As part of its Dollars and Sense ministry, Rodman Street Missionary Baptist Church in East Liberty helps people improve their financial standing and works to move people into sustainable situations.
The church recently added a new facet to this ministry, thanks in no small part to parishioner Holly Hudson, by offering a certificate course in construction workplace safety. Twenty-six individuals completed the course, which allows them to work on any construction site.
“With all the development work going on in the city, we thought why not do something construction-related,” said Hudson, vice president of business infrastructure for Cosmos Industries. “It’s a 10-hour certification course that the U.S. Department of Labor requires. If these individuals were to take it at CCAC, it would cost them $400. Even Online, you’re looking at $89-$129. We did it for $30, which basically covered the actual certificate and meals.”
They were able to do that because Cosmos underwrote the cost of the training materials, and Hudson donated her time and expertise as the course instructor. The training consisted of two, five-hour sessions on successive Saturdays, Oct. 11 and Oct. 18.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration training certificate program covers the basics of construction site safety, broken into four hazard categories: electricity, caught-between, struck-by, and falls. The course also qualifies the gradates, if they choose, to take a 30-hour supervisory training program, which is more scientifically detailed and analytical. While it doesn’t automatically “make someone a supervisor,” Hudson said, it can give more experienced workers a leg up to earning more responsibility, and more money, on a particular job site.
Hudson said she will be tracking the graduates and surveying them in about six months to gage their success, and the program’s.
“With all the work going on around town, in the Hill, in Larimer, we expect them to be working into January or even February, even though its fall,” she said. “It’s not too late, and the work isn’t going anywhere.”
Hudson said she was very pleased with the response to this first-time program offering, and plans to do it again in June or July of next year.
Hopefully, we’ll expand it,” she said. “We can take up to 40. Well, I can’t, but I can get some guest instructors to help out. We’ll get it done.”
(Send comments to cmorrow@newpittsburghcourier.com.)
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