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In this episode, we’re thrilled to welcome Dr. Estelle-Marie Montgomery, Executive Director of the FH Faunteroy Community Enrichment Center. Over the past four years, Dr. Montgomery and guest host Mark Drury have collaborated on workforce development initiatives, and today, she shares her inspiring journey to Deanwood along with her vision for Washington DC’s first Resilience Hub. We’ll dive into how resilient communities benefit employers seeking talent, the importance of candidate vetting in construction bootcamps, and how the construction community can support this exciting project. Don’t miss this insightful conversation! 0:36 Meet Our Sponsors 2:22: Introduction of Guest Host, Mark Drury. 3:45 Mark’s role in the DC Students Construction Trade Foundation 5:15: Introduction of Guest, Dr. Estelle Marie Montgomery Executive Director, F.H. Faunteroy Community Enrichment Center 10:16 What is a Resilience Hub? 11:36 How does building a stronger community help fill our pipeline? How do we find people to fill our First Source Agreement? 16:49 Success with Construction Bootcamps and Investing in People Upfront 22:40 How Construction Companies Can Support Local Communities 23:33 Workforce Development Plans and Cohorts for Candidates 25:53 Next Steps for Faunteroy Center and How Construction Industry Can Assist 25:44 Current Funders 32:04 Ward 7 Flooding Issues and Mitigation Projects 35:45 Parting Words on Workforce Development and Careers in Construction Thank You to Our Sponsors: Well Built Construction Consulting https://www.wellbuiltconsulting.com/ Steel Toe Communications (Digital Marketing for Contractors) https://www.steeltoecommunications.com/ Katz Abosch (Tax, Audits and Accounting) https://www.katzabosch.com/ Lawrence Law (Legal Challenges for Contractors) https://lawrencelawllc.com/ Sandy Spring Bank https://www.sandyspringbank.com/ Genesis AEC (Full Service Architecture, Engineering, Construction in Life Sciences) https://www.genesisaec.com/ Marsh McLennan Agency https://www.marshmma.com/?utm_source=... Construction Links Network: https://constructionlinks.ca/ For additional episodes and information visit https://www.themorninghuddleconstructionshow.com/about Subscribe to our weekly e-newsletter for the latest updates. https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/s...

0:23 Independent Electrical Contractors: Skills USA Involvement and Workforce Development 2:58 How IEC works with parents and students to train future electricians. 3:24 Jacksonville, NC Teacher and Skills USA Coach chats about his all girl Teamworks Team: Carpenter, Plumber Bricklayer and Electrician. 4:40 Skills Jam Documentary 5:39 Teacher Involvement with SkillsUSA. 7:22 Using Associations to connect schools to businesses. 7:52 Otis Elevators talks about careers in the Elevator Industry. 9:36 Why all trades can transform over to the Elevator Industry. 10:08 Career Pathway Showcase for Career Services: Students Discuss Why SkillsUSA 10:42 National Technical Honor Society looking to make quality connections with Top Contractors: 100k Active Members, 65k New Members NTHS.ORG 12:47 Don't shy away from a school that doesn't have a construction program, have a conversation with a CTE instructor. 13:14 Skills USA Competitors talk about their involvement in the largest skilled trades competition. 14:07 General Dynamics builds destroyers for the navy, and also visits high schools to develop relationships with students. 18:06 York Technical College, SC student is set to compete in the HVAC category. 20:51 Recruiters from McCarthy on fall and spring apprenticeships and internship programs. 22:58 Interplay Learning talks about non-traditional academics, and consistently adding new modules to their program to help businesses, schools, and non-profits who want to learn about the trades in a digital format. 26:52 CBRE employs over 45k technicians all over the world. 29:18 Virtual Reality Demo 30:20 Two Skills USA student competitors talk carpentry and drywall.

Construction company owners are often highly capable sellers and doers. They built their business from scratch to where it is today for a reason! This all works fine until one day, they wake up and realize they've created a time-eating, stress-producing monster with themselves at the center. What they need is a team of trusted leaders inside their business to help them take control and reduce the pressure on a single owner. They need an executive team. In this episode, Chad and Matt talk about how and why owners should create an executive team. Also, they fight about work-from-home arrangements in the construction industry in our XvY segment. Subscribe to be notified when new episodes are released on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or LinkedIn. If you’re looking for more ways to engage with the wider construction community, check out our affiliate podcast, The Morning Huddle Construction Show, hosted by Chad Prinkey, Well Built Construction Consulting and Stacey Holsinger from Steel Toe Communications. Tune in every Tuesday morning at 9 A.M. EST on LinkedIn Live for discussions with A/E/C experts, advancing the construction community. 0:00 What is the "Well Built Series?" 3:00 Check-ins! 3:57 What is the "Well Built" book? 6:18 What was Chad's inspiration for writing "Well Built?" 12:57 Why do we build executive teams? 23:05 What is an executive team? 26:37 What is the difference between a management team and an executive team? 32:54 How do you go about setting up your executive team? 35:23 Where do you start when choosing your executive team? 47:25 Home vs Hybrid workplace 57:33 How do we create a positive work environment? 59:40 Can working from home in the construction industry be successful? 1:01:25 What are we reading and what are the biggest takeaways? Thank you to our sponsors! Well Built Construction Consulting https://www.wellbuiltconsulting.com/ Steel Toe Communications (Digital Marketing for Contractors) https://www.steeltoecommunications.com/ Katz Abosch (Tax, Audits and Accounting) https://www.katzabosch.com/ Lawrence Law (Legal Challenges for Contractors) https://lawrencelawllc.com/ Sandy Spring Bank https://www.sandyspringbank.com/ Genesis AEC (Full Service Architecture, Engineering, Construction in Life Sciences) https://www.genesisaec.com/ Marsh McLennan Agency https://www.marshmma.com/?utm_source=... Construction Links Network: https://constructionlinks.ca/ For additional episodes and information visit: http://www.themorninghuddleconstructionshow.com/ Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/82318299/admin/dashboard/ Subscribe to our weekly e-newsletter for the latest updates: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/sl/Ro2QrVt/Themorninghuddlepodcast?__cf_chl_tk=9S8PSaN6zCOUNBhPtHXE.qk8HWtzxNNluBDlsEYhZkg-1726511898-0.0.1.1-8361

In this episode, we delve into the private side of the public-private discussion. We're joined by Neal Rackleff, Attorney at Law at Rackleff LLP, to uncover the challenges faced by professionals dealing with government entities. We’ll explore process-oriented reasons behind the distinct behaviors of government employees versus their private sector counterparts. Neal dispels common notions about the public and private sectors, sharing his unique experiences. Tune in to understand Neal’s impactful journey—from private roles to federal government positions and back again.

Join The Morning Huddle for an insightful conversation with Jennifer Todd, President of LMS General Contractors, as she explores the nuances of unconscious bias and its impact on the construction industry. Drawing from her experiences, Jennifer reveals how these underlying attitudes shape the industry, potentially impeding efforts toward inclusivity and diversity. Discover strategies for cultivating a more equitable future in construction as Jennifer uncovers the effects of unconscious bias and shares her insights.

Mike Henderson has served the construction industry as a part of the Associated Builders and Contractors for over 30 years. In his role as the President of ABC Baltimore, his sights have turned to positively impacting the minority contracting community as well. Chad and Mike will discuss an innovative approach they're both working on in the city of Baltimore to create profitable growth for the minority contracting community and the good of the overall construction industry.

In this episode, we explore the evolving landscape of social media strategies and transformative tactics in the commercial contracting sector. We'll examine the strategic collaboration where marketing, sales, and business development should converge, making "collaboration" a vital force in content creation. Our guests, Matt Graves, founder of Construction Yeti, and Jonathan Cor, founder of Customer Growth, share unique insights and uncover out-of-the-box approaches for securing optimal coverage and selecting the most impactful social channels. Join the conversation as we dive into innovative strategies to up your game in the competitive commercial contracting world.

