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Associations Set up Katrina Funds
Several local groups and national associations with tri-state area memberships are helping Hurricane Katrina victims through donations of funds, goods, and services.
The Associated General Contractors of America established the Hurricane Katrina Construction Workers Fund to provide financial assistance to storm victims among the 275,000 construction workers in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
The New York Building Congress and its New York Building Foundation were encouraging members this summer and fall to contribute funds and services to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund. The congress also made a $10,000 donation to the fund.
The Building Owners and Managers Association of New York has been collecting monetary donations from members to aid building industry counterparts hurt by the storm.
The American Institute of Architects is donating work equipment to architects affected by Katrina as well as encouraging its members to hire displaced architects for assignments.
The Association of Equipment Manufacturers donated $30,000 worth of clothing and merchandise to the disaster victims housed at the Houston Astrodome, and was considering additional aid options.
Canstruction Aids Gulf Coast
Canstruction, a national charity of the design and construction industry that raises more than 1 million lbs. of canned food each year, plans to send some of this year's donations to hurricane victims on the Gulf Coast.
Created by the Society for Design Administration, Canstruction holds exhibits in 45 cities at which hundreds of teams of architects and engineers design and build structures out of cans of food. It donates the cans to food banks, shelters, soup kitchens, and elderly and day care facilities, some of which are now experiencing their own shortages because they sent food to New Orleans.
The next New York City competition takes place this month (see events calendar).
PWC Starts Connecticut Affiliate
Professional Women in Construction has launched a Connecticut chapter. The affiliate is the first created since the group started up in New York in 1980 to support women and minorities in the building industry.
The first program of the Connecticut chapter, held in Hartford in August, focused on work at southern New England colleges and universities. It featured a panel of facilities, planning, and management professionals from several academic institutions.
Contractor Training Program Grows
The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the City University of New York are expanding their joint Contractors Training Program, now in its 19th year, by adding City College to the list of participating schools.
Students in the program, which is targeted toward self-employed workers in the construction industry, meet once a week for 10 weeks to learn skills of blueprint reading, estimating, accounting, and contract law, as well as compliance with the city's lead paint hazard reduction law. In addition, the program - also taught at CUNY campuses in Brooklyn and the Bronx - offers information on public contracts and local business opportunities.
A 1999 study of the program found that of businesses run by its graduates, 87 percent are based in New York City and 85 percent are owned by minorities or women. They won more than $100 million in contracts and subcontracts in 1999.
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