Getting In: The Experience of Minority Graduates of the Building Bridges Project Pre- Apprenticeship Class

Abstract

The Chicago-area Building Bridges Project is a cooperative effort involving construction trades unions, churches in minority com munities, and the Chicago Interfaith Committee. Goals of the project are to increase awareness of union apprenticeship programs in minority communities, broaden access to those programs, and to organize construction work in these same communities. This study focuses on the experience of graduates of the Building Bridges Project pre-apprenticeship class as they apply to apprenticeship programs. It reports the ongoing negotiations among partners in the project as they identify, explain, and, in some cases, address factors that emerge as barriers to access to those programs. It ar gues that the key factor in the success of the project is that it is guided by the primary goal of organizing.