The Hand Up

Of the slew of lopsided statistics that mark racial and economic issues in San Diego, one that is particularly appalling to the head of the Black Contractors Association is this: About $144 million was awarded for city construction projects last year, and of that amount, only $36,000 went to firms owned by African-Americans.

“This is not a level playing field,” says Abdur-Rahim Hameed, founder and president of the BCA, established in 1982 to promote equal opportunities in the construction trades. He singles out the passage in 1996 of Proposition 209, which dismantled affirmative action programs for public agencies, as “the nail in the coffin” for blacks who seek entry into mainstream municipal building projects.

“When there is no mandate to outreach, new people are not let in,” Hameed says. “People say, ‘Get rid of the laws and we’ll do the right thing on our own,’ but the fact of the matter is they don’t.”

Hameed says the BCA is actively working to provide solutions through solid training programs to ensure more African-Americans have access to well-paying construction jobs. The organization operates the Apprenticeship Training Center for inner-city youth who are considered at risk. The $1.5 million 10,000-square-foot facility at Imperial Avenue and 61st Street is the site of what the BCA calls its Labor Boot Camp, a 90-day pre-apprenticeship program for youths who want a career in construction.

“The kids get a good look at all aspects of the jobs,” Hameed says. “They see the demolition and all the dirty work. After they graduate they’ve had a smorgasbord exposure to electrician work, carpentry, drywall, you name it.” For those who opt to continue, a full apprenticeship program follows, with graduates earning journeyman cards in their building-trade area of interest.

The BCA is one of scores of groups and agencies aligned with the San Diego Workforce Partnership, created in 1974 under a joint agreement between the city and county as a conduit for federal, state and local funds to provide job training and educational and employment resources. The partnership invests about $60 million annually in San Diego, most of it from federal sources.

Lawrence Fitch, the partnership’s president and chief executive officer, notes that San Diego’s strong economic growth in the last decade has created new employment opportunities in most industries. “Never before have there been so many terrific programs and services available to San Diegans,” he says. “For those who have the initiative to learn new skills and build a better life, they are theirs for the asking.” In addition to awarding funds, the Workforce Partnership operates six “one-stop” career centers, where groups and individuals can learn about its myriad services.

The focus of the Center for Employment Training, an accredited adult vocation school on Market Street, is the county’s 10,000 migrant farmworkers, many of wmnhom face language as well as training barriers to better their job opportunities. CET offers them training programs in welding, building maintenance and electronic assembly. English classes also are offered, and job-placement assistance is provided.

Dora Mendivil, CET director, says recruiters go to farm fields, nurseries and packing houses to explain the training opportunities available. She proudly recites several of the center’s success stories. A typical tale involves a 45-year-old single mother of three who worked in a strawberry-packing house on Otay Mesa. The woman learned welding through CET and is now employed at an El Cajon firm that manufactures fire extinguishers.

“The packing-house job paid minimum wage, and now she’s earning $12 an hour, plus there’s room for advancement,” Mendivil says. “She has become a great example to other students, and even her oldest daughter now wants to become a welder.”

There is a wealth of programs in the county to move welfare recipients into jobs. Metro United Methodist Urban Ministries, which has operated for 34 years in San Diego, currently assists about 700 people, 80 percent of whom are minorities. Through recruitments among community outreach programs and referrals from welfare case personnel, the organization provides welfare recipients with free training in such fields as home childcare, computer applications, medicine, customer service and hospitality. Childcare and work transportation also are provided—removing two of the biggest obstacles for welfare recipients to get jobs.

Lorna Pallares, associate executive director of Metro United Methodist Urban Ministries, candidly concedes that many welfare recipients receiving training through the group are not always highly motivated. “Some of these are hard-core cases who have only known a life on welfare and who think it’s going to be around forever,” he says. “One day you may work with a couple of people who aren’t motivated at all, but the next day, you may get five very motivated ones who are really ready to work and make better lives for themselves. That’s the kind of thing that makes it all worthwhile.”

Job readiness is the focus of Job Start, a welfare-to-work program in East County that is operated by Episcopal Community Services. “We do whatever it takes to get welfare recipients ready to go out the door and into a job,” says Robert Morris, ECS vice president of development.

Job Start teaches the basics: preparing a résumé, handling a job interview, selecting the appropriate clothes for work. It also stresses what Morris calls “attitudinal changes” often needed for new workers, such as learning how to relate to a supervisor and overcoming an outlook that suggests a world-owes-me-a-living mind-set. “A lot of this,” says Morris, “is helping the welfare recipient see that work is very therapeutic.”

Instilling motivation in young people who tend to be suspicious of mainstream society is the focus of San Diego Youth@ Work, a group that uses paid youth advocates to provide guidance to kids who’ve dropped out of school or are headed that way. The kids may be into the drug scene, says program director Linda Womack, “or want to move forward but don’t have any idea how to go about it.” Youth@Work is active in Southeastern San Diego and Barrio Logan, mostly minority communities.

One of the program’s distinctive features is its use of community coaches, recent college graduates who work with the at-risk youths to provide career assessment and job development strategies. Coaches and the kids make a two-year commitment to each other, providing an opportunity to build strong, positive-image relationships, Womack says.

“These kids often have to learn to bend to fit into society,” she says, “because, as we always tell them, ‘Society is not going to bend for you.’”

—Margie Craig Farnsworth

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