The following article in Saturday's Democrat and Chronicle highlights an innovative project started by Tim Weider, instructor in MCC's sociology and human services program, and supported by Tom Fitch in MCC's Office of Workforce Development.
Students complete city trades program
By Matthew Daneman
Staff writer
(April 28, 2007) — BRIGHTON — A couple of months ago, Alton Hannah was stuck in dead-end temp work, with no job security and no prospects. LeDra Price was doing some receptionist work through a program with the county Department of Human Services.
Luis Cheveres was unemployed.
Today, the three — who currently live in one of the poorest, most crime-plagued sections of the city — know the basics of the building trades, own nearly $600 worth of hand tools and construction gear, and are being viewed as a foundation in helping turn around northeast Rochester.
The first group of students from the Reclaiming Rochester effort graduated Friday afternoon in a small ceremony in a building trades classroom at MCC's Brighton campus. The effort — involving Monroe Community College, the Rochester Housing Authority, and the Pathways to Peace gang intervention program, with a host of other entities chipping in — aims to take people at risk of unemployment or underemployment and teach them job skills.
Reclaiming Rochester is part of a panoply of efforts to tackle the decay of a section of the city bounded by Bay, East Main and North Goodman streets and Culver Road, said Tim Weider, an instructor of sociology and human services at MCC who created Reclaiming Rochester.
The basis of Reclaiming Rochester is the notion put forward in the seminal book When Work Disappears, by sociologist William Julius Wilson — that the biggest destabilizer in urban neighborhoods is the disappearance of jobs.
"When you have employment, that's economic stability and it contributes to the stable rhythm of life," Weider said.
The focus of Reclaiming Rochester — primarily the 14609 ZIP code — has a number of people interested in work but unprepared or untrained for it, Weider said. Meanwhile, it has no shortage of construction jobs available between the Mayor Ryan Community Center and Library planned for Webster Avenue and the backlog of houses in the area that North East Area Development Inc. wants to rehab, Weider said.
Working with Pathways for Peace and the Rochester Housing Authority, MCC came up with a list of students for the program. Classes started March 26 with a cohort of 13 students.
The coursework included fundamental job skills, such as appropriate dress and punctuality, and then covered the standard National Council for Construction Education and Research curriculum — covering everything from the construction basics and tool use to Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules and first aid.
Classes were a full-time job — 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday; help was provided with child care, transportation and other support.
"It was definitely a lot of sacrifice," Hannah said.
Nine graduated, walking away with certifications and tools provided by City Hall and First Baptist Church.
"The tools, it's like a championship belt," said Floyd Minster, 25. "It's like a prize, y'know?"
"I got my mom proud," Cheveres said.
"Family members, they're proud. I got people excited about this program, wanting to be in this program next time. We really hope there is a next time."
All four said they now hope to get in with a local trades union and start finding work.
The training should make them more attractive hires, said Mike Zemaitis, a skilled trades trainer at MCC. "A lot of people are starving for good, entry-level (workers)."
Now, Reclaiming Rochester is trying to line up governmental and church support for another go-round, perhaps expanding to other job skills such as information technology training, Weider said: "As soon as those resources (emerge), we get the next class going."
Dianne E McConkey
College and Community Relations
05/01/2007 |