Page 5 - Delaware Contractors Association - 2021 Construction Excellence Awards

BRIAN DISABATINO ON THE DCA’S MISSION TO RECRUIT AND RETAIN BLACK TRADESMEN
By Katie Tabeling
Delaware Business Times Reporter
Roughly 8% of the United States’ construction labor force is Black, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. How does the DCA’s Black Skilled Trade Initiative seek to change that?
As an industry, we recognize that after what feels like decades and decades of trying different techniques, we haven’t seemed to attract young Black men and women into the skilled trades at the rate that other kids seem to be attracted. We also noticed there did seem
to be a shortage of young, talented, and aspirational Black kids in our vocational schools. That told us something was happening between 12th grade and graduation.
In search of answers to that question, it led us to some folks that gave us the wisdom that if Black kids don’t see themselves in these jobs, they can’t see themselves in this business. So, we started to think that people who look like me may not be the best role models when we’re going to trade schools or recruiting fairs.
Our hope is that we can build a really strong coalition of people that can turn to young men and women and say, “There might be this stigma that this industry isn’t for you. But I bought a car, built a house, and raised a family. And I have the potential of moving wealth to the next generation.”
How did the DCA Black Skilled Trade Initiative spend its first year?
We spent 2021 introducing ourselves, telling our stories and gaining wisdom from the folks who made it into this industry. One of the best pieces of wisdom we got was from St. Georges Technical High School Assistant Principal Frank Hanson. He told us, “When I arrived to teach the carpentry program, there were few Black kids attracted to this. But once they saw I was making a living from it, all of a sudden,
kids started gravitating to it.”
We also went to the employers within the Delaware Contractors
Association, and they helped us identify a robust pool of talent.
What are the next steps for this initiative?
Right now, we’re in the formative stage and having conversations with the education community, like the Vo-Tech schools. We foresee creating opportunities where we are standing up in front of classrooms. We will also be at community centers, where we’re meeting not only with potential recruits but with their families.
Our No. 1 goal is to stand up. No. 2 is to get in front of the kids. No. 3 is to recruit them into our businesses. And No. 4 is to create a long-term, sturdy pipeline that did not exist before.
Can you speak about your company, EDiS, and how it’s taking on this issue, and what lessons other construction companies can learn?
EDiS has made a significant commitment to go above and beyond for recruiting and mentoring those once seen as non-traditional for these roles, whether it’s race, nation of origin or gender. To begin, we were looking at trade schools and post-secondary trade schools and Del Tech. But we’ve learned that we need to change our tactics to reach a community that might have thought construction was a non-traditional route.
Brian DiSabatino
There are an estimated 430,000 open construction jobs this year. What do you think is the landscape for Black tradesmen looking for work, and how will this initiative help?
I think the landscape is great, and this initiative
is an exciting notion
for everybody. For the employers, if we can tap into the Black community, these are all new people coming into our industry.
When you have that much of a shortage, sometimes you’re just trading people between employers. But
when you find a pool of talent that did not exist before, these are new men and women that can be added to the industry.
For the employee, our hope is to introduce them to an opportunity that they may not even have known existed — or sadly made to think that they weren’t welcome. And nothing could be further from the truth.
What are your thoughts about how to build a pipeline of Black talent?
It’s fair to say that, like many of us in the trade, I’m a beneficiary of nepotism. There’s no getting around it. But really, most people of Italian, Irish, Polish or German descent in our industry are the products of nepotism. It really is pulling your son or daughter into your skilled trade. And when they started to show interest
in different careers, our family grabbed us by the collar and said, “No, you’re going to build.”
That’s just the tradition. And when you don’t have that tradition, the pipeline never begins.
One fact I learned from the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League is that one of the main struggles of the Black community is the lack of transfer of generational wealth. And that happens all the time
in construction, it’s how our business survives. But if a business never starts, there is no transfer.
Everybody wants this glorious moment of hiring the Black contracting company. But to get there, that person who started the company had to make it as a supervisor and the entrepreneurial spirit to strike out on their own.
We need to start working on why they’re not entering the workforce first. Our hope is that in the next 15 years, the landscape for businesses has changed.
How can contractors and tradesmen get involved in this initiative?
I encourage contractors to reach out to the DCA to join the coalition. If young people are interested, please reach out to your local vocational school. If you’re an adult, look to Del Tech in Wilmington and the Williamson Trade School in Pennsylvania as well as the
local unions.
DELAWARE CONTRACTORS ASSOCIATION 2021 | 5