As governments and school districts recognize the massive need for employees in the construction industry and the phenomenal opportunity that need presents to their students and constituents, many are finally investing time, money, and energy in developing successful CTE programs. Our guest, Catherine Schoenenberger, joins us to share a time-tested and proven methodology she has been overseeing for years.

It has been proven that exposure to the construction industry for school-aged kids inspires many to join the industry upon graduation. By the time kids are in high school, many have preconceived notions about the industry that make them hard to reach. In this episode, Mr. Jarrett joins us to share his story about the first CTE Program in Middle School in Philadelphia and the impact it's making on young lives.

With over 20 years of experience and certifications across multiple trades, Jason Blackwell was in a wreck that changed the trajectory of his life. Approached with the opportunity to teach, Jason found ways to inspire and support his students through his CTE program. In 2022, as the high school industrial maintenance teacher at Escambia Career Readiness Center in Brewton, Alabama, Jason was named a grand prize winner of the 2022 Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence, winning $30,000 for himself and $70,000 for his program. That then led to his current role with the Alabama State Department of Education and dreams of running for Governor. Join us to uncover what it takes to master craft training in and out of the classroom.

Countless women in construction have been sacrificing comfort and jeopardizing their safety for years by adopting PPE designed for male bodies. Dave Rosenbluth National Sales Manager for Utility Pro Wear will join us to discuss a manufacturer’s perspective on Equity and Access to Safety Apparel for women. This episode contains a discount code for apparel, so be sure to tune in!

$7M in baby boomer businesses will sell by 2030. Many of those will be building contractors. Whether you’re in the market to sell or potentially buy one of these firms, or you simply want to understand the changing ownership landscape of the construction industry, join us for this episode. We have Eric B. Pacifici, Partner with SMB Law with extensive experience with acquisitions joining us for the discussion. He is leading small to mid-sized businesses to get smart about buying and selling in this dynamic market.

Most people don't associate the construction industry with human trafficking, but it is happening on a large scale worldwide. In this show, we learn what human trafficking really is and how we can play a role in snuffing it out.

Meg Hughey and Miranda Nehrig from Freedom Network USA are on the front lines of the issue, working to educate owners and employees on how to spot and resolve the issue.

Transcript:

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00:01
Speaker 1
All right, it's morning huddle time. Good morning. I'm not saying it works. I wish you God speed. Godspeed with all of that. I think that's really nice. You know, I'm not sure what kind of success you're gonna have with that today because the world, my friend, has changed. Right. A lot of American construction workers, they have different needs.

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00:21
Speaker 2
They have completely different needs.

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00:22
Speaker 3
These awards have a huge, like, criteria that you have to fill out. And they usually have a community service.

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00:29
Speaker 2
Or community, you know, the most productive with a high performance value. And, you know, sometimes it's 11 o' clock at night.

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00:40
Speaker 1
Funny, isn't that? Yeah, not. Not for me.

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00:43
Speaker 2
Not for me.

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00:44
Speaker 1
At 11 o', clock, I am guaranteed to be snoring, so.

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00:48
Speaker 3
So.

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00:57
Speaker 1
It's morning huddle time. Good morning. I'm Chad Prinke. I'm here with Miranda Narig and Meg Huey, our two guests today. Miranda and Meg, thank you so much for joining. How are you two today?

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01:09
Speaker 2
Excellent, excellent. Thank you, Chad.

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01:11
Speaker 4
Doing great.

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01:13
Speaker 1
Yeah. All right. Where are you two in the world? Where are you located? That's always one of my favorite questions to get rolling and just. And then, like, the classic, how's the weather? Where are you, Miranda?

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01:25
Speaker 2
So I am indianapolis, Indiana, and the weather currently is a bit gray and rainy. So I think that's the. The trend as we're entering November.

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01:38
Speaker 1
Indy. So we're on the. You're. You're Eastern time, though, right? In Indy?

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01:41
Speaker 4
Yes.

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01:42
Speaker 2
Although Indiana does that weird thing where, like, part of Indiana and like, in the region is on Central Time, as is like, a very small section of the Southern state. So where I am on Eastern time. But depending on where you're at in the state, it can change a little bit.

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02:00
Speaker 1
Learning new things every day. I didn't realize there was a little part of India. Is it the part right by Chicago that stays on Chicago?

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02:07
Speaker 2
Claimed it, yeah. It's. It's on Central. And then like, the southern tip is just a little bit closer to the Illinois side of life. So they are also on Central Time.

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02:20
Speaker 1
Right on. And Meg, where are you in the world?

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02:22
Speaker 4
I am in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which is also on Eastern time.

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02:26
Speaker 1
No, I thought that was firmly in Central time.

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02:29
Speaker 4
No, I am Eastern time, which is really weird. I am halfway between Detroit and Chicago. Almost exactly. So that's kind of cool. It's really easy to take little, like, weekend trips to either place. And it's also really rainy and gray here. So I turned my heat on today, which I was not Excited to do, but here we are.

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02:49
Speaker 1
Yeah, it's always that. It's like when you admit defeat and winter is showing up and you're like, here we go. Yeah, I know. I fight it. I was in my brother's house this weekend. It was like, 61 degrees, and were gritting our teeth like, we're not doing it. His wife came in and clicked on the heat, and he was like, all right, well, we lost.

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03:08
Speaker 2
We have accepted the loss in this moment.

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03:11
Speaker 1
Yep. We're just not gonna make it. Well, awesome. I see that Stacy has just joined. Stacy, I'm going to bring you on. Is that okay? Right here. There she is.

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03:20
Speaker 3
Good morning, everyone. Good morning.

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03:25
Speaker 1
Stacy. Any exciting stories about why you're a couple minutes behind today?

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03:29
Speaker 3
No, not exciting computer stuff.

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03:33
Speaker 1
Boring stories where I'm angry and I'm behind. Yeah, I know. I know that. I know the drill. Well, welcome, everyone's Halloween. Hello. Oh, my God. My kids. My kids brought home. I think everybody, like, weighed their candy. It was. It was. It was like, three pounds of candy. A child. It was. It's too much candy. We're gonna donate it to, like, kids who need candy. I don't. I think that's the wrong thing. I think we should donate other things. I think from what. From what I understand, though, the school is collecting the candy and sending it to, I think, troops who don't get Halloween. Yeah, right. Because what are you gonna do? They're already kind of in costume. No, I'm joking. That's not true. All right, good. Let's move. Let's move.

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04:17
Speaker 1
So today's topic, we're going to talk about human trafficking, which is something that I didn't think I'd be talking about in relation to the construction industry. If you'd asked me two years ago, I'd have said, huh? But over the past couple of years, I've been learning a lot and getting exposed to some really interesting studies and actually had the opportunity to see Meg present in a. I think, a webinar about a year ago. Meg with the associate. I'm sorry, the American Subcontractors association of Metro. Time.

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04:50
Speaker 4
Makes no sense at this point, Chad. So.

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04:54
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, in the. In the virtual world. But that really opened my eyes to some things. So human trafficking is a thing in the construction industry. It's not only a thing that we all know exists. And when we think about human trafficking, our minds don't naturally. I think, you know, the general population, if you will. Our minds don't naturally go to construction, but it's there. And so what I want to do is invite Miranda and Meg to help us to understand what this is, what it looks like, what we can do about it in, in the day to day for our audience, which is made up of people who work in and who serve the construction industry.

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05:35
Speaker 1
So Stacy, as always, make sure that we get that audience question factor rolled in so that we've got some good stuff to bring to Miranda and Meg here toward the end. But I am going to ask Miranda and Meg to start off by just describing what Freedom Network USA is all about. So whoever wants to take that.

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05:55
Speaker 2
Absolutely. So Freedom Network USA is a national coalition that provides a space for service providers, legal entities, individuals to come together and have a space to share resources and to have an idea or a finger on the pulse of what's happening across the nation when it comes to services for survivors of both sex and labor trafficking. So that's the majority of the organization. And then we do have subsections within our organization. A housing team, there's a general training team, there's a team that focuses on membership. So they help organize all of the organizations and individuals who want to become a part of the coalition. And then there is our survivor reentry project, which is what I coordinate.

