December 4, 2019
Page 5
Harris Photography
503-730-1156
On Site Printing
4x6
5x7
or 8x10
antonioharris@mac.com
4545 N.E. MLK 97211
State Farm R
Portland area residents train in the construction trades thanks to Constructing Hope, a pre-appren-
ticeship program rooted in Portland’s African American community.
Fostering Employment in the Trades
Michael E Harper
Program turns
lives around;
grows support
Providing Insurance
and Financial Services
The city of Portland is invest-
ing $100,000 to help the northeast
Portland nonprofit Constructing
Hope provide construction train-
ing and records expungement for
low-income residents.
The recent grant will pay for
the training of 50 community
members in the skilled construc-
tion trades and add new records
expungement services for people
with a criminal justice history.
“Traditionally, people of color
were disproportionally tarnished
with a criminal record for mi-
nor offenses, including cannabis
possession,” said Pat Daniels,
executive director of Construct-
ing Hope. “So this grant will
have a tremendous impact on
Portland’s communities of col-
or.”
Construction is one of the few
industries that will hire people
with a criminal record, but that
record can bar graduates from
many projects, such as federal-
ly-funded contracts. Construct-
ing Hope will help people reduce
or remove their criminal records
history and secure their driver’s
license in a timely manner.
The grant will help people like
Robert Thomas. When Robert
came to Constructing Hope, he
was struggling to find a life direc-
tion after eight years in the crim-
inal justice system. With custody
of his 10-year-old daughter, it
became even more important to
gain the skills to better not only
his life, but his daughter’s.
Robert completed Construct-
ing Hope’s no-cost, 10-week
pre-apprenticeship program last
December.
“The day the program ended,
I got a call to go to work” as a
first-term ironworker apprentice
with Local 29—earning $22.25
an hour.
With this grant, Robert can
potentially reduce his felony re-
cord to a misdemeanor and qual-
ify for desirable contracts such
as Port of Portland and the Port-
Stepping Up for the Homeless
C ontinued from p age 2
meal.
“I had about 30 people that
contacted me and about 18 who
served,” Harris said. “We put to-
gether a menu and delegated what
everybody would bring. Our goal
was to get people to respond and
spread the word.”
It obviously worked, to every-
one’s delight, and there was more
than enough food to go around.
“They could have as many
servings as they wanted and we
had food left over and to make
sandwiches the next day,” Harris
said.
The shelter at Northeast Mar-
tin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and
Killlingsworth is run by Transi-
tion Projects and was only one
of two of their shelters that did
not have a meal scheduled to be
served on Thanksgiving Day. But
thanks to the added effort, shelter
residents got two Thanksgiving
meals in one week. On Monday,
a Thanksgiving meal was also de-
livered to shelter residents by the
Daniels Memorial Church of God
in Christ.
land airport.”
Last year, Constructing Hope
placed 65 previously unem-
ployed or underemployed Ore-
gonians in new careers with an
average starting wage of $18.50.
Community members from
low-income households seeking
no-cost construction training can
learn more by visiting construct-
inghope.org or call the organiza-
tion at 503-281-1234.
Agent
Home Office, Bloomingon, Illinois 61710
We are located at:
9713 S.W. Capitol, Portland, OR
503-221-3050 • Fax 503-227-8757
michael.harper.cuik@statefarm.com