The Camden Construction Career Initiative will help over 100 residents by the end of 2017, officials said.
CAMDEN -- City leaders told a packed room at the Waterfront Technology Center Thursday that a new initiative will finally do what residents have been asking for: give Camdenites the opportunity to benefit from the new development in the city.
The Camden Construction Career Initiative will help over 100 residents take the first steps to start their careers in the industry so they can have a role in the rebuilding of Camden, officials from the city and the Cooper Foundation announced.
And amongst the suits and dresses at the announcement were a few workers who had already benefitted from the training model that the Cooper Foundation has tried out in the past years.
Charles Little said that his job with a subcontractor at the Holtec Technology Campus in the city has helped him help his family, including sending a child to college.
"They've taken me from unskilled to skilled," he said of the construction training program. "I seized the moment, came in on time, passed the screening and was off running -- with a hard hat and safety glasses," he added with a grin.
The Cooper Foundation, the Union Organization for Social Service and the city are partnering to create a similar training program in Camden. It will make available for free the union's pre-apprenticeship training program in Pennsauken. The first class is nearly done with the 10-week course.
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Cooper Foundation President Susan Bass Levin said the 260-hour course trains residents in the basic skills needed in the construction industry, and also teaches them OSHA safety regulations, first aid and computer literacy. At the end of the course, residents will be able to test for an OSHA Outreach Training card and then be placed in an apprenticeship position.
She said the initiative in Camden is modeled after the Cooper Foundation's earlier partnerships with the union to offer the training to small groups of locals so they could work on construction projects, including the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University and the MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Friday morning, letters will be going out to every home in Camden in English and Spanish to notify residents that they can sign up for the training by attending any of four job fairs. They are at the Catto Community Family School Sept. 20 and Charles Sumner Elementary School Sept. 28, both from 6 to 8 p.m., and at Malandra Hall Community Center Sept. 22 and Pyne Poynt Middle School Sept. 29, both from 10 to noon.
And Bass Levin said that while not everyone looking for a job wants to work in construction, they should still come out to meet with officials at the job fairs.
"We're going to start a database," she said. "It will have the names of everyone who came to our job fairs and we can get those people into training programs" that suit their skills and interests. Officials will also help match them with businesses that are hiring when they're ready, she said.
The third part of the initiative aims to help Camden vendors and suppliers participate in the development in Camden. Bass Levin said officials will help businesses connect with developers and give them technical assistance on the bidding process.
George Norcross, chairman of the Cooper Foundation's board of trustees, said that in his three decades of work in Camden, there have been a lot of efforts to improve the city and bring in business, but residents haven't always benefitted from it as much as they should.
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He said the training program will be a "helping hand" for Camden residents -- "a helping hand that maybe some of us got by where we lived or went to school."
Mayor Dana Redd said the city is contributing $160,000 to the initiative. Others supporting the project include the Residents Building Camden Task Force, Cooper's Ferry Partnership, United Camden and Vicinity Building & Construction Trades Council.
Construction worker Jeffrey Dowens was one of the residents who started his training when the Cooper Foundation offered the pre-apprenticeship program during a construction project.
Standing among the suits and dresses in a work shirt and bandana, he said it helped him land a job working on building the 76ers training facility.
"The things I've done for myself and for my family..." he said. "I'm very grateful for what was given to me."
After posing for photographs with officials including Mayor Dana Redd, he headed back across the street to his construction site, where a crane was lowering the giant 76ers logo onto the side of the building.
Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.