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06:53
Speaker 2
So I am a staff attorney with Freedom Network USA and I not only represent my own clients here in the state of Indiana, but I also coordinate cases nationally for survivors who are seeking criminal record relief that is tied to their trafficking experience.

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07:13
Speaker 1
Wow.

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07:14
Speaker 2
Yeah. So some big stuff. Meg, is there anything you want to add in that little.

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07:19
Speaker 4
Oh, you did such a great job. I'll tell you what my role is just context, but so I'm a resource specialist at Freedom Network, which basically means that I help to create all of our webinars and trainings and deliver those trainings and then also help to create a lot of the content see on our website. So we do have a really, I'm really pleased with it. It's a free kind of website, resource hub. So you can go to our website and there's like fact sheets, toolkits, case studies, things like that to just sort of help service professionals like learn more about human trafficking, learn how to work with survivors of human trafficking. So I help create a lot of those sort of behind the scenes materials as well.

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08:04
Speaker 1
Awesome. So, so if I can restate what I think I understand just for confirmation or correction, it would be that you are a network of providers. You're that what Freedom Network USA is all about kind of creating a network across the USA for survivors to tap into all to various types of resources they may need. So you exist for the benefit of the survivors of human trafficking? Yeah. Yep, yep. All right. All right, cool. And it just to give us a little bit of a sense of like, sort of size and scope. Are you in all states? Where are you? And, and what, what's the, you know, I don't know, the footprint look like today?

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08:51
Speaker 2
So we have over 90 members, I want to say, and that includes organizations and individuals. From my understanding, as of right now, we're in most of the continental usa. I can't speak to our territories or to Alaska and Hawaii, but on, at least within the continental usa, we are. We have someone present in about every state.

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09:20
Speaker 3
Yeah.

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09:21
Speaker 2
And I think I answered all the questions.

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09:23
Speaker 1
That's good.

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09:25
Speaker 4
Great.

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09:25
Speaker 2
We did it. Congratulations.

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09:27
Speaker 1
There's that moment where you wonder, like, am I done? Yeah, you?

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09:30
Speaker 3
Yeah.

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09:31
Speaker 2
Did I touch on all of the questions?

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09:35
Speaker 1
It was perfect. No changes. All right, so that's. That, that's really good context for who you are and what you do. What. So, so what is human trafficking? You know, provide that definition for the group and then. Yeah, just in its purest form. And then maybe what we can do is talk about how that specifically manifests in the construction industry.

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10:01
Speaker 4
Yeah. So Miranda, do you want to, since you're an attorney, talk about the legal definition? And then I can kind of talk a little bit more about how that manifests in the trafficking or in the construction industry, not the trafficking industry.

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10:14
Speaker 2
Absolutely. So I will read verbatim the federal law for human trafficking. So federal law defines a severe form of trafficking in persons as. And then there are two definitions. Right. So there's sex trafficking, which is the recruitment, harboring, transportation provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act, which is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age. So basically with either. Well, let me finish labor trafficking and then I'll break it down a little bit more. So with labor trafficking, it is again the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt, bondage, or slavery.

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11:14
Speaker 2
So really the elements you need are the force, fraud, or coercion to get a benefit is the simplest breakdown. You, the person who is doing the trafficking has used illicit form in order to make another person serve them in some way, whether it be for labor services or commercial sex act.

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11:37
Speaker 1
Yep. Okay. And so, Meg, bring this home for our audience, which is, as I mentioned, you're right, made up of pretty much just folks in and around the construction industry.

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11:52
Speaker 4
Yeah. So what we're really tending to see in the construction industry is labor trafficking manifesting. So essentially somebody being forced to perform some type of work, in this case, some type of construction work. Oftentimes we're seeing, you know, folks from other countries who may be undocumented, folks who may have been smuggled into the country being forced to do construction work. Sometimes they may not be, you know, getting the. The full wage that they were promised. Sometimes they may be working very dangerous jobs without proper safety equipment or without access to medical care if something happens. Sometimes we've seen folks being kind of forced to live one particular site altogether without the ability to leave. There's just always some type of fraud happening or force happening or coercion happening.

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12:46
Speaker 4
So again, we may see that as something called debt bondage, where somebody believes that they owe some type of debt to the folks that they're working for and they have to work till it's paid off. We sometimes see folks having, you know, their documents taken by the people in charge and telling them they have to work for, you know, their documents to be returned to them. Things like that. Where we're seeing that a lot of the time undocumented folks are being trafficked in the construction industry because it may be easier to employ them because you don't have to jump through all the hoops of legal employment. Employment.

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13:24
Speaker 4
And it also may be easier to exploit them simply because they either do not know their rights in the United States or they are fearful of law enforcement because they don't have that documentation that might protect them in the country. So that's a very quick breakdown of some things we've seen manifesting in the construction industry, but certainly not a full list or breakdown.

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13:47
Speaker 1
Fantastic. I mean, not fantastic, but a really good description. Right. And. And so help me or help our audience to understand. Well, first off, this isn't just in the construction industry. Right. This is in terms of. If we, as we focus on labor trafficking, it's not just in the construction industry. Where else would we see this?

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14:09
Speaker 4
Yeah, so really we can see this anywhere that people are and that jobs exist, essentially. So there is a huge kind of scope of where labor trafficking can happen anywhere from domestic work within someone's house to you know, obviously the construction industry to every industry in between, essentially anywhere that people work and there's the ability to exploit them, we can see labor trafficking happen. I don't know if you want to add anything to that, too, Miranda, of anything you've seen.

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14:40
Speaker 2
Yeah, I was just going to say that, like, some. Some big things to think about are where you might. There's not as much regulation in terms of the labor force, so the restaurant industry, construction, obviously, as we're here, and then the domestic labor side of things, because you can. You need a big workforce.

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15:04
Speaker 4
Right?

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15:04
Speaker 2
Or like the hotel industry, you need a big workforce in order to get things done. And in order to do that, you sometimes use under the table means.

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15:15
Speaker 4
Right.

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15:15
Speaker 2
In order to pay like, or make sure that you're getting access to the laborers. Another would be our. Our farm, our farming industry. Agricultural industries, where again, you need a big workforce and you might. You might need it seasonally or you just. You by any means necessary, you are trying to get the work done and there's very little oversight, which makes it easier to exploit and then take advantage of the folks.

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15:47
Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah, okay, that makes sense. So that it paints a good picture. Unregulated labor force, large numbers of people needed. And, man, I have so many feelings about this topic. And. But one of the things that I really want to make sure that the two of you have the opportunity to talk about to our audience because is. Is that how do we spot it? How do we identify it when it's going on? And. And then ultimately, what do we do about it? But let's. Let's start. Let's start with how do we spot it? What does it look like when it's going on? And I'll. I'll do you the.

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16:32
Speaker 1
Because when were talking about this in preparation, the two of you were like, it's super important that we have a disclaimer on the front side of this that what we don't want to be doing is going and sort of imagining into creation, you know, trafficking. Where trafficking isn't occurring. There's, there's, you know, trafficking is a very specific and narrow definition that we've gone through. And we don't want to go around sort of, you know, as amateur detectives and go creating drama where it doesn't exist. So a lot of people may be voluntarily selecting into, you know, lines of work, types of work, types of living circumstances and things like that just, you know, it ain't our business what they're choosing to do, but there are people who need help. And. And so I don't know if I did your disclaimer for you.

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17:27
Speaker 1
Feel free to build on that disclaimer. But I want to. I want to make sure that we. That we hit that clearly before we start talking about how to. How to identify it, how to spot it.

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17:35
Speaker 2
Can I hop up real quick, Meg?

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17:36
Speaker 4
Sorry.

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17:37
Speaker 1
Here comes the lawyer.

