Scholarships Available! 2015 Women Building the Nation

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Women Building the Nation is offering two $500 scholarship for tradeswomen under the age of 35 to attend the 2015 conference! This is an amazing opportunity to join 1,000 other tradeswomen in L.A.  We have strength in numbers! Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. is able to select up to two tradeswomen to be recipients of the scholarships. While these scholarships will not cover the entire cost, we hope that they will help get two women to the conference!

Scholarship applications are due to Tiffany, Advocacy Program Manager no later than Thursday, March 12, 2015.

Scholarship recipients must:

  • Submit an application to OTI no later than Thursday, March 12
  • Be under the age of 35
  • Be a first time attendee to Women Building the Nation
  • Be a graduate and/or current member of OTI
  • Contribute a one-page write up about what you got out of the conference and why it was a valuable experience (within 2 weeks of conference end)
  • Return receipts after the conference to demonstrate costs

One-page write ups are really important for Women Building the Nation to send to funders and sponsors so they understand the value and impact of their contributions. Plus, it helps OTI demonstrate the need to future attendees!

Download Scholarship Application

More information about 2015 Women Building the Nation

Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class Graduation – March 2015

TACC Graduates - December 2014

Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. cordially invites you to attend the Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class Graduation!

Date:
Thursday, March 12, 2015

Time:
5:30 – 6:30 pm

Location:
The Auditorium,
PCC Metro Workforce Training Center
5600 NE 42nd Avenue
Portland OR 97218

Name of Graduate and Trade Goal:

Katy “Kat” Adishian — Tree Trimmer
Elizabeth “Liz” Blalock — Carpenter
Amy Buffaloe — Welder
Jennifer Burns — Electrician
Emily Hannigan — Carpenter
Anna “Donka” Hardy — Carpenter
Katie Kuchta — Carpenter
Katie Lee — Heavy Equipment Operator
Jenefer Nickel — Carpenter
Brittany “Britt” Smyton — Carpenter
Marci Szlavich — Electrician
Dulce Valenzuela — Carpenter
Mandy Warner-Olsen — Sheet Metal
Alexandra “Alie” Wettstein — Carpenter
Sarah Winans — Tree Trimmer

Juan Young Trust Awards Grant to OTI

Juan Young Trust
Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. is pleased to announce the recent award of $7,500 from the Juan Young Trust for our Building Girls program. In this award cycle, the Eastern Division of the Trust received 43 applications requesting over $411,000. Their grant budget was $200,000.

Our goals for the Building Girls program for 2014-2015 are to serve over 1,600 girls through both hands-on and other educational activities through the Building Girls program. The program encourages middle and high school girls to view careers in construction as exciting and viable options through positive skills coaching, exposure to female role models, career pathways guidance and supervised hands-on construction experiences, well as fun and practical math skill-building activities. Building Girls efforts include five youth initiatives: School-Based Activities, School Partnerships & Collaborations, Women in Trades Career Fair Girls’ Days, Building Girls Construction Summer Camp, and Building Girls Work Crew.

Nationally, women continue to make up less than 3% of the construction workforce. In Oregon, female apprentices are on the rise, but still only 5.9% are women. Apprenticeship, paid-on-the-job training, is the way in which most workers access living wage careers in the building and construction, trades. Not only are fewer women accessing apprenticeship programs, fewer girls are enrolling in career/technical classes. The number of young women enrolled in professional technical classes continues to be far below the number of young men, though Title IX opened the doors of “shop” classes to young women in 1972. Reaching young women while they are still in school and before they decide upon a future career path is critical for the future trades workforce, as well as for the trades industry employers.

New Member Benefit: Clinton Street Theater!

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Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. is thrilled to announce a new benefit for members of OTI:  two for one entry into general screenings at the historic Clinton Street Theater in Southeast Portland!

The mission of the theater to support the community through the power of independent film and live events. They accomplish this by creating a safe and welcoming environment where people can be true to themselves while learning about the world around them. They value direct contact with each other in an effort to build a collective, social experience, encouraging a world rich with diversity and unique points of view.

A landmark of Portland cinema history, The Clinton Street Theater is one of the oldest operating movie houses in the United States.  Opening in 1915 as the Clinton, the theater became the 26th Avenue Theatre in 1945 and the Encore in 1969. In 1976 it reverted to its original name.

Famous for its long-standing exhibition of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, the theater is currently a magnet for independent / revival films. In April of 2012, the Clinton Street Theater was purchased by Roger and Lani Jo Leigh. It has a revolving cast of volunteers and film freaks who enjoy helping support its existence. Most recently, the CST has been visited by local celebrities Chuck Pahlhinuk, Tom Potter and Gus Van Sant.

Click here for showtimes and other information.  OTI thanks the Clinton Street Theater for its support of our work in the community! Make sure you have a current OTI membership card when you to check out a screening as you need it in order to get the buy one, get one free entry.

See you at the movies!

 

This May in Los Angeles: Pre-Apprenticeship Training Institute

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Attention pre-apprenticeship program trainers and professionals!

With growing national focus on and funding for apprenticeship, pre-apprenticeship training programs will become an increasingly important first step in the construction careers ladder. The 2nd Annual Pre-Apprenticeship Training Institute will provide an opportunity for pre-apprenticeship practitioners to network with their peers from around the country and learn from a variety of experienced trainers.

Join your colleagues and peers to discuss the opportunities, challenges, and best practices for creating pre-apprenticeship programs that help all members of your community enter and benefit from apprenticeship and skilled construction trades occupations.

