Rooftop Revelations: There's a massive shortage of skilled craft workers. Project H.O.O.D. aims to change that

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ROOFTOP REVELATIONS: Day 88 with Pastor Corey Brooks

CHICAGO – A recent Home Builders Institute report found that a severe shortage of construction workers has negatively impacted the housing market. Over two million new construction workers, or 61,000 new hires a month, would be needed to meet the current demand. More than half of the payroll construction workers earn more than $50,460 annually which is nearly double what most residents earn on the South Side of Chicago. 

While there are several reasons for this shortage, one main reason is the abject lack of vocational training, especially in high schools. Too many individuals who would rather work with their hands and minds are told that college is the way to go. Many end up with uninspired careers and massive student loan debts. 

On the 88th day of his 100-day rooftop vigil to raise funds to build a transformative community center on the South Side of Chicago, Pastor Corey Brooks invited Alicia Marin, the president of Associated Builders and Contractors in Illinois, to discuss these issues.

"What brings you to the South Side?" the pastor began.

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"Pastor Brooks, we have been working with you, partnering with you, for about the past five years," Marin responded. "You're trying to help individuals who had barriers to employment, who have seen little success and experienced a lot of trauma. And I thought, ‘Well, we have construction training credentials that are nationally recognized.’ We have a registered apprenticeship program. And we also recognize as an association, we have a social obligation."

"Yes."'

"So I thought this could be a beautiful partnership, and we've worked together and trained over a hundred individuals in the last five years and seen a lot of success stories come from this program," Marin said. "They just need that opportunity to have some success in their life."

"I want to thank you for the partnership because it's been a blessing to our community. We've actually been able to take guys who were in gangs, who were practicing criminal activity, and because of the work of Associated Builders and Contractors and the training that you provide, take them out of those environments, train them and get them jobs," the pastor said gratefully. "Can you just talk a little bit about the training and what it involves and how it all works?"

"We've basically created a 12-week boot camp style training program where participants come every day, four or five hours a day, and receive three industry-recognized credentials. Also, at the same time, [they] receive some essential life skills training and also resume writing, financial literacy," Marin said. "Then we try and mitigate any difficulties through your work that they might have with employment down the road at the end of the training. So we take a holistic approach so at the end, they're ready to go in a construction entry level position and have success."

The pastor said: "We've been very successful. And one of the things that I've been really excited about, though, that we just did recently that everybody is ranting and raving about [was] our first electrical class. Not only was it our first electrical class, but we decided it was going to be all women. Can you tell us a little bit about that?"

"We were really excited about that, too. Personally, I think women make the best electricians. They're very nimble," Marin said. "We had a great group of ladies. Some were coming through in their 40s, some were just coming out of high school, but we had 16 participants. I believe all of them are employed right now and making a really good wage."

"That's awesome. In this new center that we're going to be building, a major component of it is our trades, our trade school," the pastor said. "Can you just talk a bit about how that's going to be so important and so vital, not just to our community, but to employers as well?"

"It's incredibly important. We have an industry with an aging workforce. They've stopped training the trades in high schools, and we need to bring that to your community so we can have the opportunity there," Marin said. "Illinois alone has a shortage of over 200,000 skilled craftsmen and women."

"Wow."

"We need that here in this community. And I'm so thankful for the folks that are supporting you up here on this rooftop, so we can make that a reality," Marin said. 

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"Thank you to Associated Builders and Contractors and all the companies that work with you and all of those who've been providing jobs for these young men and women who are coming sometimes from some very tough backgrounds," the pastor said. "One more thing before we go, why should others think about these type of collaborations and partnerships with Project H.O.O.D.?"

"It's the right thing to do. When you see struggling communities and then you can come in and bring this type of training here and see the success that we've seen, it's the right thing to do."

"It is the right thing to do."

Follow along as Fox News checks in Pastor Corey Brooks each day with a new Rooftop Revelation.

For more information, please visit Project H.O.O.D.

Eli Steele is a documentary filmmaker and writer. His latest film is "What Killed Michael Brown?" Twitter: @Hebro_Steele.

Camera by Terrell Allen.