Page 43 - Demo

Special Advertising Section | Sunday, April 27, 2025 43By Cathie AndersonThe Sacramento BeeAfter 10 years in prison, Sidney Randle stepped into a world transformed by technology and the pandemic.He wanted to get a job and turn his life around, but gone were the days when he could dress to impress, walk into a business, fill out a job application and try to make a personal connection. At 30, he had to learn to search for jobs online and apply through websites or apps.He was confused by the process and wondered whether anyone was even looking at his applications, he said. Days turned into weeks, and he heard nothing.Then came a text message from his mother. She shared a flyer about a nine-week training program that would prepare novices to start an apprenticeship in any of nearly 30 building trades.Randle saw it as a simple one-page invitation to put his life on a secure financial footing, he said, so he dialed the phone number provided, left his personal information and hoped that a career pathway would open for him.That call connected Randle with Kevin Brown, a pro-baseball-player-turned-preacher who set out 11 years ago to ensure that residents of Sacramento%u2019s poorest neighborhoods got a shot at construction jobs at Golden 1 Center and other multimilliondollar developments planned in the region.Brown and his wife Cynthia created a nonprofit, now called People Working Together, that has launched Randle and hundreds of other California residents into careers as registered apprentices, journeymen, foremen, superintendents, contractors and more. Roughly 150 alumni recently showed up for a city council meeting to show just how successful the Browns and PWT have been in their work.%u201cPeople have this idea that construction is just building buildings,%u201d Brown said. %u201cBut really, it%u2019s about building people, and that%u2019s what we%u2019ve done.%u201dPeople Working Together continues to spread the word about job opportunities in the building industry, periodically holding job fairs around the region. Brown also has served as the pre-apprenticeship readiness director for the Sacramento-Sierra%u2019s Building & Construction Trades Council since 2017, allowing him to talk directly with union leaders about what it takes to be successful.Nonprofit offers training needed for jobsBack in 2014 when Brown began to consider how to address workforce development, he brought together pastors from 51 African American churches to ponder the direction to take. That group was called Pastors Working Together, but by 2015, Brown and his wife decided to focus on building educational opportunities for people of all races and cultures.Those opportunities were the crucial missing piece for city residents living in the poorest neighborhoods and for individuals such as Randle re-entering life outside prisons.%u201cI saw a need,%u201d Brown said. %u201cThese people needed something real, something that could give them a future. I didn%u2019t have all the answers, but I knew what was needed %u2014 a way in, a way to rise.%u201dThe nonprofit gave Randle a chance, and he took it.He had to learn how to work, how to show up every day and how to do the job right, he said. Instructors and alumni worked with him to help him master math and other skills he needed to succeed.After Randle graduated, a week passed with no news of a job. Then two weeks. Then, he got his shot with a subcontractor installing tile in a new building.When he successfully completed that first job, others came fast. He worked on a state office building, two courthouses, an aquatics complex and a firefighter memorial.Each project allowed him to gain proficiency in all the different skills of his trade %u2014 and one by one, he acquired the hours and passed the tests required to become a journeyman in the International Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers.%u201cI know how to do this,%u201d Randle said. %u201cI know how to build. I know how to work.%u201d Sidney Randle asks students what vocation they would like to study at the People Working Together training facility in Sacramento. Randle, who learned job skills at PWT after serving 10 years in prison, helps mentor people in the program. (Ren%u00e9e C. Byer/The Sacramento Bee via TNS) %u009c%u0098%u00ab%u00c0%u009cw%u00cc%u0003}%u0088%u00dbi%u00c3%u0003%u00c0i%u00c3%u0088`i%u0098%u00cc%u00c3>%u0003%u00c3%u0085%u009c%u00cc%u0003>%u00cc%u0003V%u009c%u0098%u00c3%u00cc%u00c0%u00d5V%u00cc%u0088%u009c%u0098%u0003V>%u00c0ii%u00c0%u00c3