Antonio T. Vaz, but you can call him Tony, had always wanted to work in construction. However after coming to the United States from Cape Verde four years ago, he was disappointed with all the “cleaning jobs I kept finding.” Tony, 25, worked both as a roof truss fabricator for a manufacturing company and as a landscaper.  But the jobs that were open to him didn’t provide the technical skills training he knew he was capable of or the opportunity for a long term career. Tony says, “I grew bored of it, sometimes I had to be the one who would sweep the floor or clean yards and that was not the type of work I wanted to be doing.”

Prior to Building Futures, Tony had “helped people on renovation projects here and there, but it wasn’t a learning type of environment.” Finally, he would get the work experience he was looking for by joining Building Futures. “I came to Building Futures and it changed my life. I found the trade I had always been looking for and I never expected to get into the union and that was big for me. I was just looking for a job in construction.”