Providence Reporter

Brown University recently issued the following announcement.

Over 15 years, more than 320 apprentices from Building Futures have trained at dozens of construction sites on Brown’s campus — providing them with the training they need to secure stable, well-paying careers.

After participating in the Building Futures pre-apprenticeship program, Andrew Ortiz now works as a taping apprentice at Brown's Performing Arts Center. All photos: Nick Dentamaro/Brown University

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Not long ago, Christian Domenech had a job, but he didn’t have a career: “I was a non-union carpenter working for a privately owned business,” the Providence resident said. “But what I really wanted was to join a union.”

Domenech was one of the 87% of American construction workers who didn’t belong to a union, according to federal data. Like many non-union workers, he didn’t have a steady stream of guaranteed work, nor did he have comprehensive benefits.

In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic halted construction projects across Rhode Island, some permanently, Domenech decided to make a change. He joined the construction pre-apprenticeship program at Building Futures, a Providence nonprofit that allows Rhode Islanders from all backgrounds to learn the fundamentals of a wide variety of construction trades without paying tuition or incurring debt. After five weeks of classroom and hands-on instruction, Domenech went to work as an apprentice carpenter for Sweeney Drywall. A year later, he completed his apprenticeship, joined the local carpenters’ union and began to enjoy competitive pay and benefits.

Domenech’s workplace since 2020? The site of Brown University’s future Performing Arts Center, slated to open in 2023.

While it’s no secret that new construction at Brown produces state-of-the-art facilities for students, faculty, staff and visitors, it also plays a role in jumpstarting construction careers for Rhode Islanders. Over the last 15 years, more than 320 apprentices hired by Building Futures have logged upwards of 175,000 hours on dozens of projects at Brown — and 108 of them have completed their apprenticeship programs and progressed into well-paying construction careers. Some have even continued to work on campus after mastering their respective trades.

Building Futures President and Executive Director Andrew Cortés explained that registered apprenticeship programs are a powerful engine of economic mobility because they allow people to learn and earn at the same time. Most educational programs require students to pay tuition, and many are tough to juggle alongside a full-time job — thus making them inaccessible to those with low incomes.

But at Building Futures, apprentices make a living wage from the moment they begin their education, including the weeks they spend in classrooms and other training facilities. Then, after a year or more of hands-on training, apprentices become full-time workers and union members, enjoying competitive pay and benefits.

Cortés said the organization, founded in 2007, attributes much of its success to Brown. Its partnership with the University began in the height of the Great Recession, when most capital improvement projects in Rhode Island ground to a halt. Brown was one of the only entities in the state whose projects carried on, Cortés said. 

“We started this with Brown,” Cortés said. “They didn’t just invest in this apprentice utilization program for their own purposes — they gave back to the community. That’s why this partnership is so near and dear to our hearts.”

Inside the construction classroom

At Building Futures headquarters — one corner of a sprawling former mill complex in Providence’s Valley neighborhood — students split their time between classroom learning and hands-on training. On a recent spring day, a union insulator stood at the head of a cavernous classroom, teaching 13 students about insulation materials and methods.

“Would any of you turn down a placement at Brown University?” He asked.

The students shook their heads vigorously. One shouted, “No, sir!” 

Most won’t have to. Cortés estimates that today, close to two thirds of all Building Futures graduates — many of whom are people from low-income households or residents who were formerly incarcerated — spend at least part of their time as apprentices on projects at Brown. Most recently, apprentices have helped complete Brown’s new health and wellness center and residence hall, started work on the in-progress Brook Street residence hall and began to assemble the moveable marvel of a performance space inside the Performing Arts Center. As of March 2022, apprentices had contributed more than 50,000 of the 350,000 worker hours logged at the PAC.

I was searching for a career path. I joined this program because it will help me get union work in a respected industry.

It was in this room that Andrew Ortiz, a recent Building Futures graduate, discovered his specialty of choice: taping. 

“I didn’t even know people could get jobs as tapers,” Ortiz admitted. But after five weeks spent dabbling in several specialties, he found he most enjoyed preparing unfinished drywall for painting, covering wall edges in tape and later putting the finishing touches on a paint job. 

Before Building Futures, Ortiz laid concrete home foundations for a private contractor and faced the same job security struggles as Domenech. Joining Building Futures’ training program, he realized, would allow him to learn a variety of trades at no cost to him, eventually bringing him better job security, higher wages and good benefits. 

“I was searching for a career path,” he said. “I joined this program because it will help me get union work in a respected industry.”

Ortiz now works as an apprentice at the PAC; in less than a year, he’ll become a journey worker and join his local painters’ union.

Chase said the program’s impact can extend well beyond the new skills learned during an apprenticeship, as participants create careers that make a meaningful difference in their lives outside of work.

“A lot of people who come here looking for a shot may not even have a high interest in construction, may not have even played with Legos as kids — but they’re struggling to make ends meet, or they’re looking to do more with their lives,” Chase said. “What we’re able to get across to them here can be really transformative. We have graduates who are now running their own projects, delving into local politics, buying their first homes or even second homes. I don’t think we really anticipated all that.”

Andrew Cortés, right, said he founded Building Futures because it was the pre-apprenticeship program he didn’t know he needed as a teen.

Fourteen years and counting

Cortés said Building Futures was the pre-apprenticeship program he didn’t know he needed as a teen. He grew up in a low-income household in California’s Bay Area and didn’t see the relevance of the high school classroom. Cortés dropped out, opting instead to earn his diploma independently at 16. Then, he said, he found himself working in a series of temporary jobs with no potential for growth.

“I was an early high school graduate who was working full-time in dead-end jobs,” Cortés said. “There are a lot of people stuck in that type of life who want, who need, a pathway to a middle-class life, but they’re broke.”

Being accepted into the Carpenters’ Union apprenticeship program proved to be Cortés’s ticket out of poverty. After earning while learning over his four years of  training, he became a journeyworker. At 19, only halfway through his apprenticeship, he had saved enough money to buy a house . Now, he’s facilitating that same path for many others who want stability without a traditional post-secondary education.

“I had a similar upbringing to many of the people I see coming through this program, and yet, I found a way to buy a house as a teenager, in Berkeley, without going to college,” he said. “I know the apprenticeship program was what made that possible. Being able to guide others to that path is so gratifying.”

When Cortés founded Building Futures, Brown was one of the first institutions he contacted. The University and the nonprofit agreed to try a pilot program, engaging a handful of construction apprentices in a 2008 renovation of what is now Page-Robinson Hall. The pilot was so successful that the two organizations soon signed a memorandum of understanding, agreeing that Building Futures graduates would contribute 15% of the total labor hours on every major campus construction project henceforth.

“It’s thanks to Brown’s partnership with Building Futures that every investment in our physical campus is also an investment in the Providence community,” Brown President Christina H. Paxson said in a visit to the Building Futures site in Spring 2022. “We are proud to play a role in transforming local residents’ lives by giving them a path toward a lucrative career.”

Original source can be found here.