City of Providence

The City of Providence has taken innovative steps to ensure that residents have access to quality careers through the First Source Hiring Ordinance and AUP is a natural extension of the ordinance for the construction sector.

Building Futures partnered with Mayor David Cicilline and his administration to implement AUP, given the City's track record of concern for creating employment pathways for low-income residents. And with "Building a Legacy - Rebuilding Providence Schools" campaign - a perfect match was found.

AUP was integrated directly into bidding specifications - a preferred method - allowing maximum control by the project owner as to how AUP is implemented. With 15% of the total labor hours on the project to be performed by apprentices residing in Providence, local hiring goals and skills training have been effectively addressed together.

A major project recently completed with AUP is the Providence Career and Technical Academy, a 93M dollar training facility providing high-quality, career oriented education for 820 students. This project provided work opportunities for our graduates and other apprentices.

Seal of the City of Providence

How do you feel about being a part of building a new vocational school for Providence students?

“It’s just a great opportunity to be involved in this project. Like I said, I went to Mount Pleasant High first before I went to Ocean Tides. So it feels great to be a part of this. It’s like building history. It was really nice to see the kids’ faces [during the topping-off ceremony on November, 21^st]. I think there are just so many opportunities that young students have now. We didn’t have those kinds of opportunities that they do.”

Varsana Sihavong,
Building Futures Graduate,
currently working on the new Providence Career and Technical Academy