CONSTRUCTION NEWS BULLETIN
YOUTH IN CONSTRUCTION
Providing opportunities for young women in transportation & construction Four years ago, the HOYA Foundation created the Transportation & Construction GIRL Program. With women as only 9% of the construction workforce, we saw a workforce need and an opportunity for young women. We recognized the lack of role models showing girls that a financially sustainable career was achievable. So, we created programs that allow young women to meet successful women and men in the industry and discover what their careers entailed. Our vision is to: EMBRACE the future of women in Transportation & Construction; ENCOURAGE young women to pursue sustainable non-traditional careers; and INSPIRE young women with expert insight from successful women. Now, after the year of a pandemic, we are finding the silver linings. We were contacted by the Guam Contractors Association. What I discovered was that the hearts of the Guam Contractors are completely committed to their youth. They have a program for girls called “Pizza Pop and Power Tools”. They also provide a program for boys called “Construction Warriors”. They wanted to know how they could partner with Transportation & Construction GIRL to provide even more opportunities for facebook.com/GuamContractors
girls. During the year of the pandemic, they were incredibly impressed with our commitment to create worksite tour videos. And, they were equally as committed to find more ways to give their young women financially sustainable careers and skills. So, kismet led us to start the Sister Program between Colorado and Guam. We are creating a Building Career Bridges for GIRLs™ program with the Guam Contractors Association. We will be featuring women from Guam on our Superstar Women in the Transportation & Construction on the Transportation & Construction GIRL channel on YouTube. Speaking of kismet, we even got the times to work – 4:00pm in Colorado will be 9:00am in Guam. Perfect! We will involve girls from Guam in our regular monthly series, but we will also be holding a quarterly webinar series just for girls from Guam. Working with Teach Construction, we will provide free digital badges for Guam girls. And, we will be offering one-on-one mentorship with successful women in the industry in Guam and Colorado. We see this as an enormous opportunity for girls that www.guamcontractors.org
are ready to reach out and take life’s opportunities. Imagine getting the head of a company as a lifetime mentor when you are a 15 year old girl! By changing stereotypes and encouraging young women to enter this industry, we are creating more potential workforce. We are also changing futures. Mahilet said, “Most people think women can’t do this. It’s only men that I see doing this. But I think it is pretty cool that women can do it too.” After learning that transportation and construction careers don’t only mean driving a bus and digging a ditch, the girls get really excited. Here’s what Swika had to say, “It was nothing that I had ever experienced before! I had so much fun and learned so much! Thank you! Thank you! THANK YOU! I appreciate it so so much!” If you would like to see the videos, learn more about our programs, want to refer a young woman to the program, provide sponsorship or become a Sister Program participant, go to our website: www.ConstructionGIRL.org or email: Keller@HOYAfoundation.org
FEBRUARY2021 | 9
