WANTO Grant Award: 9-30-03

GRANTEE:

Northern New England Tradeswomen, Inc.
51 Park Street
Essex Junction, VT 05452

SUMMARY:

Northern New England Tradeswomen (NNETW) will pursue four strategies to increase the rates at which women in Vermont and New Hampshire enter and remain in the skilled trades:

• Provide individualized technical assistance to employers and labor unions to assist them in their efforts to hire and retain women in nontraditional occupations.
• Make effective use of the industry's infrastructure to influence attitudes and enhance opportunities for women exploring or pursuing trades-related work.
• Furthering develop its website, thus improving NNETW's capacity to connect rural tradeswomen to one another and to employers.
• Pilot two unique apprenticeship initiatives in modular home construction and historic preservation at the state's new prison for women in Windsor, Vermont.

WANTO Grant Award: 9-30-03

GRANTEE:

Nontraditional Employment for Women
243 West 20th Street
New York, NY 10011

SUMMARY:

With the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan and the Ground Zero site, thousands more construction workers will be needed in New York City. In order to assist employers and labor unions recruit, place, and retain women construction workers for these and other projects in the city, NEW will provide the following technical services to employers and labor unions:

• Trade-specific, targeted outreach and recruitment efforts tailored to deliver job-ready women for possible employment.
• An employment "incubator" model for placing women in large-scale construction projects such as those planned for Lower Manhattan and Ground Zero. Instead of placing a woman in a particular trade in which she would work for multiple employers according to job availability, a new tradeswoman would be placed with one employer/contractor on the mega-project site.
• Expansion of its computerized Tradeswomen's Registry of NEW training program graduates and working tradeswomen, to assist in placement of qualified candidates in available construction jobs.

WANTO Grant Award: 9-30-03

GRANTEE:

Women's Resource Center
678 Front Ave., N.W., Suite 180
Grand Rapids, MI 49504

SUMMARY:

The Women's Resource Center (WRC) New Tradition project will create new technical assistance products and services for job creators throughout Michigan, with a focus on West Michigan. WRC will provide customized technical assistance to employers and labor unions to improve their recruitment, hiring, and retention practices involving women in nontraditional jobs. Technical assistance services will also reach a wider audience through several strategies, including WRC's continued and expanded use of the Internet to deliver its technical assistance services.

Where advancement of women is identified as an issue, WRC will develop targeted leadership development services to employers and women employees, enabling employers to meet their employee retention and organizational leadership needs while also benefiting employed tradeswomen and other women in nontraditional jobs.

WANTO Grant Award: 9-30-03

GRANTEE:

Chicago Women in Trades
1657 West Adams Street, Suite 401
Chicago, IL 60612

SUMMARY:

Chicago Women in Trades (CWIT) will provide technical assistance and support to unions, apprenticeship programs, and tradeswomen as part of its Women's Apprenticeship Growth and Equality (WAGE) program. Through WAGE, CWIT will facilitate recruitment and preparation of more women for the plumbers, sheet metal workers, drywall finishers, bricklayers, laborers, and elevator constructors apprenticeship programs. The project will also focus on tradeswomen retention and support. WAGE will enable more women to reach self-sufficiency through employment in high-wage, high-skill opportunities in the construction sector.

WANTO Grant Award: 9-30-03

GRANTEE:

Area Resources for Community
and Human Services
4236 Lindell Blvd., Suite 400
St. Louis, MO 63108

SUMMARY:

The Reentry Project of Area Resources for Community and Human Services (ARCHS) will assist women being released from prison to achieve and maintain employment in apprenticeship and nontraditional occupations. Pre-release services will be coordinated with Greenville Federal Prison to give women the tools they need to enter apprenticeship in industries ranging from cabinetmaking to computer maintenance. ARCHS will provide technical assistance, training, and support to participating employers and labor unions to prepare them to recruit and retain these women in apprenticeship and nontraditional occupations.

After successful completion of pre-apprenticeship training, women will be placed in apprenticeship or given the option of beginning entry-level employment in order to establish a successful recent work history. ARCHS will provide case management, mentors, job coaches, and other support services to ensure that women are able to overcome obstacles associated with acclimating to work. Once a reasonable level of stability has been attained, women who were placed in entry-level employment will be placed in nontraditional occupations.

