The construction industry has long suffered from a shortage of skilled tradespeople. In response, Portland-metro design and construction firms, as well as nonprofits, are creating workforce development programs that reach out to populations that have largely been overlooked in the past.

Two such efforts are the EmpowHER and Your Street Your Voice programs offered by Camp ELSO, a community-based nonprofit that uses the natural world to connect children from underrepresented communities to STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) concepts and disciplines.

EmpowHER and Your Street Your Voice are design studios in which students are asked: ‘If you could change one thing in your neighborhood through design, what would it be?’ Jackie Santa Lucia, a former Hacker associate, is the director of both programs. She recently engaged people from Walsh Construction Co., Portland State University’s Center for Public Interest Design and a host of local nonprofits (including Girls Build, The City Repair Project and Youth Power PDX) to offer a community-based design and construction workshop. Industry members helped high school students envision, design and construct planter boxes, decorations and a sizable parklet at Alberta Abbey in Northeast Portland.

“It’s just another way to get the community involved and connected to nature,” Lucia said during the workshop, which took place over two weekends in May and early June. “It is holistic workforce development, I would say. I think the biggest part is that it’s community-centered design, community-centered building and leadership.”

The workshop was designed specifically for female and femme, transgender and nonbinary BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) students and community members. They were taught basic carpentry and building skills during the recent event.

“The goal today is that we’re going to finish 18 raised juniper beds, which were all designed by this group of youth here,” said Afton Walsh, community outreach director for Walsh Construction Co. “And there’s the parklet – it’s a 40-foot-long parklet that was also designed by this youth cohort.”

The Alberta Abbey workshop resulted from collaboration with Your Street Your Voice at Walsh Construction’s Dekum Court project, Walsh said, in which 160 new affordable apartments were added to Home Forward‘s existing 40-unit building. There, LEVER Architecture partnered with Your Street Your Voice to incorporate design features like planter boxes, a community garden and more. Walsh Construction project engineer Laura Waddick liked what she saw and proceeded to create a partnership that led to the Alberta Abbey project.

“Laura did all the material procurement,” Walsh said. “She worked with the PSU students to see what was needed, and she’s coordinating with our equipment yard to get Home Depot runs for the roof panels. The logistics, rounding up the volunteers – she did it all. I just showed up.”

The high school student participants in the workshop worked with PSU School of Architecture students to design the parklet as a medicinal and mental health space, said Molly Esteve, design director for The City Repair Project and a PSU instructor.

“They really promoted those two things as a way to build community,” she said. “It’s going to be a classroom as well as an engagement space, and then a public space as well. The gardens will be out front and you’ll be able to use this space for all kinds of things.”

Another unique aspect of the workshop was a donation of juniper lumber by Sustainable Northwest Wood, a for-profit subsidiary of the Sustainable Northwest nonprofit that supports small mills in rural communities. The juniper on hand at Alberta Abbey was sourced from trees planted in eastern Oregon as part of landscape restoration efforts. It’s not normally grown for lumber because of its relatively small size and irregular shape. But juniper has superior rot resistance qualities and attractive grain.

“It’s a little squirrely and has some interesting personality to it,” said Sustainable Northwest Wood sales associate Lynn Morgan, who helped guide students as they worked with the wood. “I did a little bit of coaching, because making something out of it, it’s got a little bowing, a little twisting, lots of character, so we just push them out of the gate a little bit like making sure they pre-drill everything so the wood doesn’t split. I just enjoy the process. It’s fun to see the collaboration and cooperation and just everybody having a good time.”

Liliana Gomez, a student at David Douglas High School in Southeast Portland, took a break from building planter boxes to share how much she was enjoying the sunny afternoon learning about construction. She was encouraged to attend, she said, in part because she has family members who work in the industry.

“Yeah, I am (enjoying it),” she said. “I’m having a lot of fun. My dad, he works in construction. He’s been teaching me how to use tools and everything.”

Esteve noted that it makes sense to ask young people to design park spaces intended for their use.

“This group of youth are so good at seeing things intersectionally and describing them that way and then building off of that,” she said. “We’ve seen them really understand how you’re not talking about one piece when you’re talking about a community; you’re talking about all these different pieces and then how do they fit together into one design scheme. That’s why you’re seeing something that’s really flexible and also really accessible.”

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