CSA Job Training Program Poised for Greater Impact

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)Despite the challenges of training and placing workers during the worst economic times in recent memory, the Metro Council’s Community Services Agency Building Futures pre-apprenticeship training program – which recently won a $900,000 grant (CSA's Building Futures Program Wins Major Grant Award 6/24 UC) from the Department of Labor as part of the Jobs for the Future consortium – is confident it will successfully bring DC area workers back to the workforce. “We have well-established ties in the community as well as in the labor movement,” says CSA Executive Director Kathleen McKirchy. “And with additional staff we’ll be able to reach out to contractors and government organizations in the region to generate job opportunities for area residents.” Since 2009, the Building Futures project’s 79% placement rate “has helped place 248 members of our community” in jobs, according to McKirchy, as well as assisting more than 300 obtain certifications in OSHA 10, Flagger Safety Training, and CPR/FirstAid. “In addition to exceeding most of our benchmarks a large number of our job placements are in full-time jobs and apprenticeship positions with good wages and benefits that enable our project’s clients to support themselves and their families,” McKirchy added. “We owe a great debt of thanks to our staff, instructors, local building trades unions and their apprenticeship programs, GSA, the MARPAT Foundation, and the Greater Washington Workforce Development Collaborative for making this possible.”
- report by Sylvia Casaro Dietert; photo by Jenna Gold