Opportunity Knocking in the Home of the Brave

​O, I will go, I shall go

To see what the end will be

— traditional Negro spiritual

Last Saturday Vernon Sweatte stood in front of a group of about fifty people gathered at Murtis Taylor Center in Cleveland’s Mt. Pleasant neighborhood and talked about his work. He was serious and self-possessed. He was especially engaging

Vernon Sweatt speaking at CEA
Info Session, September 30, 2017

as he talked about his pocket philosophy: he had four pockets and he was hungry to fill each of them.

Vernon Sweatte's curiosity had changed his life.

Not all by itself. He had to work hard to scratch his itch. But he kept putting one foot in front of the other and found himself inside of half a year earning about $5,000 a month and hungry for more.

It started about six months ago on a chilly Saturday morning back in March. Vernon was one of a mixed bag of folk drawn to the Collinwood Recreation Center on St. Clair Ave. in the city's northeast corner. The assembly was mostly black, mostly men, with a few brave women scattered among them. Their ages seemed to range from the mid twenties to the mid forties. There were likely a  few a few formerly incarcerated people in the group — FIPs — but you very well could have been wrong had you tried to identify them.

The smart ones had arrived early for the advertised session, scheduled to begin at 10 o'clock. Small clusters of two or three folk were standing here or there towards the front of the room, which had an airy feel owing to the near floor-to-ceiling wall of windows on its north side. There was a group of six or seven officious looking folk in one cluster — chiefly politicians and preachers. Some of them would later be called upon to offer words of encouragement and exhortation.

The invitees, Vernon among them, had come to an informational meeting about careers in construction. A good portion of them had in all likelihood never thought in career terms. Life happened too fast, seemed too random, with odds too high, dangers too great, distractions too many, rewards too distant, and support too tenuous to make thinking of having a career a realistic option. Once the dream of the NBA faded, you got a job if you were lucky; if not, you got a hustle.

The session started on time, which is the way of the construction world. After an invocation and a welcome, the meat of the program got underway. There was a pathway to good jobs for those who were willing to work hard. The path wasn't easy, it wouldn't be fun, and there would be obstacles aplenty. The path required commitment, dedication, perseverance, self-control in the face of challenge and even downright hostility. But for those who stuck it out, there would be reward and deep satisfaction.

Most of this information and real life lessons came from the tell-it-like-it-is presentation of the tag team of Glen Shumate and Cordell Stokes. Shumate is executive vice president of the Construction Employers Association, the area's premier association of big union contractors. They have a position interest in recruiting top talent to the construction industry, and Shumate leads their efforts amidst the changing demographics of northeast Ohio. Stokes is son and nephew of Cleveland political royalty, and it's clear the apple didn't fall from the tree in terms of his looks and presence; it rolled over to the business side of the orchard. His consulting company has a contract to help recruit and then train industry newcomers. Together they are like a pair of honest Army recruiters, pointing out the rewards but not stinting on the cost.

At one point in the Collinwood meeting, Shumate asked an attractive young woman in the rear to step forward and share her experience.

Lauren Benton speaking at CEA session,
March 2017. [Photo by Rhonda Crowder]

The young woman, Lauren Benton — a Shaker HS grad and former model — turned out to be an apprentice carpenter. Her authentic remarks captured the crowd’s attention.

A year ago, she told the job seekers, she couldn't have imagined her current career path. But then she had attended a similar session in the midst of a job search, and carpentry attracted her.

Her unvarnished comments could be sorted into two halves. The job had its own demands. You had to be on time and ready to work at the 7:30AM starting time, not just strolling onto the site. You had to have your own tools, and having your own car or truck was essential. Drug testing was real: fail a test and you are sent home.

Benton also schooled her audience with practical tips. She warned them not to get comfortable with co-workers, to learn by observation. And while the money is good, with regular pay raises, the weather was mercurial and when — not if — the work slowed, you were smart if you had been saving your money and living off your average unemployment wage.

Sweatte heard all this talk and wondered if it were true. So he signed up, and after successfully navigating CEA’s qualifying process, soon found himself enrolled in SOAR, a workforce development program focused on such soft skills as effective communication, conflict management, and business etiquette. Six weeks later, Sweatte stood proudly at a graduation ceremony at the Urban League, which runs the program [Solid Opportunities for Advancement and Retention].

Sweatte now works for Trafftech. He is a member of Laborers Local 860, comprised of heavy highway construction workers. On Saturday he found himself echoing carpenter’s apprentice Benton: work hard and “Don’t take nothing personal.”

These days, when he is not testifying for the CEA-Urban League collaboration, Sweatte works sixty hours a week and looking forward to his pending $4/hr. raise, which could raise his overtime pay to better than $34/hour. Do the math.

CEA has been offering its recruitment sessions all over town. Sessions have been held in the Lee-Harvard and Detroit Shoreway neighborhoods, as well as in Maple Heights.

The next one is tonight, from 6-8PM, at the Cathedral Worship Center, 21601 Euclid Ave., Euclid OH 44117. Refreshments and opportunity will be provided.

For more information, visit ceacisp.org or buildohio.org.

Pass the word.

# # #