Nike Employee Grant Fund of The Oregon Community Foundation awards OTI

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Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. (OTI) has received a generous $15,000 grant from the Nike Employee Grant Fund of The Oregon Community Foundation to support OTI’s Building Girls program’s Building Girls Working Together – a trades work experience in which low—income young women learn the value of on-the-job training and the rewards and benefits of a trades careers within an all-female learning environment.

“We are thrilled to receive this gift from The Nike Employee Grant Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation and are honored for their support of our program to introduce young women to careers they may not have otherwise ever considered possible,” said Katie Yablonsky, Building Girls Program Manager at OTI. “The curriculum of our program not only offers young women basic building and construction skills, but they will also receive various life-skills training to assist them in many aspects of their adult life such as nutrition, financial planning, and self-defense,” Yablonsky concluded.

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OTI’s Building Girls Work Crew addresses the lack of trades careers education and training for young women. For four weeks, low-income participants, ages 16-24, will work 3 days per week alongside skilled and experienced tradeswomen. The curriculum focuses on the proper and safe usage of power tools, lifting heavy supplies and tools, framing walls, installing metal roofing, and safety etiquette, all in a positive and supportive environment. Participants will gain the physical skills, self-esteem, and confidence necessary for a career previously considered non-traditional for women.

In addition to the hands-on experiences, the Building Girls Work Crew also provides education in nutrition, self-defense, financial management, resume writing, job-search skills, and typical job expectations. These wrap-around services will assist young women in developing the skills necessary to be successful in the workplace, whether they decide to enter a trades apprenticeship, entry-level trades job, or a non-trades career.

OTI is dedicated to promoting success for women in the trades through education, leadership, and mentorship. OTI is grounded in the principles that women deserve and can attain economic self-sufficiency through pursuing careers in the building, mechanical, electrical, utility, and highway construction trades while helping and encouraging the industry at large to build a diverse workforce.

Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. thanks the employees of Nike and the Oregon Community Foundation for this generous gift!

MANUFACTURING ROUNDTABLE EVENT

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Overview

The manufacturing industry is projected to need to replace more than 30,000 workers in the next decade, and increasing diversity within the industry is critical to ensure companies have access to the skilled, talented labor required for this important sector of our local economy. Manufacturing in Portland is comprised of more than 107,000 jobs, making up 11% of Portland’s total workforce. In Oregon, overall, 26% of our GDP comes from manufacturing.

On Wednesday, April 22nd, Bank of America and Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. convened a group of 22 manufacturing industry executives to introduce them to OTI’s forthcoming Women in Metals & Manufacturing program and to learn from them what they are looking for in an entry level worker.

During the 90 minute discussion, OTI learned firsthand from representatives from local manufacturing firms about 4 broad buckets of work to address prior to launching the new Women in Metals & Manufacturing program:

1) Input on the curriculum & framework of this new manufacturing program
2) Ideas about how to recruit for the program, create awareness, and market the program
3) How local manufacturing employers can be a part of the program with things like site visits, guest speakers & hands-on training opportunities,
4) How to facilitate connections to women role-models who are successful in their manufacturing careers

Oregon Tradeswomen also learned more about what skills are necessary for entry level employment in the industry and career advancement, and overwhelmingly, those industry representatives echoed the following skills:

  • Mechanical aptitude
  • Safety minded
  • Ability to learn and apply learning
  • Keen attention to detail
  • Great attitude / Enthusiastic
  • Teamwork Oriented
  • Respectful
  • Driven

The Structure of the Women in Metals & Manufacturing program:

The Women in Metals & Manufacturing program will consist of two parts:

  1. A one day, hands-on orientation session which introduces women to metals and manufacturing careers, pathways into these careers, and a hands-on activity designed to allow women to experience activities common in manufacturing jobs in order for participants to assess their level of interest and/or their ability to keep pace with the demands of a manufacturing career.
  1. A two-week program modeled on Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc.’s nationally recognized
    pre-apprenticeship program, Women in Metals & Manufacturing will offer:

    • Education and training in shop math
    • Blueprint reading
    • Worksite expectations
    • Developing a manufacturing resume
    • Hands-on training activities
    • Mentoring from women who are successful in a manufacturing career
    • Field trips to local manufacturing companies
    • Hands-on training in workshop safety and the safe operation of manual/computerized machines and precision tools
    • Graduates will receive job placement assistance and vocational case management services upon program completion.

Timeline:

Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc.’s program staff will be distilling the feedback we received at this roundtable to help inform the curriculum of our Women in Metals & Manufacturing program. The new program is slated to launch in August 2015 with an orientation, and then the 2 week intensive training will be offered in early September.