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17:38
Speaker 2
Yeah. No, well, yeah, no, of course. I mean, if my job is. I am who I am, Chad. Okay.

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17:45
Speaker 4
All right.

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17:45
Speaker 2
So, excellent disclaimer. The only things I wanted to just add. Add on in terms of. So when we're being careful about not conflating trafficking with something else. So a big one would be smuggling. These are. They're not the same. Smuggling is a voluntary agreement for someone to be moved across the border illegally. And once the border is crossed, relationship is done. And the person being moved is not necessarily forced to do anything. Smuggling, not trafficking. And I think that there is that misconception that trafficking is taken. Right. And we all are, Liam Neeson, with a certain set of skills, trying to save our daughters. That is. That is not what we're talking about.

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18:34
Speaker 1
Right.

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18:35
Speaker 2
That is, you know, I just. Very important also from, you know, well, from a sex trafficking side of things. You know, sex trafficking is not inherently a commercial sex act between two consenting adults, but under federal law, any person that is under 18 is inherently. Is automatically being trafficked because you. You can. You can't consent to sex before the age of 18.

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19:01
Speaker 1
Yeah. As it relates to sex trafficking, that makes a ton. I could be like, I'm consenting, and they'd be like, you're 17, you can't.

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19:07
Speaker 2
And the only reason I highlight that is because, you know, Freedom Network does do a lot of policy advocacy as well. And we believe in, you know, supporting adults who are making their own consenting choices. And so the conflation of sex work into trafficking automatically is. Is not our game. So that's the only thing I wanted to put on. The disclaimer was wonderful. Excellent work, Meg. Anything?

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19:38
Speaker 4
Yeah, no, I think that's. That was all really great. Chad and Miranda, how do we spot it? Yeah, so there's. There's some things that we've kind of seen across the board happening in a lot of trafficking cases. There's some things that may happen in some cases, some that may not happen in certain cases. We often will see things mimicking a lot of, you know, similar signs to things like sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse as well. So there's many kind of interconnected crimes who all may have sort of similar, you know, red flags, for lack of a better term, that stick out. So, you know, if you spot something like this, it may be worth looking into, even if it doesn't, you know, manifest as trafficking.

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20:26
Speaker 4
But some things that are more specifically, often trafficking related are things like people not having access to their own legal documents, particularly if they are folks who are undocumented. If they have any piece of identification, if that is held from them and they're not able to kind of prove who they are, that's often a sign that something's not right. Because of course you're not going to be able to do anything else if you don't have your identity. Right. We also see oftentimes like if people similar to other crimes that I just mentioned, people having unexplained injuries. So in the context of the construction industry, that may be people having injuries like concussions, foot crushing injuries, broken bones that haven't been treated, things that really should have been prevented by proper safety equipment.

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21:17
Speaker 4
They may not have access to those things either because they are treated as sort of a disposable piece of property, essentially. They may not have access to go to health care because of course, either they don't have insurance or the person or industry trafficking them doesn't want them to go to health care because they don't want to be found out. We also, a huge thing that we often see in labor trafficking in particular, again, is people not getting paid at all. Maybe they're getting paid for far less than they were promised. Maybe they're expecting to do one job when they sign a contract or they agree to do a job and it turns into something totally different from the scope of work that they had planned on doing.

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22:04
Speaker 4
That's something that we also kind of classically see happening in labor trafficking that either confiscation of money or not paying people is really to kind of keep people being trafficked, right? Like if you again, don't have access to your money, don't have access to documents, there's no way that you're going to be able to escape that situation, provide for yourself or your family, do something else, get your own place to live, things like that.

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22:31
Speaker 4
Again, those kind of control tactics are really something that we're seeing often in labor trafficking, as well as fear being instilled in folks, particularly those folks who are immigrant workers or undocumented immigrant workers, being told that the police are going to be called on them if they don't comply with what the trafficker wants or that they're going to be deported or that their family is going to be harmed back in their home country if they do not do what the trafficker wants? Again, you know, American citizens can also be trafficked in the construction industry as well. But again, we more commonly are seeing our undocumented folks and our folks who have other vulnerabilities being our trafficking survivors.

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23:13
Speaker 1
Yep, that's an extremely useful description. And as I, as you describe it, I can picture it. I'm betting that there are people in our audience who are picking, you know, who actually have that picture in their mind right now, maybe have even helped someone like that to navigate a situation like this. So that begs the question, what do we do? What do we do when that happens? When we, when we identify those red flags, what should we do? Especially when we're not in a position to fix it ourselves? Right. Was it that the person doesn't, they're not our employer or our employee. We can't just be like, oh, I'm sorry, I'm going to stop doing that to you. Right. What do you do, you know, if you're just a do gooder, Right. A person who's trying to do good.

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23:57
Speaker 2
So I think that first and foremost is knowing not only like some of the red flags that Meg mentioned, but also an important element here throughout is safety for yourself and safety for these workers who you think might be experiencing this victimization.

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24:16
Speaker 4
Right.

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24:17
Speaker 2
And so that I, my recommendation would be if, you know, if you're able to have a conversation and ask some open ended questions, like if you're getting the sense of, if you see someone who's injured or if you see someone, like if you're seeing a group of laborers being brought to the work site and then being taken away from the work site together, and there's very little freedom in their movement, you can ask some open end questions about, you know, how their day to day is going, how you know what their experience is and you know, what their expectation of the job was versus what they're doing on the site. And that can give you some ideas about what their experience is. I think another important element here is to know your rights as the employee and their rights.

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25:13
Speaker 4
Right.

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25:13
Speaker 2
So I'm not saying you have to memorize every single legal remedy, every single right, but having a basic understanding of your rights as an employee or an independent contractor laborer on a site allows you to know what the rights of those around you are and you can communicate those rights to your fellow laborers. Because we all should know what our rights are as the people who are working on the job site and if you know the local legal services that are available to you. So indiana, for example, we have a legal services agency called Indiana Legal Services and they have a specific subsection that focuses on connecting with non citizen immigrant workers and making sure that they know their rights.

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26:05
Speaker 2
And if they feel their rights have been violated, they have the contact information for the legal services so that they can see what remedies are available to them. And so if you have an idea or if you are seeing a group of folks who you think are being trafficked or exploited, you can provide that information to them in a safe manner and allow them to make those decisions for themselves. Because I'm sorry, I'm just going to.

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26:36
Speaker 1
Say on a big commercial job site, right, there's opportunities here so the general contractor can posters, they can put up, you know, information, you know, and with numbers and resources and specific people, potentially even on the job site that you can go and talk to if this type of thing is happening. I could also see the general contractor being in a position to put on a, you know, a, every three months put on a 30 minute quick seminar on the job site where all the, everybody who gets, you know, on the job site can go and sit there and you know, you might see some people's eyes in the audience saying, you know, this is me. I really, I could use help. I've been in this situation. So, so I think these are some really tangible steps that we could be taking.

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27:34
Speaker 1
And I think what I'm hearing both of you say is it's all about empowering these people. It's about empowering survivors with information and resources. But maybe stopping short of like overstepping and you know, taking control of the situation oneself. You know, we kind of have to provide people with the resources but not, I don't know, pull them out of those situations, if that makes sense, if that.

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27:59
Speaker 1
And I, I'm just putting, it's a delicate situation because we're talking about humans with agency and you know, they have decisions about how they want to handle things and even if they are being trafficked, they may not want you to handle, you may be putting them in danger, you know, you may not want to handle it, you know, drop in as Liam Neeson, so to speak, and start, you know, sorting things out, you know, that may be the wrong thing for their family.

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28:29
Speaker 2
You know, at it as A community is that it's. It's not our inherently our duty to save. It is our duty to empower one another, and we empower each other with not only education, but with that provision of available resources for folks to make informed decisions.

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28:47
Speaker 1
Yeah, that's. That's extremely. It's helpful for me to bear in mind as I. Because I totally am like a fixer and I would. I would definitely overstep without that in mind. So that's. That's very useful. Okay. Stacy, questions?