WANTO Grant Award: 9-30-03

GRANTEE:

Montana Job Training Partnership
302 N. Last Chance Gulch, Suite 409
Helena, MT 59601

SUMMARY:

The Montana Job Training Partnership (MJTP) will provide technical assistance to employers and labor unions geared towards the successful placement and retention of women in apprenticeship and nontraditional occupations. MJTP aims to create a sustainable system that will allow employers and labor unions to better develop and administer their own employment and training programs.

MJTP will provide targeted and far-reaching outreach, recruitment, and orientation sessions and will identify and address participant and employer training needs and barriers to meeting these needs. MJTP will also provide ongoing orientation of and liaison with employers, labor unions, and tradeswomen to cultivate environments for success.

WANTO Grant Award: 9-30-03

GRANTEE:

Tradeswomen, Inc.
2485 West 14th St.
Oakland, CA 94607

SUMMARY:

Tradeswomen, Inc. (TWI) will provide a comprehensive technical assistance program to employers and labor unions to enable them to increase their success in recruiting and retaining women in apprenticeship and on the job. TWI's partners include public utility companies, mega-project general contractors, a public housing developer, a general contractor, and two key union apprenticeship programs.

Technical assistance to enhance recruitment efforts will include providing guidance for targeting outreach and orientations; skills training and support services for potential recruits; linkages to female graduates; development of a local computerized database referral system; and monthly support groups for pre-apprentice women.

Technical assistance to increase retention rates will include ongoing evaluations, consultations and mediations; support groups; interviews with women working on the projects; and exit interviews for those women who leave the field.

WANTO Grant Award: 9-30-03

GRANTEE:

Women in Non-Traditional Employment Roles
3447 Atlantic Ave., Suite 230
Long Beach, CA 90807

SUMMARY:

Women in Non-Traditional Employment Roles (WINTER) will provide customized services to employer and labor union partners to prepare them to provide opportunities for women in apprenticeship and nontraditional occupations. The project targets large industries which offer high-paying jobs and employ a low percentage of women.

WINTER will assist the companies, unions, and apprenticeship programs to develop strategic plans to recruit and hire well-prepared women to enter their industries. The project's goals are to develop an advisory group to create a strategic plan for each partner; assist the partner in meeting its goals through quarterly training and monthly individual technical assistance; and outreach about training and employment opportunities to 1,000 women who live in Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities.

WANTO Grant Award: 9-30-03

GRANTEE:

Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc.
1714 N.E. Alberta St.
Portland, OR 97211

SUMMARY:

The Oregon Tradeswomen (OT) Portland Pathways to Success program will assist Oregon and Washington employer and labor union partners to successfully recruit, place, and retain women in jobs and apprenticeships leading to the skilled trades. The project will build permanent systems that can have a profound, lasting impact.

OT will create effective marketing materials to help its employer/labor union partners attract women to training and apprenticeship programs. Its pre-apprenticeship program will provide them with women who are prepared to succeed on the job. Technical assistance, support groups, and mentoring programs will assist them in improving retention of women.

WANTO Grant Award: 9-30-03

GRANTEE:

HRC, Inc.
1015 Check Street
Wasilla, Alaska 99654

SUMMARY:

Human Resources (HRC) will develop and administer an Alaska WANTO program designed to assist employers and labor unions in the placement and retention of women nontraditional occupations. Technical assistance to employers and labor unions will include:

• Providing outreach and orientation services for women. HRC will recruit, assess, and deliver career counseling to women job seekers, including the economically and socially disadvantaged Alaskans they have served for 28 years.
• Creating a computerized database of women who are potential nontraditional occupation trainees and employees. HRC will match the identified job-seeking women to training/employment opportunities through job development with employers and labor unions participating in the WANTO project.
• Provide post-employment services to women including mentoring and support groups.
• Conduct liaison services between women placed in nontraditional jobs and their employers and labor unions to address workplace issues related to gender.
• Conducting exit interviews with tradeswomen leave their employment to evaluate their job experiences and assess program effectiveness.