Toppling barriers, building careers

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/06/2024 (461 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One by one, beneath a mural reading “House of Courage,” construction workers took the podium.

Trudy Swan stood off to the side, sharing a similar story as a speaker — a former addict who sought recovery and employment, landing at the Social Enterprise Centre.

Swan joined more than 100 people gathered Tuesday at the North Point Douglas site in Winnipeg. Politicians, association figureheads and new trainees congregated to celebrate 765 Main St.’s 100th anniversary.

Attendees also praised the organizations within the Social Enterprise Centre. Some of the entities are bursting at the seams as funding contracts near expiration, organizers relayed.

“I have a stack of resumés 100 deep sitting on my desk,” said Kalen Taylor, executive director of Purpose Construction. “Those are folks who want to be building a career.”

Purpose Construction stems from Building Urban Industries for Local Development (BUILD Inc.); both co-own the Social Enterprise Centre.

BUILD trains people facing employment barriers to work in construction. Purpose Construction began as a sort of “finishing school” for trainees, and a ready employer, Taylor explained.

Since then, the operation has become both a six-month (largely on-the-job) training program and a long-term employer. Some staff are celebrating their 10-year anniversaries, Taylor added.

Purpose Construction is focusing on affordable housing in the North End. The attention came during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Purpose and BUILD were losing staff and trainees workers couldn’t access affordable housing.

“I was like, ‘Surely there’s something we can do to be part of the solution here, even if it’s just a drop in the bucket,’” Taylor recalled. “We build things all day long. How hard can it be?

“The answer is, harder than we thought,” they said with a laugh.

Still, Purpose has built: during the 2023-24 year, it repaired 206 social housing units, created six new affordable rental units and completed $2.22 million in contracts, according to an impact report.

Purpose Construction bought 480 Young St., a 24-unit building that’s been boarded up since a fire in 2017. Taylor hopes the crew — which currently includes 15 trainees and roughly 35 staff — can begin renovating before winter.

BUILD, which offers in-class and on-the-job training, is similarly facing more demand than it can handle. Forty-five people have undergone training on interior renovation, safety and soft skills, including parenting and nutrition.

Upwards of 1,000 have been turned away, explained Sean Hogan, BUILD executive director.

“If there is a way that we can work creatively with a level of government to start to address that higher number, that would be severely impactful,” he said.

BUILD’s current provincial funding ends in the coming months, both Hogan and Taylor noted.

“At a bare minimum, I would like to keep going at the same pace that we are, but there is a need to go bigger,” Hogan added.

He and Taylor made their case Tuesday, while celebrating the heritage building’s 100th anniversary.

Provincial government politicians, including cabinet ministers Nahanni Fontaine, Bernadette Smith and Tracy Schmidt, were among front-row crowd members. The NDP can’t advertise in the lead-up to the Tuxedo byelection. Instead, the ministers shared their support for the Social Enterprise Centre’s organizations at the podium.

The centre houses 11 social enterprises which collaborate and provide wraparound supports for trainees.

Swan, alongside construction workers, watched the speeches. Swan applied to Purpose Construction in 2023 after dealing with addictions for more than 20 years.

Lately, they’ve been helping build an affordable house on Magnus Avenue. A first-level apprenticeship in carpentry is Swan’s next goal.

“This is something I always dreamt of doing, as a teenager, and I thought that I could never do it,” said Swan, 36. “I am so grateful.”

Their mother died from addiction; they didn’t want to follow suit. Now, they’ve been sober two years and are in their second year of attending sun dance ceremonies.

“I’m successful, I’m healthy, and I’m just really happy in life,” Swan described, adding they can smudge on job sites and at the Social Enterprise Centre.

Picking trainees is “extremely difficult,” Hogan noted. He chooses people who want a future in the trades, have stable housing and barriers that needing addressing. Trainees include newcomers, Indigenous and/or LGBTTQ+ applicants.

“Construction is still an industry where it makes a very big difference if you have an uncle who can apprentice you,” Taylor told the crowd. “We are working to be that uncle.”

It’s about broadening the spectrum of people working in construction, added Taylor, who’s queer and transgender.

Trainees often get hired before they’ve completed training, Taylor noted. The Manitoba Construction Sector Council forecast in 2022 that 4,500 construction workers — or 11 per cent of the industry — would retire by 2027.

Carol Paul, the council’s executive director, called BUILD and Purpose Construction “just incredible.”

“I think the important piece is linking the graduates of these programs to construction and, really, their career pathway,” she said. “There’s a disconnect that we’re trying to fix.”

The Social Enterprise Centre building was originally a postal station for Canadian Pacific Railway. The site later expanded to include immigration services.

BUILD and Purpose Construction, along with Pollock’s Hardware (which has since moved), bought 765 Main St. in 2012. The construction groups have trained and employed upwards of 1,500 people.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com