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29:03
Speaker 3
Yeah, you're talking about all these resources. Maybe, like seminars, toolbox talks. Where can we find these resources?

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29:11
Speaker 2
So. Oh, I'm sorry, Meg, you are the reason. You are the resource expert. I was gonna. My. My first step would be. So obviously, you know, we're. We're in different parts of the country, knowing what legal, like, legal services are available in the specific region and connecting with someone in that office to ask if they have these of trainings, I think is a first step. Meg might know more.

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29:39
Speaker 4
That's fine. And I think that's true, like, depending on your area. It's also really helpful to connect with folks in your area who are doing the work, just so that it can be very specific to you. But we do also have on our website, freedomnetworkusa.org we have a list of our members, so you can see kind of who across the country is a member of freedomnetworkusa.org and that may be a really useful way to like, come up with who is in your community that you can reach out to. Also, we do have a bunch of free trainings, fact sheets, toolkits, things like that. Right. On our website, as well as direct contact to us and all of our colleagues who may be able to also, like, point you in the correct direction.

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30:23
Speaker 4
We're also able to do kind of tailored trainings, depending on your needs and on your wants and, you know, the specific things that you are seeing as well. So you can also feel free to reach out to us, and we can either provide those things for you or connect you to the folks who may be the best fit for you and what you're looking for.

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30:43
Speaker 3
Great, thank you. And then I guess just a last question is how do we prevent this from happening, you know, from the start? I know it's a tough one.

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30:55
Speaker 2
It is a tough one. And Chad, in our discussion yesterday, that. That was, you know, one of the questions, right, of how do we. How do we prevent and stop trafficking? And people ask me this a lot as an attorney who works in this area. And my answer is always the same and isn't inherently one that is satisfying because it's paying, it's really participating in community in a way that eliminates these vulnerabilities.

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31:25
Speaker 4
Right.

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31:26
Speaker 2
So believing and advocating for policy changes that change how non citizen workers are provided the documents and safety they're needed to stay here and work and not be vulnerable to exploitation is a big one. Right. Specifically in labor trafficking and the basic necessities of housing, food and health care, those are the things that people need and are exploited the most for folks who are trafficked. And so I know it's the desire to perhaps volunteer and have that immediate gratification of connecting with someone who's experiencing this is like what we want, but really it's addressing those vulnerabilities as a whole, as a system that will eliminate the vulnerabilities that lead to trafficking on every level.

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32:34
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, I think so. We are in, we have a black market for labor in this country.

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32:44
Speaker 4
Absolutely.

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32:45
Speaker 1
And, and it's born of combination of supply and demand where we have a need clearly for this labor force. And, and there's a desire of this labor force to leave their home countries and to come here to service that need. And unfortunately we have an immigration system that is not workable when it comes to adequately meeting the demand for and adequately meeting the needs and the desires of the people who are looking to leave their home countries and come here. And so anytime there is a black market, anytime there's a black market, other crime will thrive. I see this all the time when I turn on that, like, you know, for me, find me where crime is happening and I will show you where other layers of crime are happening.

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33:52
Speaker 1
And, and the fact is that if you are an employer that, you know, is already breaking the law by, you know, employing tons of illegal. Right. Undocumented people. Right. Tons of. If that's already against the law, the line between breaking the next law and the next law law, it's flimsy and certainly not all of these employers are that way. But, but enough are. And, and so at the end of the day, you can be angry all you want about people pouring over the borders, right? You could be angry about our loose borders and people getting like you could, that can upset you. But you know what? Inhumanity is never okay. I don't care, you know, at the end. So, so either pack them up, ship them back or start treating Them like humans, because they are only one of those two things is okay.

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34:52
Speaker 1
And, and I think if we packed them up and shipped them back, our entire economy would collapse because we clearly have a desperate need for these people. So what we really need to do, I think when you ask that question, Stacy, we really need to do is we need to make. We need. We need to make massive overhauls where immigration policies that, that eliminate black markets for labor and acknowledge. Possible to have a black acknowledge that.

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35:17
Speaker 2
We'Re inherently dependent on the workforce. Like, I mean, I think that's the reality. And for, I guess a more tangible result also would be education, educating yourself and those around you about, again, those remedies and your rights, because these.

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35:36
Speaker 4
Are rights that are.

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35:36
Speaker 1
Are.

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35:39
Speaker 2
Available to all of us as laborers. Right. And so new to empower others. And, and like Chad's saying, it's just really acknowledging the basic humanity of everyone around you.

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35:52
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah.

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35:54
Speaker 3
Can we get Kaylee's question real quick? Because I think it's a good one. She was just asking is there any reporting processes or, you know, if there's a way to anonymously report? You know, when you see this kind of thing, where do you. How. How does that work?

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36:10
Speaker 2
There is the National Trafficking Hotline. That is typically where. Where I would direct folks. Okay, were you going to say something? No, that's.

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36:21
Speaker 4
That's exactly what I would say. Basically, you know, we would not recommend as Freedom Network, like doing direct reports necessarily to law enforcement or like that, only because that could really endanger people who may already be in dangerous situations, particularly if they are undocumented or they have another vulnerability there. So, absolutely, I would say you can feel free to report that to the National Human Trafficking Hotline as just a way for people to know that something's going on. Just as a side note, with the Human Trafficking Hotline, those are just reported cases, not substantiated cases, that are necessarily things that have actually been found to be trafficking. So whenever you view, like, stats on human trafficking, like, keep that in mind, those are just things that people think they've seen but have not necessarily come to fruition or have.

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37:19
Speaker 4
Have not necessarily actually been trafficking, just may have had some of the signs or symptoms of it. But reporting there's a really great start because it lets folks know that there's something going on in a particular area. I would also identify, like, within your workplace, if there's somebody in a position of authority who feels like there's someone trustworthy that you can talk to, I would not out the specific person that you think may be trafficked or experiencing vulnerabilities, again, because that may be dangerous for them, but just if there is somebody that you feel is a safe person for you to share, that you think that something might be going on your work site or workplace, that may also be another way for someone else to also kind of examine the culture and what's going on in your workplace.

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38:07
Speaker 1
Okay, great.

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38:08
Speaker 3
Thank you.

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38:10
Speaker 1
Miranda, Meg, thank you so much for coming on and helping us through this topic. I know this is, you know, something that, as I started off saying, it's probably not front and center on people's minds in the construction industry on a daily basis. Particular, particularly our viewers, not really thinking about it on a daily basis. But hopefully as you hit the job site this afternoon, you know, later on this morning and this afternoon, you start to take a look around, you'll have a different set of eyes on and, you know, you'll play a role in, you know, empowering people to help themselves out of these types of situations. So thank you both. Any parting words? Miranda, Matt.

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38:54
Speaker 2
I mean, just thank you very much for the opportunity to be here and talk on, to speak on this topic. I think it's really important and you know, as I've said, I'll say it again, education is really key to most of this and this is where we start, right? With these, with this dialogue, with this conversation.

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39:13
Speaker 1
So thank you.

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39:14
Speaker 4
I just want to echo that. Thank you so much for having us today. Thanks for giving us this opportunity to talk to folks. And I would say if anyone who's attended today learned something, share that with the people that you work with. Just like Miranda said, I think education is the way to shift perspectives and also kind of move the anti trafficking movement itself along. So please share that information with folks. The, the best way for people to know that they have rights and to know that you know, something is wrong is to talk about it. So please feel free to share anything you learn today with those that you work with or those at home too.

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39:52
Speaker 1
Hear, hear. Thank you. See you both. Appreciate it. Come back soon. Take care. All right, Stacy, let's talk about next week. You know, man, that's such an interesting topic. I gotta tell you. That one get, that one gets to me. There's something. So many of the people that are in the workforce were smuggled. So many of the people are smuggled, owe money to somebody.

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40:16
Speaker 3
Yeah, we're really not talking a lot about that topic like Just the past year it's been popping up so.

