing to offer limited training due to the nature of the trade, which places operators outside the normal risks inherent on a crowded jobsite.

“We had a conference call, and just about every one of (the training centers) have closed down the apprenticeships for the next several months at least,” Camarillo said. “Some are utilizing long-distance learning to continue to offer instruction as much as possible. Everybody is getting a little creative.”

Local 701 managed to wrap up a training round recently, said Jim Anderson, the union’s business manager. Recruitment and interviews of new apprentices will continue, he added, but full-scale training is on hold.

“We got the round of apprentices through last week,” he said. “There were 12 apprentices, and we had them set up two per instructor and we rotated them through. But for now we’re going to hold off on training classes until we get the OK from the governor.”

At the Northwest College of Construction in Northeast Portland, all apprenticeship classes are suspended until at least April 5 while administrators try to devise ways in which to offer instruction safely.

Instructional efforts at NWCOC are changing to remote and online forms for the time being, said Laurie Emery, the college’s interim executive director. Also, administrative staffers are being asked to work from home.

“We’ve never experienced anything like this before,” she said. “My team and I are developing an online training system that will go into effect April 6, but we’re still working out all of the kinks. As far as we’re concerned we will continue with classes, just with no hands-on instruction.”

The timeline is uncertain at present, but when circumstances allow, students will be able to receive required in-person instruction and take exams.

“It’s not a perfect system, but it keeps students in classes,” Emery said. “Our concern is not having students get too far behind, as well as those apprentices also who are ready to graduate. We want to help them meet that goal and as soon as possible.”

None of this will happen on regular schedule, Emery said, but it will allow the college to meet the hourly training requirements for the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries. The pandemic also is hastening plans by the college to move more instruction online, she added.

“We’ve been talking about online training for some time, but it’s never really fit into our model,” she said, mainly because National Center for Construction Education and Research accreditation requires in-person testing with a proctor.

“That makes it difficult to go to a fully online program,” she said. “But in a way it makes me glad that we have this option available to us now. Maybe it’s a future option for us; I don’t know. It will be based on what BOLI allows, but at least we have a framework.”

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There’s a new emphasis on teaching the skilled trades in Beaverton public schools. With money from a $680 million bond approved by voters in 2014, Beaverton School District is preparing for a renovation and expansion of Merlo Station High School to accommodate a new commercial construction technology program.

CIDA has designed a $1 million shop and classroom space, complete with mechanical, electrical and plumbing mock-up walls. Construction is set to start in March 2020, though no contractor has been named yet.

“We have some really great partners in this work,” said Janine Weir, the school district’s high school success coordinator. They’ve helped design the space, the building and what kinds of skills we need to address with our students. In a sense, we can’t hope to understand what’s happening in the industry if we don’t engage them.”

Merlo Station is joining Aloha and Mountainside as high schools with construction technology programs. Currently, it’s offered as a six-week elective course. However, Merlo Station will host the district’s new magnet program. Students will be able to take part in what career and technical education (CTE) instructor Jon Hauben described as essentially a pre-apprenticeship program.

“We’re trying to give the students the best foundation we can,” he said. “Contractors and unions want to train them through their apprenticeship programs, and we’re trying to give them the soft skills – the beginning skills – they need. It’s a trade exploration where we’re going to expose them to plumbing, electrical – the basics of all these skills.”

The Merlo Station curriculum is used by apprenticeship programs – either union or open shop. To that end, input delivered by area contractors and union training centers has been invaluable, Weir said. Some of the participating firms and groups include Worksystems Inc., Kirby Nagelhout Construction, Walsh Construction and INLINE Commercial Construction, as well as NECA/IBEW Local 48, the Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council, the Local 16 sheet metal training center and the Local 737 Laborers Training Center. But others are involved too.

“There are a million CTE programs popping up now, which is why (Beaverton School District) is engaging in district-level advisory committees,” Weir said. “We have three construction programs now … (and Merlo Station) will be the magnet school for many reasons. It also houses our re-engagement program, Passages. The hope is that by making this a magnet construction tech program we open it to community students and students who are re-engaging through Passages and that in itself becomes dropout prevention – having something where students can see themselves in careers.”

Moreover, the magnet program is intended to specifically appeal to girls and minorities – groups that have traditionally been underrepresented in the construction industry.

Merlo Station over the summer hosted a middle school trades exploration camp for incoming seventh, eighth and ninth grade students. Students interested in the trades were offered a primer on potential careers. They even got hands-on experience constructing wooden formwork and pouring concrete through a series of curb replacement projects at the school district’s headquarters.

Right now, Merlo Station is ramping up its instruction. The full magnet program will include a lot more when it begins in fall 2020.

“We’re going to focus on framing and exposure to trades,” Hauben said. “We’re going to have welding equipment even, and next year we’re really going to be hitting the ground running. This year it’s about getting these students graduating this year some soft skills and placement into apprenticeship programs if they desire it.”

Few of the students taking Hauben’s course this year intend to pursue careers in construction. Some said they consider it an opportunity to learn life skills.

“I can use this in later life, not as a career, but it could be just things that are in everyday use,” Merlo Station senior Sean Peter said. “If I need to build something in my home, instead of paying somebody else to do it for me, I can do it myself. My dad always tells me to learn some of these basic skills, and he taught me some of those skills in case you buy your own home.”

Junior Eli Portwood wants to become a diesel mechanic. He believes the construction technology course could help him reach that goal.

“I heard the program starts with stuff like this and goes on to welding and electrical, and I find that useful information,” he said. “I figure since I’m here I might as well take it.”
Hauben is excited about the possibilities to be found in an expanded construction and trades course.

“It’s really my hope that as this program gets off the ground that we can go to these industry leaders and say, ‘Hey, this student excels. Keep an eye out where can you place a person with these types of skills.’” he said. “But we have to develop those types of relationships and the reputation of the students that come out of here.”

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