Women in Construction, LLC
In 2000, Women’s Transitional Housing Coalition, Inc. (WTHC, now Women’s Community Development Organization, WCDO) started the Women in Construction Training Program (WiCTP) in an effort to assist low-income participants with obtaining living wage jobs in the construction industry. As a nonprofit developer, WCDO’s goal was to hire contractor’s that would employ women and people of color while working on its construction projects. Since the construction industry in Duluth had less than 3% women and 1% people of color working in all trades, it was impossible to find companies that could meet this goal. WCDO decided that by training women in construction skills it could help create a new pool of worker’s from which contractor’s could hire. During the first two years, the training program participants worked on all of WCDO construction projects as well as partnered with other nonprofit developers to work on a variety of renovation and new construction projects. In 2002, WCDO set up the Women in Construction Co. LLC (WiCC) a subsidiary company that was licensed and insured as a General Contractor. This entity hired the WiCTP participants and in addition to WCDO projects, WiCC began actively bidding on other jobs in the community. The WiCTP still works to assist it’s participants to find jobs with other construction companies, however due to the barriers that exist within the trades for women and people of color, participants have a higher likelihood of finding employment through the Women in Construction Company or by starting their own businesses.