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40:23
Speaker 1
Well, it's popping up because of the wage theft laws and how things are starting to finally impact the larger companies that are upstream, that are responsible for hiring all the, you know, I mean, where it's really funneling from isn't the brand name general contractor, the brand name subcontractor that, you know, specialty contractor that, you know, where it's coming from is from the under, you know, the shadow labor brokers that, you know, are basically, you know, feeding the, you know, fueling the workforce. But, but maybe not always doing so in a humane way. So not only from a wage theft standpoint, but from just the way you're treating people standpoint. It gets me. Sorry, this one bothers me. So what we're talking about next week, we've got Jerry McCaughey who's coming on to talk about running an off site construction company.

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41:26
Speaker 1
So Jerry is, he's been running off site construction companies for decades and doing so mostly in Europe, came over to the United States, I don't know, something like 20 years ago or 15 years ago, started his own business here doing the same thing. That's really become a norm over there. And, and what I love about it is that we're going to be talking about, you know, things that we have hit on before like prefab and off site and you know, all that. But, but we're going to be talking about it really through the eyes and experience of somebody who does it all the time and not just somebody who is an evangelist for it, but somebody who's like, this is how you have to be set up to do it. These are the things that you need, these are the things that you don't.

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42:10
Speaker 1
These are the expenses that you're going to have. And this is how I've had success running my business. Jerry's going to be a really interesting conversation, so I look forward to that. Stacy, do we have a Steel Toe Communications marketing tip of the week?

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42:23
Speaker 3
We don't have a marketing tip of the week, but I did want to make announcement that I've had a lot of people recently reach out to me indicating they just needed help setting up or optimizing their LinkedIn profiles. So I will be hosting a seminar this spring and I don't have the date yet, but I'm hoping March. So just if you're interested in that or you need A one one. Just send me an email and I can, you know, look over what you have in, give you some advice on how to amp things up and you know, make sure you're more visible on LinkedIn.

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43:00
Speaker 1
I love it. I. Yet another thing I may take you up on, Stacy. So it's just. I appreciate you, I really do. I think that's, I think that's great. So as always, please email Stacy direct to be added to our weekly mailing list. You can obviously just direct message either one of us and we'll make that happen. But, but just know that if you send it to me, I'll be sending it to Stacy because she's the one who puts together our newsletter. Our newsletter comes out once a week. It's really specific. I think it's very useful. Every time I see it, I think, you know, this is, it's like anti spam. It's very good. And, and so, you know, thank you, Stacy, for keeping that running. And please do folks jump in on that.

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43:42
Speaker 1
We have just the month of November until the end of this season. So that means we've got four episodes left. Each one is going to be a blast. Please join us through the end of November. But also if you know anybody that should be talking to us in this forum and sharing what they're doing to create positive change in the building industry, please pass their information along for our next season. Stacy, anything else before we jump?

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44:07
Speaker 3
No. Have a great rest of your week and I'll see you next Tuesday.

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44:11
Speaker 4
Bye.

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44:11
Speaker 1
See you next Tuesday.

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Matching the capabilities of construction firms with the needs of the communities in which they operate can be a huge win-win. Many construction companies highlight "giving back" as a core value, but find themselves too pressed for time and energy to follow through in the way they'd like.

Maury Peterson with Rebuilding Together Mongomery County and Molly Cape with M-TECH Mechanical join The Huddle to share their success stories of contractors engaging in community service. They will inspire you to get involved and help you to envision how you and your company can get started.

Transcript:

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00:01
Speaker 1
We need to get back to work. And work is one of the ways that we contribute to this country, that we grow our gdp, we grow our tax base, we contribute to each other effectively. We help finance our national security, our homeland security, our infrastructure. I had key employees that really wanted to be leaders in the company, but they didn't want to have any ownership in it, responsibility that way. So I just had to start researching out and figuring out, well, how do I market my company?

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00:29
Speaker 1
Go to your local school board for one hour twice this year, and if you can have even just 10 or 15 employers show up and do that at the same school board every single month, there's two contractors filling out a little card to give your 30 seconds at the podium that says, I need your help and we have great jobs. Eventually they will hear you. But if everyone just did two hours a year, that's how we change this. Stacy, how you doing this morning?

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00:51
Speaker 2
I'm doing great.

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00:53
Speaker 1
She loves it. I ask the question every time. She's like, I'm fine, dude, just a little much.

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01:02
Speaker 3
And I say to that owner, I said, see, you're not willing to invest in yourself. You're not going to invest in yourself. You're going to invest in companies you have no control over, whereas your company, you control and you don't have the confidence to pour the money into that. When things are busy and they're looking for their GC friends to sit down and negotiate a project on a GC and a fee, and they're more excited about building the project, and then all of a sudden the model, the market swings and now the developer market is going to go out and they're going to hard bid the same project to two or three different PCs. And that's where it starts going down.

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01:44
Speaker 1
It's morning huddle time. Good morning. Episode 18. Stacy, how are you today?

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01:51
Speaker 2
I'm doing good. I'm really excited for this episode. I've done so many community service events over the past 15 years, and I know the struggles that we'll talk about today, whether it's, you know, what organizations you get involved within the construction industry or actually having the time to do it, or motivating your team to participate. So it'll be great to have both, you know, the company side and then a nonprofit side to talk about, you know, how we can solve those issues.

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02:25
Speaker 1
I've got my learning cap on for sure that there's. I'm excited about some personal takeaways as well. You know, sort of how I can get involved. And you know, thinking about ways to play a positive role in the community. So we have Molly Cape and Maury Peterson. So Molly is with us from M Tech Mechanical, which is a mechanical contractor, 500 so employees based in Colorado. Molly, tell us a little bit more about yourself.

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02:53
Speaker 4
Yeah, thanks. Good morning, everybody. Super excited to be here and chat with this topic. I'm super passionate about that, which hopefully you will see and learn about. I've been at mtech for about eight years. I'm currently the marketing manager there and amongst, you know, your typical market activities like web and social and proposals. I also oversee kind of our community engagement platform as well. So. Yeah, thank you.

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03:16
Speaker 1
Awesome. Thank you. Yeah, thank. We appreciate you being here. And then we have Maury Peterson from Rebuilding Together, Montgomery County. Mauri, just tell us a little bit about yourself.

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03:26
Speaker 5
Hi. I'm really happy to be here as well. Maury Peterson. I'm the executive director at Rebuilding Together in Montgomery County. We're a nonprofit part of an affiliate network of about 120 affiliates from across the country, and we provide critical home repairs for. For seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities. So really excited to share what we've done. I've also worked on the corporate side, so can. Can see it from both sides and happy to share what I've learned.

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03:51
Speaker 1
Awesome. That's great. Okay, so that's exactly what you two just described is what Stacy had in mind when we talked about this show was how can we bring in somebody that represents, you know, the industry side that sort of, you know, has the ability to talk about how the industry engages and the best way to get your company involved? And then how do we bring in somebody who's more on the mission side who's, you know, got the opportunities and the stories about the most successful ways they've experienced, you know, corporate involvement in particular, from the building industry in their world. And so we kind of got like, you know, 1 and 1 equals 3 on that front with this group. Right. Because Molly's got absolutely, you know, with a 500 employee organization that I know philanthropy is.

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04:46
Speaker 1
Is absolutely built into your culture, and I'm looking forward to hearing how you've been able to pull that off. But also, you know, Mori not only is on the mission side, but has background on the corporate side in making that happen. So I think we're gonna. We're gonna get, you know, a lot of really interesting perspectives on just sort of why we should want to do this, how we should pull it off, and sort of lessons learned that, you know, any organization that's joining us may take away whether you're on the corporate side or the mission side. So, Stacy, as per usual, we will have you know, field questions from the audience and encourage discussion from those folks who are joining us live this morning and bring you back with some questions, you know, here for the last 10 minutes or so to.

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05:39
Speaker 1
To funnel those in. Sound good?