Input Survey:

Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. welcomes additional feedback from the manufacturing industry to help inform our forthcoming program. If you would like to contribute, please download our survey and return it to:

Dennise M. Kowalczyk
Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc.
3934 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Ste.# 101
Portland OR 97212

 

 

Reward OTI with your Fred Meyer Points

Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. is now part of the Fred Meyer Community Rewards program! Now when you do your shopping at Fred Meyer stores, you can link your rewards card to OTI and contribute to a quarterly donation!

Screen shot 2015-04-24 at 1.34.40 PMFred Meyer is donating $2.5 million per year to non-profits in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington, based on where their customers tell them to give. Here’s how the program works:

• Sign up for the Community Rewards program by linking your Fred Meyer Rewards Card to OTI at www.fredmeyer.com/communityrewards. You can search for us by our name or by our non-profit number (87334).

• Then, every time you shop and use your Rewards Card, you are helping Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. earn a donation!

• You still earn your Rewards Points, Fuel Points, and Rebates, just as you do today.

• If you do not have a Rewards Card, they are available at the Customer Service desk of any Fred Meyer store.

 

Pacific Power Awards Grant to OTI

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Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. is pleased to announce a $5,000 grant awarded by Pacific Power Foundation for our Pathways to Success program.

The foundation awards grants to nonprofit organizations in the categories of education; civic and community betterment; culture and arts; and health, welfare and social services.

With a focus on apprenticeship, our Pathways to Success program offers the Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class (TACC). It is a 7-week, pre-apprenticeship training class that helps women prepare for a high skill, high wage career in construction.

This generous award will help fund student support services, such as books, work boots, tools, rain gear, and bus vouchers and assist staff in placing our students in trades careers and apprenticeships as well as develop relationships with local employers. Students graduate from the state-certified program with everything they need to start working in the trades, from to tools and work boots.

Learn more about our TAC Class or sign up for an information session about the class, the first step to enrollment in the program.

OTI thanks Pacific Power Foundation for its support of our program!

 

New Seminars for Educators and Employers at the Women in Trades Career Fair

OTI's 2015 Women in Trades Career Fair

 

In addition to providing learning opportunities for students and job seekers at the Women in Trades Career Fair, Oregon Tradeswomen is proud to announce a new seminar series taking place on May 14th for educators, employers, and career guidance counselors.  In Apprenticeship 101, teachers and career guidance counselors will learn the basics about “the other 4-year degree” and how to help students successfully prepare for a meaningful career in the trades.

Employers, apprenticeship trainers, community college educators, and CTE professionals will be interested in attending Recruiting Women and Girls to Apprenticeship and Career & Technical Education (CTE)  —  an introduction to practical techniques used to increase the number of women and girls in traditionally male-dominated industries.

Our seminars for practitioners will take place right in the middle of all of the action at the Fair.  In addition to learning in a classroom setting from expert apprenticeship trainers and Oregon Tradeswomen’s founder and executive director, seminar attendees will receive a guided tour of the Women in Trades Career Fair.  They’ll also participate in hands-on workshops alongside the 1,000+ students that attend the Fair every year, and get to view the fun and inspiring Tradeswomen Work-Wear Fashion Show. Oregon Tradeswomen is also honored that Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian will join our group at the end of the day for a Q&A session for seminar attendees!

Whether you are a teacher or guidance counselor who’d like to learn the basics of apprenticeship, or you’re an industry veteran interested in learning more about diversifying your workforce, we know that you’ll learn a lot at the Women in Trades Career Fair Practitioner Seminars, and you’ll leave inspired by the energy of the tradeswomen and girls that make this event so special.

Register by clicking the purple button below:

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AmazonSmile

Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. is excited to announce another way to support OTI!

AmazonSmile is a program where Amazon donates 0.5% of the purchase price of eligible products to OTI. Visit AmazonSmile to shop for your favorite books and support your favorite non-profit organization!

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Get Involved in the 2015 Women in Trades Career Fair

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Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc.’s Women in Trades Career Fair is our largest (and most fun!) event of the year. With more than 30 interactive, hands-on workshops, it is a great way for girls and women to discover a future career. We serve about 2,000 women and girls over the course of three days. Without the help of volunteers, OTI wouldn’t be able to put on this event each year. Volunteers keep the event running smoothly and help with a variety of tasks. More than 100 volunteers cover 175+ shifts. Last year a volunteer commented on their participation in the Fair:

“I could tell that I was really needed to help the workshops run smoothly. There are a lot of schools in the building all at once and my presence let the workshop leaders do their job – teaching the girls. This was one of the better volunteer experiences I have had and I can’t wait to come back next year! Plus, you get lunch and really cool t-shirt.”