The Pre-Apprenticeship Training Institute is hosted by the State Construction and Building Trades Council of California, and planned by pre-apprenticeship program staff and policy experts from around the nation.  It will take place one day prior to the Women Building the Nation conference, which pre-apprenticeship institute attendees are also encouraged to attend.

Professionals encouraged to attend include:

  • Apprenticeship Training Directors and Coordinators
  • Pre-Apprenticeship Program Managers and Frontline Staff (Instructors, Outreach Coordinators, Case Mangers and Job Developers)
  • National Workforce Development Agencies
  • Tradeswomen Volunteers and Mentors. (Note: The Pre-Apprenticeship Training Institute is designed for practitioners, NOT for pre-apprenticeship students.)

Attendees can register for either or both events here.   The Pre-Apprenticeship Training Institute registration page is here.

The Jim & Dianna Murphy Fund of The Oregon Community Foundation

Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. is pleased to announce a recent grant award from the Jim & Dianna Murphy Fund of The Oregon Community Foundation.

The $10,000 award is for programs that encourage girls and women to explore careers in transportation and trucking.  The Jim & Dianna Murphy Fund makes charitable donations for the creation of or support of opportunities and programs that introduce individuals to vocational careers, with a preference for those related to the commercial trucking industry. Programs that focus on high school students, people who are being retrained for new careers and veterans are preferred.

The mission of The Oregon Community Foundation is to improve life in Oregon and promote effective philanthropy. It works with individuals, families, businesses and organizations to create charitable funds — more than 1,700 of them — that support the community causes they care about. These funds support the critical work that nonprofits are doing across Oregon. Through these funds, OCF annually awards more than $60 million in grants and scholarships.

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AGC Presidents Award

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Pictured left to right:  2014 AGC Chapter President Steve Malany, Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc.’s Executive Director Connie Ashbrook, Judy Betts with Hamilton Construction and Rhonnda Parsons Edmiston of Howard S. Wright.

OTI and other community partners received awards from the Association of General Contractors (AGC) for our construction workforce activities. Thank you, AGC!

Partner Spotlight: R & H Construction

OTI works with many wonderful employers in the area and periodically, we will be shining the spotlight on one of them!

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This month, we are featuring R & H Construction.  The company has been building successful commercial construction projects throughout the Pacific Northwest since 1979. Locally owned and operated, R&H specializes in adding value to complex, quality driven and time sensitive jobs. With a diverse portfolio ranging from small remodels to large-scale corporate headquarters, R&H takes an individualized approach to each job, while upholding our company-wide commitment to providing an exceptional customer experience.

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OTI has worked with one of their employees, Dennis Cleaver.  He has been very supportive in talking with our Pathways participants about careers in construction and very generous in allowing us to conduct field trips to various sites. Thank you, Dennis!

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Here are a couple of photos taken at a recent field trip:

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We also offer the company congratulations on their recent award of the 2014 ROSE Awards presented by the AGC Oregon Columbia Chapter!

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January 2015 – Oh, what a month!

A full house!

A full house at our 2015 Annual Meeting

All kinds of love headed OTI’s way since my last post about such matters.  It is so thrilling to hear from our members how much they love OTI and how they join us in our collective vision to help women pursue work in the trades.

At our recent annual meeting, we visited with almost 70 attendees to talk about what we did accomplish over the past year and all the great opportunity that is available to us in 2015.

Please visit our Facebook page to see more photos from our Annual Meeting!

 

Our accomplishments for 2014 include:

• 79 women graduated from our Pathways pre-apprenticeship program in 2014.
• We helped 88 women get their first job in the trades or move up to apprenticeship.
• 75 graduates landed their first job in the trades with an average hourly wage of $15.18.
• 1441 girls and educators attended our annual Women in Trades Career Fair.
• 76 girls attended our Summer Girls Construction Camp through our Building Girls program.

We also gave away great raffle prizes!  Thanks to Portland Spirit, Tradeswomen, Inc., Miss Zumstein Bakery & Coffee Shop, Ristretto Roasters, and Hankins Hardware for donating some really sweet prizes. A special shout out of thanks to Doris, our amazing volunteer, who did the work at getting most of these goodies into our hands.

Connie (Executive Director) & Meghan (Board Member)

Connie (Executive Director) & Meghan (Board Member)

We received great news from these foundations as they sent us very generous support for our various programs:

  • NW Health Foundation – $50,000 – Building Equity – Creating a Construction Culture that Supports Women and People of Color
  • The Autzen Foundation- $3,000 – Building Girls
  • The Jim & Dianna Murphy Fund of The Oregon Community Foundation – $10,000 – Supporting programs that encourage girls and women to explore careers in transportation and trucking

THANK YOU!!!

I had the pleasure of hand delivering several certificates of appreciation to a few of our long-time sponsors of our annual career fair. I visited with NW Natural, RR Donnelley, PacifiCorp and Gunderson.

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Our 2015 Career Fair is taking place May 14 – 16 — learn more here!

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If you wish to make a tax-deductible donation to OTI today in order to support our efforts to promote success for women and girls in the trades through education, leadership, and mentorship, please click here – thank you!

— Dennise M. Kowalczyk (Development Director)

Wire a Light Workshop – An Introduction to the Electrical Trade

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Wire a Light Workshop – An Introduction to the Electrical Trade

Monday, February 23, 2015
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Register by calling Abby at 503.335.8200 x 33

Location:
Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc.
3934 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., #101,
Portland Oregon 97212

WORKSHOP FOR WOMEN:
Electricians enjoy satisfying careers and earn up to $40 per hour at the end on-free apprenticeship. Come learn how to wire a circuit, meet electricians from the industry, and find out how you can apply for this opportunity.