Empowering Women in Trades with the Expansion of She Built This City

Why this investment?

In Mecklenburg County, as elsewhere, women of color were disproportionately hit by job losses caused by the pandemic. Forty percent of the labor force is female but women made up 58 percent of the unemployment claims. Many of the industries that have experienced the largest layoffs, such as hospitality, leisure, education, and health, were heavily dominated by female workers. These economic shocks contributed to longstanding disparities, since low-income women of color face many barriers to accessing good-paying jobs and career pathways, including jobs in male-dominated fields and skilled trades. 

Guided by an equity lens, Mecklenburg County included workforce development among its five priorities for ARPA funding, including a focus on removing barriers for disproportionately impacted workers, and issued a request for proposals from community organizations and government agencies. In a competitive grant process, She Built This City applied for—and successfully received—a $540,413 grant to expand its Women in the Trades Pre-Apprenticeship Training Program to 160 additional participants, and to provide participants with wraparound services to remove barriers to employment such as child care, transportation, and technology. Based on the success of the initial funding, She Built This City received an additional $250,00 ARPA allocation in 2024.

Founded by Demi Knight Clark in 2019, who had spent 20 years in the construction industry and experienced firsthand the lack of diverse representation in skilled trade positions, She Built This City is a nonprofit that provides workforce development programming to women, youth, and marginalized communities to reduce institutional barriers in construction and skilled trades. During the pandemic, She Built This City was able to innovate and respond to the needs of the most impacted communities in Mecklenburg County, which drew in local attention and supported the organization’s growth. “COVID came and changed everything for us,” Executive Director LaToya Faustin says.”Through innovation, resources and connections, what could have been the downfall of the organization translated into a new purpose of how we connect with people."

What is this investment?

With ARPA funding, She Built This City plans to run three pre-apprenticeship cohorts with wraparound support for a total of 91 participants in 2024. The pre-apprenticeship is a nine-week program that provides students with career exposure and foundational skills to build a career in the construction industry, setting them up to access entry-level employment or a two-year apprenticeship. During the program, attendees learn construction math, tool usage and handling, first aid/CPR, and Google Workspace. They also learn about career opportunities from industry professionals and are given opportunities to go on job site tours. Upon graduation, they receive a pre-apprenticeship certification and an OSHA 10 certification through the North Carolina Community College system.

She Built This City provides wraparound services that address barriers to participation in the career development program. These supports include Chromebooks to ensure they can access online training, job searches, and employment applications; free child care for students attending classes; a light meal during each class; translation services for Spanish speakers; and a weekly stipend of $120 for expenses such as bus fare, child care, and other costs that may restrict students from attending classes.

She Built This City also provides resume support, interview coaching, direct connections to hiring partners, and follow-ups with graduated students to continue supporting them through the job search process and to monitor their progress. With the additional $250,000 in funding, the program will expand by hiring a social worker to help participants and graduates navigate challenges and access necessary resources.

The program’s goals for the pre-apprenticeship participants are that 80 percent will secure a job interview, 75 percent will receive a job offer, and 60 percent will retain employment six months after graduation.

Centering equity in the program

She Built This City hopes to see gender equity in the skilled trades, defined as 50/50 female/male employment by 2030. To accomplish this, Faustin explains that this “looks like developing a pipeline of access and opportunities…we want to see established pathways.” 

While She Built This City focuses on opening up the skilled trades to women, they have expanded their target population to encompass all marginalized communities, to be more firmly grounded in their conception of equity as meeting the needs of all who face exclusion. She Built This City does not exclude anyone who is interested in their programming, and about 10 percent of their students are men. “We do not turn anyone away,” Faustin explains. “So we ensure that anyone who applies for our program has the support they need to be successful, to enter into the skilled trades.”

Representation is fundamental to She Built This City’s approach, and the organization has intentionally worked to hire staff that reflect the communities they serve. Many of their staff were formerly students or were recruited from partner organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity, Dove’s Nest, and the Salvation Army.

To reach the community’s growing Latinx immigrant population, She Built This City has added Spanish language support, including implementing a full Spanish speaking class starting in June 2023. Currently, the organization is working to better support the documentation and systemic support needs for this student population, and has hired a consultant to assist them through the process.

Along with its expansion to new populations, She Built This City has also expanded its geographic reach from its headquarters in West Charlotte to more underserved communities in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, including East Charlotte, Northeast Charlotte, and North Mecklenburg County. She Built This City is also involved in Charlotte’s Corridors of Opportunity Initiative, and over the next two years will be expanding into West Sugar Creek, a high-need area with lack of investments in transportation and employment.

While She Built This City has created an inclusive training program for women of color, the larger labor market these women enter after the program has not shifted. Entry-level wages can be low, and access to affordable, reliable child care and transportation can remain challenging. When participants succeed in getting careers in the trades, they often face discrimination and feel discouraged in a male-dominated field. “There are no quick fixes for decades of history of oppression,” Faustin says. She Built This City staff acknowledge that they may not see results immediately after a student graduates from their programming due to these systemic challenges that have only been exacerbated by the pandemic. But they also stress that they are in it for the long haul and addressing these deep rooted issues will take time.

Outcomes to date

Prior to receiving ARPA funding, She Built This City’s average pre-apprenticeship class size was 15 people. The ARPA funds have allowed the organization to recruit more people and host more classes in different neighborhoods as well as provide additional barrier removal services. With this expansion, they were able to offer day and night classes in four different areas in the City as well as their first all Spanish speaking class. Accordingly, She Built This City’s pre-apprenticeship cohorts grew from 15 students in March of 2023, to 46 students in June of 2023, to 55 students in October of 2023. She Built This City has now reached 143 workers underrepresented in the skilled trades.

Toward transformative change

Mecklenburg County has now adopted She Built This City’s Career Connections Expo, their model for job readiness and entry level interview process, which provides interview skill training and sends participant’s resumes to employer partners. She Built This City has also seen several local organizations increase their focus on the needs of women in the workforce since their launch.

Currently, She Built This City has another year before they finish the ARPA funding expansion of their programming. Internally, the organization is grappling with the next steps for the organization and is considering improvements they can make to better support their graduated students when entering the workforce. One possibility for the future of the organization is considering implementation of a woman-owned construction company that hires She Built This City graduates. Faustin notes, “If we want to see the change in the industry, we may have to be that change to truly make it happen.”

When suggesting strategies for other nonprofits in a similar position, Cover stresses the importance of partnerships with the community and employers to gain “the trust of the community and also the participants in it so they know that you’re not just this outside resource coming in to bring them something, but you’re partnering with them to build a community.”