Moore Community House, Biloxi, MS: providing community development and child care for low-income families

	Moore Community House: Women in Construction (WinC)
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Women in Construction Program (WinC)

   Backgound
    Mission
    Partners
    Contact

The Women in Construction Program is designed to teach low-income women the skills needed to join the construction trades.

BACKGROUND
The idea for a women in construction project on the Gulf Coast originated with Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW)--a national organization committed to increasing the number of women involved in nontraditional occupations and helping women attain economic self-sufficiency. WOW saw a unique opportunity on the MS Gulf Coast for low-income women to increase their earning potential by helping to meet the demand for skilled workers rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina.

WOW identified Moore to tackle the challenge of developing construction training and associated social and workplace supports for women entering this nontraditional field. With a planning grant from Oxfam, MCH surveyed needs and resources, meeting with overwhelmingly positive responses to the project. A start-up grant from the Women's Fund in Jackson propelled the pilot training session in January 2008

MISSION
The mission of this program is to create a climate across the Gulf Coast enabling women to pursue careers which will earn wages to promote self sufficiency within the construction field.

Besides helping to provide well-paying jobs to the region’s low-income women, it helps meet the industry’s demand for a trained workforce on the Gulf Coast focusing on residential construction, welding, the upcoming green job sector, and disaster relief training. While the construction trades offer careers that provide self-sufficiency wages and good benefits, the Women in Construction Program is the only job-training program on the Gulf Coast that is tailored to prepare women for this work.

Since the beginning of the program, WinC has graduated twelve classes totaling 100 women. Not only have we seen our graduates gain equitable employment but also make positive changes in their lives as women.

COMMUNITY PARTNERS

ACTS Program, El Pueblo and Safe Space
Biloxi NAACP
Coastal Family Health Center
Coastal Women for Change
Department of Labor, Office of
Contract Compliance
Gulf Coast Community Design Studio
Gulf Coast Women's Center for Nonviolence
Habitat for Humanity
Hands on Mississippi
Home Builder's Institute
Hope Community Development Agency
Hope Credit Union
Huntington Ingalls Industries
INL Construction

Mississippi Center for Justice
Mississippi Commission of Volunteer
  Services
Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College
Mississippi Economic Policy Center
National Association of Women
  in Construction (NAWIC)
Roy Anderson Corp
STEPS Coalition
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
  Commission (EEOC)
Visions of Hope
WIN Job Centers
Wider Opportunities for Women
Youth Build

CONTACT

Julie Kuklinski
Moore Community House
Women In Construction Program Director
684 Walker St.
Biloxi, MS 39530
Cell: 228-297-0965
Fax: 228-436-6605
julie.womeninconstruction@gmail.com