Everybody Builds is a new coalition of contractors, developers, labor and trade groups, and corporations working to improve the diversity of workers in Philadelphia’s construction industry. Everybody Builds was modeled after the Chicago’s successful HIRE360 program, a non-profit organization that helps minorities, woman, and veterans in underserved communities find careers in the building trades.
From The Philadelphia Tribune:
In September, The Philadelphia Tribune reported that a coalition of developers, corporations, labor unions and trade groups is launching an initiative called “Everybody Builds,” in Philadelphia, modeled after HIRE360. …
For years, city activists [in Philadelphia] have charged that Black and brown people, women and others, have been systematically shut out of union construction jobs. …
In the next decade, that coalition expects to generate about $10 billion in construction and development in Philadelphia.
A who’s who of industry stakeholders in the city have signed on to be a part of this initiative, including the Bellwether District/Hilco Redevelopment Partners, the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council (a coalition of 50 labor unions), Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council or Carpenters, General Building Contractors Association, the 76ers, Campus Apartments, Mosaic Development Partners, University of Pennsylvania, Penn Medicine, Drexel University, Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Temple University.
The initiative will also identify diverse businesses that are seeking to grow and support these businesses with access to capital, bonding, estimating and insurance and help them identify and connect to contracting opportunities led by collaborating partners in the program.
