GHBA snags proclamation honoring Careers in Construction Month
On Oct. 20, Houston City Council member Sallie Alcorn joined the Greater Houston Builders Association (GHBA) Custom Builders Council president Allen Griffin at the 20th anniversary of GHBA’s EXPO exhibitors and Contracts Seminar to present a proclamation in honor of October as Careers in Construction Month.
On behalf of Mayor Sylvester Turner, Alcorn lauded the work of GHBA for encouraging home-building careers and support for local workforce development programs.
Attendees also hosted students from HISD’s Jones Futures Academy (JFA). Nearly 50 students, as well as teachers and advisors from JFA, were presented with hardhats with the GHBA logo, and treated to lunch thanks to the new GHBA Launch Fund, which is housed in GHBA’s Charitable Foundation and allows students from workforce partner programs to attend association events, meetings and construction hiring events so they can meet members of the residential construction industry and start building the necessary career connections to encourage their employment.
Attending the EXPO gave students a comprehensive opportunity to learn about career paths in the home-building industry. The students walked the trade show floor, saw cutting-edge products, tools and materials used in home building, and were able to ask GHBA members questions about their experiences in the field.
Members had the opportunity to see these quality students up close and engage with them as future members of the workforce.
An administrator from JFA sent a thank you to the GHBA that said in part, “On behalf of all of us here at Jones Futures Academy, we wanted to say, thank you. What a special event! As we were exiting the bus on our return trip, almost all the kids still wore their hard hats. It’s a day they will forever remember.”
The goal is that these students pursue their education and move into adulthood where they will carry with them the inspiration this event provided.
“The GHBA thanks Council Member Alcorn for representing Mayor Turner in presentation of this proclamation,” said Aimee Bertrand, GHBA CEO. “We also thank Denny Patterson of Lone Star Air Systems, a longtime member and a GHBA representative on JFA’s PTECH Advisory Committee, for their new HVAC education program.”
For more about the GHBA’s workforce committee, contact chair Ron Rohrbacher at rrohrbacher@comcast.net or GHBA CEO Aimee Bertrand at abertrand@ghba.org. For the GHBA, visit www.ghba.org.