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05:41
Speaker 2
Yeah, sure.

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05:42
Speaker 1
Excellent. See you soon. All right, let's start with why we should want to do this. And, you know, from your perspectives, what does a corporation get from giving? I'll start with Molly on that question.

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06:04
Speaker 4
Yeah, you know, I think corporate giving has a lot of benefits. You think of, you know, fostering employee engagement, generating value for those team members, you know, really improving company morale. When you go out and do events together, you build that morale. You build that camaraderie amongst team members, the company culture, you know, and then, you know, the company side of it, too, the reputation in the. In the industry, in your community. And then I think also, you know, we've been talking a lot about recruiting and retention, and workforce is a really hot issue. It has direct benefits there.

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06:35
Speaker 4
You know, you expand that network, you show what you're doing in the community that, you know, what are people's purpose in life and how does that tie to their work and how can they have kind of both that personal purpose and work purpose as well, kind of on the daily basis?

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06:50
Speaker 1
That is a serious punch list of reasons why we should want to do this. And I'm interested if you could, you know, maybe share some specific success stories one or more of those points. You know, it's. Please don't take this as me being negative, but I am maybe a healthy skeptic.

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07:11
Speaker 4
Yeah.

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07:13
Speaker 1
You know, how do we. It's nice to hear, you know, hey, it really helps with recruiting morale, you know, things along those lines. Can you prove it?

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07:24
Speaker 4
I think that you can. You know, we've been really involved in, like, top workplace surveys, and we get a lot of those questions of, you know, my purpose at work and is my work meaningful? And I think that just really expands much more than what they're doing at their desk or their job site every day. I think that we've made some great connections in the community where. Just kind of where that network piece comes in. You know, we've worked some nonprofit organizations who we also now do service work for. You know, we replaced the air conditioning at the Denver Children's Home a couple years ago, and we have a long standing partnership with them.

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07:57
Speaker 4
So just kind of one of Those examples and we do a lot of community service, which I'll talk about here in a little bit of connecting projects that we've done. So a remodel, a new build to a community service project. And I think it kind of goes the other way as well of, you know, they appreciate our support and giving, but then they want to give that back to us as well when needed.

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08:18
Speaker 1
Awesome. That's great. Maury, give us a little bit more on your background on the corporate end and answer first with the corporate hat on, if you would. You know why organizations should want to get involved in giving back.

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08:34
Speaker 4
Sure.

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08:35
Speaker 5
Well, really the reason why I'm at Rebuilding Together is because of the corporate experience I had being on the other side working with Rebuilding Together. So, you know, we use Rebuilding Together. We partnered with them. I work for a company of 500 employees. And so every year we would do national rebuilding day where we would send volunteers out to do critical home repairs. And skilled and unskilled, they, you know, a little bit of both. But the, the return on investment was profound. So we would use it as a talent pipeline. So you know, for example, you put a kid from the mail room in a room to paint with a bunch of senior vice presidents or managers and all of a sudden they see this person in a different light.

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09:21
Speaker 5
You can see leadership skills, you can see people who hustle, you can see people who problem solve. And so we really use that as a talent pipeline. It didn't turn out that wasn't the intent at the beginning, but it certainly did that at the end. It also, you know, people want to be part of something bigger than themselves. And so I think community service is something that connects people. Like it helps, as Molly said, with recruitment and retention. People, yes, they want a good paycheck, but they, it's today, it's more than just the paycheck. And so this, these types of events really did create community within the company and helped to kind of show our values and the, and what were trying to prove as a company and it did help us retain and attract people.

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10:07
Speaker 5
So the word gets out amongst, you know, the best advice you can get is from your co workers. So, you know, if they have a really great experience, they would help recruit new people to join. And it was a really, it just built over the years and it was really something special.

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10:26
Speaker 1
I'll tell you that was surprising for me to hear just now, but totally connected when you talked about actually being able to see leadership skills in action Maybe in different environments than somebody's used to. Maybe somebody doesn't have any managerial responsibility in their day to day role by design. And now we're watching them operate in this building project and all of a sudden they're orchestrating a team, right?

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11:01
Speaker 5
And then I would build off of that. And when I saw someone that had that, when the next event came up, I said, hey, would you mind taking a leadership position? And at first they were like, oh no, I'm not, you know, I'm not a department leader or whatever. It's like, no, I saw you, I saw what you're capable of. And it builds people's confidence and they can take on more within the company even.

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11:22
Speaker 1
Well, it's so much of that. You're 100% right. Because so much of that. I hope I don't diverge too much here, but our identity is what tells us what we're capable of doing, I think. Right. It's in addition to your skills and other things. But so much of what you're actually capable of doing is just right here in terms of how much permission you've given yourself to be capable of doing things right. And so finding those opportunities where outside of your daily work context, you get a chance to kind of reimagine your identity on the team that can carry with you. You know, it's so funny, I remember, and it's happened to me dozens of times where I'll meet somebody who in their office is kind of quiet and maybe doesn't play a particularly large role and kind of wants it that way.

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12:21
Speaker 1
And then I'll get to talking to them and they're like, you know, a 30 year Scout troop leader and, you know, an absolute like, oh, yeah, well, I do a lot of speaking. You know, public speaking is kind of my. I'm like, what? Where did that come from? You know, but. But you people love to contribute to those things that they're passionate about. So that leads me to my next question, which is how do we determine the right places to invest? And you know what, as an organization, how do I figure out the right things to support that my people might get passionate about? How do I do that?

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13:00
Speaker 4
I think that from our standpoint at mtech, you have to ask, you ask your team members or your employees if you do surveys or what that might look like, or just walking down the halls and asking the break room, hey, what organizations are you passionate about? We found the greatest success with organizations that people are connected to. You know, we had an employee several years ago, unfortunately, that was diagnosed with Ms. And so that was kind of the charity for that year. You know, we had probably 35 people do kind of a fun mud run and we raised money and we threw mud pies in people's faces. And it was just super fun, campaign focused, you know, in supporting that person.

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13:38
Speaker 4
But we kind of do that throughout the organization of, you know, we have people's family members or people are really passionate about animals. So asking, I think is first. I think you also have to have a little bit of that top down direction and you have to ask those hard questions. You know, there are a million great organizations that we can support, and so finding the one that fits best for your firm is really important. And maybe that's some sort of connection to the executive team or if there's an organization that you aren't totally sure about, you know, doing some research on charity navigator or seeing how many dollars they're putting back or how many cents on the dollar that they're putting into their organization. And then also having some focus areas.

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14:19
Speaker 4
You know, at mtech, we really focus on kids, community, and then some connections to some projects as well. But you know, those organizations can get very tricky if you have, you know, social focused, politically focused, religious, you know, all those hot buttons you really have to examine, you know, where you want to put your money and how that's going to reflect on your firm and those relationships that you want to build. You know, having those tough conversations and figuring out what works best for you.

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14:48
Speaker 5
Yeah. And I would add that, you know, for the construction industry, in an organization like Rebuilding Together, you know, sometimes it's really good to look for synergy with your, what your business model is and then a nonprofit that complements that. And so because we're doing critical home repairs and, you know, accessibility modifications for veterans, seniors, people with disabilities, marginalized communities, a lot of folks in the construction trade and their vendors feel a real synergy with our mission. You know, that they can take something that they're really good at and that they know how to do and apply it to a nonprofit setting and really kind of leverage that expertise, which I think is a wonderful thing.

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15:30
Speaker 1
That's a, that's a wonderful point. And it's specifically, you know, the reason that I know Stacy wanted to pull you in, Maurice, because I think people do want to do something that they want to use their skills for good. How's that? You know, I, I'm not good at a lot of things, but I, I, I am pretty good at running strategic planning. You Know, and facilitating those kinds of group, you know, environments among leaders and volunteer leaders and things along those lines. And I, I participate in a group called Best Buddies, which is a really cool mission that I won't spend any time on, but if anybody wants to look it up, I strongly encourage them.

