You won’t want to miss this conversation with Pat Daniels, Executive Director of Constructing Hope, because that’s exactly what her organization does. It builds hope for people coming out of incarceration, homelessness, poverty, and other disadvantaged backgrounds by giving them the skills they needs for a career in construction. Pat shares some inspiring stories of program graduates who have gone from being on the margins of society to owning their own construction businesses or having other leadership roles in the construction industry.
Pat guided her organization from a former community development corporation to the Constructing Hope Pre-Apprenticeship Training Program. She developed training curriculum with industry partners at Northwest College of Construction, Hoffman Construction and Pacific Northwest Carpenters Institute, receiving state certification in 2007. Under her leadership, Constructing Hope has increased job placements from 16 to 83 annually. She has developed direct entry with carpenters, laborers, electrical, cement masons, sheet metal, ironworkers, brick layers and Northwest College of Construction apprenticeship programs.
Pat was raised in Mississippi and NE Portland. She earned her MBA at Concordia College and, as an African American woman, worked her way up from secretarial duties to Executive Director. She is an active member of her church community. She has also received numerous awards, including most recently the 2020 Daily Journal of Commerce Icon Award Winner and the 2020 Business Diversity Institute, Inc. Leadership Award of the Year Recipient.
You can learn more about Constructing Hope at https://www.constructinghope.org.