Please sign up to join the ranks of people who volunteer during the Women in Trades Career Fair and help us produce another fantastic  event in 2015.

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Guest Blog: Shaley Howard

Shaley Howard is a tireless supporter of Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc.. She has immense creativity, amazing energy, and she recently embarked on a little campaign to raise awareness and support for our mission. So…. we asked Shaley to contribute a guest blog post to share more about her generous efforts. We hope you enjoy Shaley’s inspiring words and these wonderful images.

Thank you, Shaley!

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Why I Support Oregon Tradeswomen

Oregon Tradeswomen (OTI) is hands down one of my favorite non-profit organizations of all time! As a woman and self identified butch lesbian, I personally have found myself marginalized throughout my lifetime. And whether it’s some form of sexual discrimination or homophobia, I’m familiar with living in an intolerant, often ignorant world that tries to dictate what a woman’s role should be both personally and professionally. Luckily I was raised by a strong, intelligent, professional mother, four obnoxiously assertive and opinionated sisters and am surrounded daily by loads of powerful and strong-minded female friends. So the idea that any woman is pre-assigned a particular role or vocation in the world is asinine to me – and OTI.

I first learned about OTI when my friend Amy James Neel began teaching there years ago. I honestly had never heard of OTI before she started there, but the more I learned about the organization, the more I loved it.  An all female run organization that brings in women from all walks of life, teaches them skills in the trades and then find them living wage jobs – that’s huge. I also know how important it is for children to have positive, strong and working parents as role models. OTI gives women the ability to obtain high wage paying jobs in the trades, enables them to provide for their families and show their kids that a woman can do anything a man can do. If we want to fight poverty, racism and sexism and to teach women skills that are applicable to the world we live in and give them above average living wages – then give them a support system like OTI has in place and make sure they are able to get and keep jobs.

As someone who doesn’t actually work at OTI yet whole-heartedly supports them, the best thing I can do is help raise awareness about what they offer to women and our community. Over the years I’ve tried to come up with creative ideas – anything from making my birthday a big OTI fundraiser to volunteering at their Women in the Trades Fair to writing blogs about OTI for PQ Monthly. I’ve also brought in coffee, cupcakes and other goodies for the hardworking women that work there – if anyone deserves the occasional treat it’s these women.

My latest idea came when I was lucky enough to be selected to be on a Timbers billboard for the Portland Timbers Football Club. I thought since the image is me looking all super tough and warrior like, what better way to shout to the world who the REAL strong warriors are – the women of OTI. So I put a challenge out to anyone and everyone who took a selfie in front of my billboard, posted it and donated to OTI – I would in turn donate $5 myself. And it seems to be working! Not only are we raising some money for OTI but perhaps more importantly we’re spreading the word about all the amazing things OTI does. Hopefully the next time I’m randomly talking about OTI I won’t get the question – what is OTI?

If anyone wants to take the Timbers billboard selfie challenge it’s located at Sandy and Burnside and NE 12th.

I cannot thank all the women of OTI enough for all you do for women and our community. Go on with your badass warrior selves and change the world!

Wells Fargo Awards Grant to OTI

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Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. is pleased to announce a $2,500 grant awarded by Wells Fargo for our Pathways to Success program.

With a focus on apprenticeship, the Pathways to Success program offers the Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class (TACC). It is a 7-week, pre-apprenticeship training class that helps women prepare for a high skill, high wage career in construction.

Upon graduation, OTI career counselors assist TACC graduates with their job search and application to apprenticeship training programs. OTI career counselors also provide individualized employment counseling throughout the entire course of the graduate’s trades career.

Learn more about our TAC Class or sign up for an information session about the class, the first step to enrollment in the program.

OTI thanks Wells Fargo for its support of our program!

A new way to support OTI: Donate Your Car!

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Charity Connections is a program run by Volunteers of America Oregon, a nonprofit social services agency providing a hand up to more than 17,000 men, women and children in our community.

It supports more than 200 of Oregon’s top rated charities by processing their vehicle donations by working closely with a local auction house to get the most out of the donation for the designated nonprofit.

By donating your vehicle you will save yourself the hassle and expense of selling your vehicle. At the same time, you will be supporting a cause that you are passionate about: helping girls and women explore their opportunities to pursue living wage jobs in the trades. When you donate your car, boat, motor home, or motorcycle, Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. will greatly benefit from your donation.

This kind of donation is a substantial gift and will help offset costs in our programs that empower women to learn about working in the trades.  Visit Charity Connections to make your donation. Thank you!

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