Norton Opens Opportunities Center, Encourages DC Residents to Prepare for Competitive Jobs

Norton Opens Opportunities Center, Encourages D.C. Residents to Prepare for Competitive Jobs and Contracts

December 18, 2009

WASHINGTON, DC - When Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) opened an "Opportunities Center" at the construction site of the new U.S. Department of Homeland Security complex this morning, D.C. residents flooded every corner of a heated tent outside the modern mobile facility, seeking information about apprenticeship training, jobs, and business opportunities that are becoming available at the site, which is expected to generate 38,000 jobs over the next ten years. The Congresswoman introduced Ward 7 resident Bernard Johnson, a third-year plumber apprentice, who told of the commitment required to complete the training for the construction jobs. Regardless of frigid temperatures, like today's, and torrid D.C. summers, Johnson gets out of bed at 4:30 a.m. to arrive on time at the waterfront site, where he is now working, by 6 a.m.. The Congresswoman said that the five years it is taking Bernard to train as an apprentice and become a full journeyman is longer than it took her to graduate from law school. However, the Opportunities Center is prepared to help D.C. residents compete and train for the jobs that will result from the $1 billion Norton secured to build the DHS complex, already under construction, and from money she got for renovating 22 federal buildings, 16 of them here in the District.

Norton introduced other apprentices, making $22 an hour, already working at the DHS site to demonstrate what is possible. Although there will be residents who qualify as journeymen and women, most D.C. residents seeking construction work have not had opportunities to acquire the necessary training. Therefore, Norton got $3 million in the stimulus bill for pre-apprenticeship training. Last Monday she spoke at the graduation of the first pre-apprenticeship class trained by the Community Service Agency, the Metropolitan Council, AFL-CIO, and Wider Opportunities for Women.

Other speakers at the opening ceremony today were D.C. Councilmember Marion Barry, William R. Calhoun, Jr., Vice President, Clark Design-Build, LLC, Joslyn Williams, Metro Washington Council AFL - CIO, and James Bunn, Ward 8 Business Council. The center was opened to the public today.