Felicia Harper says all she needed was a chance to do something positive. When a six-week construction training program landed in her lap, it led to union membership, employment and a new outlook on life.
“I heard about it from a friend that participated. She thought it would be good for me; she didn’t (have to sell it),” said Harper, 32, of Oakland. “She knew I was having a really hard time. I was looking for something, just to escape, so I was all for it. I thought it was something positive.”
That something positive was Rising Sun Center for Opportunity, an Oakland nonprofit focused on economic equity and climate resilience that connects interested people into training and placement in the construction industry. As part of Rising Sun’s Opportunity Build initiative, a yearly program called Women Building The Bay brings in candidates and provides skills, tools and support to get hired.
Harper says Rising Sun “changed my life.”
I remember being very poor. I was always intelligent, but I never had the skills to make a better living, And I was in a bad living situation,” she said. “Now I’m able to take care of my family.”
The organization received funding this year from Share the Spirit, an annual holiday campaign that serves residents in need in the East Bay. Donations will help support 56 nonprofit agencies in Contra Costa and Alameda counties. Rising Sun plans to use its grant to cover individually packed, professionally catered Thanksgiving meals and personal care and childcare kits for cohort participants.
For Harper, the program offered support with math skills assessments, physical training, a session with a financial advisor, and class times that allowed for child care needs.
“They got me to write down all my problems on paper. They talked me through it,” Harper said. “When you felt like giving up, they pushed you to keep going. It was new to me. I never really had anybody to talk to before about my problems.”
After graduating from the program in early 2020, Harper said, the skills and support she gained helped deepen and enrich her connection to the work that followed.
“When you walk into a building, you’re used to seeing it complete. You’re not used to seeing, like, the skeleton of a building,” she said. “It’s loud, there’s sparks flying, people everywhere, equipment going past. It’s overwhelming. We’ve got at least 50 pounds on our tool belts, we’ve got our hard hats and boots, and it’s 6 a.m.
“Before I got into this… I pretty much saw construction workers as being like an inconvenience when you’re traveling down the road. I never really knew how important they were until I became one.”
Her work sends her home tired, but Harper said it has also expanded her perspective. She hopes to complete her apprenticeship and spend several years working as a journeyman before finding work as a site project manager.
“I have to pay attention, so I don’t get hurt on the job. Now I know how to use that equipment. I know what everything is for, having seen it from the inside out, or from 20 stories above, so it’s a different view,” she said.
“It’s definitely very draining and taxing on my body,” Harper added. “I have a 9-year-old and a 12-year-old. They’re very proud of me. They love to see pictures and videos of my work, they’re nice enough when I get home and they appreciate what I’m doing.”
This year’s group has gone co-ed, but Richmond resident Maria Bautista, 27, said that hasn’t bothered her at all.
“I know most of my jobs have always been men and women working together,” Bautista said. “I’ve never had any problems with anybody, we actually always get along. But I feel more of the challenge is going to be once I’m in the field, because it’s going to be like: I love working with men who already know what they’re doing and I’m going in as an apprentice. That’s gonna be the most challenging part.”
Bautista said her curiosity about the trades built up after years packing goods in warehouses.
“I don’t like to be sitting down behind a desk, I like to be moving,” she said. “The physical part of the construction is something that I feel like it’s gonna be tiring and tough, but I’m gonna get through it. My interest in construction started about a year or two ago, but I was afraid to go into it. I’m just gonna be in there learning as much as I can. They say the more you know, the more you earn.”
She said she’s looking forward not only to completing a pre-apprentice program in mid-December and pursuing journeyman status and a job in drywall finishing, but in showing her family she can do it.
“For them, they think that the trades are mainly jobs for men, but I’m pretty sure at the end they’re going to be on my side, they’re going to support me once they see me in there and working,” Bautista said.
Harper said she’s proud of what she’s accomplished.
“I feel like I’m powerful. The fact that I’m helping something exist. I’m building it and it’s going to be there long after I’m gone,” she said.