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16:19
Speaker 1
But I, I, I had this conversation this heart to heart and I said, look, I'm not good at the majority of stuff you need, but I will run the hell out of your retreats. Right. Like that's what I can do. Can I? You know, and they were like, please, that sounds great. And it invigorated a kind of a passion in me in a way of giving in my skill sets. So if you're a construction company and you've got, you know, tons of handy people who love building and fixing and working with their hands, it would be wise, I think, to channel those skills and that energy into the places where that brings value.

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17:06
Speaker 4
Yeah, I can't like reiterate that enough and just like heard about it. Gets me excited. You know, I think that you have to find that fit in those skills, that your team can utilize their specialty skills because, you know, not everybody has those skills. Like you said, like, you know, hands on work is a niche thing. And we have, you know, 350amazing individuals who are, you know, doing that every single day, you know, and that can look a lot of different ways too. It doesn't necessarily have to be, you know, building a home or you know, working with, rebuilding together or, you know, it can be building bicycles for kids or building wagons for the children's hospital or, you know, building flower beds or renovating. You know, we're doing an accessible restroom renovation right now for charity in Colorado.

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17:53
Speaker 4
And so, you know, we have, you know, 200 plumbers on our team, which is amazing. And like they can do that in a couple hours versus, you know, that organization would have to spend a lot of time and a lot of money and you know, we're really helping kind of. Yeah. Utilize those skills like you said, you know, and I think also too, you know, everybody on our team isn't necessarily also field focused. You know, for example, in marketing, like we work with an organization right now that is revamping websites for small businesses. And so, you know, on the marketing side, I might not have those hands on skills. Or you might have administrative staff who's great at billing or invoicing or is a wiz at Excel spreadsheets. Like there are organizations who are looking for that administrative support too.

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18:35
Speaker 4
You can kind of look at it both ways from your team.

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18:38
Speaker 1
Yeah, it's a great point. Like, you know, not everybody needs to be, you know, too many chiefs, not enough. Not everybody needs to be the head of the thing. And, you know, administrative help is deeply appreciated. So again, figuring out how to leverage your team skill sets even across, you know, I'm sure, Maury, in your world, you. Not everybody needs to have a hammer in their hand.

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19:07
Speaker 5
No, no. We also, we use a lot of what we call unskilled volunteers, you know, good hearted people that want to give back. We've got plenty of, you know, yard work and painting and that kind of thing. We also have a program we call she Bill, which is getting women volunteers from the construction trade together, whether they work in marketing or, you know, they're swinging hammers. And we'll pick charities that also focus on women. And we'll have a day where lots of women will come out to help other women at a nonprofit. And it's, we'll teach folks how. Okay. You've never, you've never hung drywall. Well, we can show you how to do that. This weekend we're hosting our largest event. It's National Rebuilding Weekend. We are going to have 700 volunteers out from 35 different companies and faith based groups.

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19:54
Speaker 5
And so we're going to be teaching people how to put siding on houses, you know, how to install drywall, how, you know, all sorts of interesting things that they haven't done. But it's also a wonderful way to build your skill set and give people new opportunities.

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20:11
Speaker 1
I love it. That's really cool. So let's get to some brass tacks here in terms of. So let's say I'm watching this or I'm listening and I'm getting excited about trying to make this go inside my organization. I can see the value.

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20:26
Speaker 4
Right?

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20:26
Speaker 1
Hey, we're going to give people a sense of contribution. We're going to create this really interesting opportunity for people to shine and use their talents for something that is, you know, meaningful and gives all of us a sense of accomplishment. High fives all around.

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20:44
Speaker 5
Okay.

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20:45
Speaker 1
How much money should I be spending? How much time should I spend? Should I be paying my employees for this time? You know, let's talk about some of the, you know, best practices, if you will, that you would recommend that you've seen, you know, work, you know, inside or maybe don'ts, right? Do's and don'ts when it comes to actually making this thing go.

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21:08
Speaker 4
Are you sure we only have 10 minutes left.

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21:11
Speaker 1
Yes, it is a very fast.

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21:14
Speaker 4
We could spend a whole hour chatting about this. I think this is, you know, one of the key pieces that we've been talking about at mtech. And then we also had a conversation yesterday of, you know, what fits best for your firm. So, you know, giving can look a lot of different ways if that is, you know, your time. So volunteer time. You know, there's a lot of great organizations that are going to give, you know, one volunteer day a year, or maybe that's five a year, or maybe that's two hours per year per employee. Figuring out what that number looks like for your firm and what you can, you know, budget or afford.

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21:48
Speaker 4
You know, giving that option of paid time off or, you know, saying that you have your PTO package, but then you have an extra volunteer day, and what does that look like, and what do you need for people to do in order to validate that? Or maybe it's an organized day type of thing that they need to show up at one of these four places to volunteer for one day. And then I think that, you know, paying them volunteer time, like, those are just questions to have internally. And I think that also, you know, talking about how much you want to budget for this, you know, it's not a one size fits all approach. And so I would say that if your firm doesn't have a program yet, start small.

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22:25
Speaker 4
You know, start with two events per year to get your entire team involved, or depending on how large you are, maybe it's a couple groups get involved and then see if you can grow it or expand it. And I think you have to have a champion, too. You know, whether that's one person, obviously. I met marketing at mtech, but I wear a lot of different hats, including this one, which I think is pretty similar for, you know, firms our size or smaller. You know, figuring out who that person is going to be or that committee and what that looks like too.

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22:57
Speaker 1
Talk for just one second, Molly, about the committee. What does that make up look like, you know, in your organization? Because again, I'm just. I'm sitting here thinking I might. If I'm a business owner and I'm. And I'm, you know, involved in this episode, I may be thinking, okay, so I got to make this decision. This is. No, no, don't make all those decisions by yourself.

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23:18
Speaker 4
Yeah, for sure.

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23:19
Speaker 1
What does it look like in your world?

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23:20
Speaker 4
Yeah. So for us, it looks like we have a committee of probably 10 individuals. I'm kind of the chair, facilitator whatever you want to call it, the ringleader, the sheep herder. You know, we have people on our committee that take different roles. Your committee could look like, you know, a formal committee of a chair and a secretary and a treasurer, and, you know, you could look that way. Our committee is a little bit more informal. Each person on the committee is expected to take one event per year, and. And they're really the champion of that from start to finish. So it could be promoting the event with the marketing team. It could be organizing that event with the charity. You know, who, what, when, where, why, what time are we going to set up? What are we going to do?

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24:03
Speaker 4
How many people do I need just kind of getting all those questions answered and being that main point of contact? So those people are really running the event from start to finish. Our support and help from kind of the marketing events team.

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24:16
Speaker 1
That's helpful. Thank you. Maury, how would you chime in on the brass tacks of getting something, you know, up and running?

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24:22
Speaker 5
Yeah, I would say start small. You know, look for mission alignment. And I also think leadership is really important. You know, it should be a partnership between the company and the nonprofit. So making sure that, you know, you sit down with the executive director, whoever's in charge on the nonprofit side, to make sure that there's a good fit there and that there's good synergy between the organizations. I think that goes a long way to make making sure that, you know, on my side, I always want to sit down with the company and find out, you know, what are your goals and objectives? What do you hope to get out of this? Because I want to make sure that I'm.

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24:57
Speaker 5
In addition to fulfilling my mission, I want to make sure that I'm delivering on your deliverables and helping you have the successful event that kind of meeting your objectives as well. So I think that. That sometimes those things can go off the rails if you don't do the work up front of finding the right partner and having those upfront discussions. But I would say start small, get a champion. As Molly said internally, you know, some of. Some of this can a little be. Be a little bit of trial and error, but I think that it's just a matter of just start. You know, there's so many good causes out there. There's so many people that need help. People want to use their skills and gifts, and so it really does impact positively your bottom line. There are, you know, intrinsic things that you.

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25:48
Speaker 5
Sometimes you can measure, and sometimes it's just. It's just the way that you want your company to be perceived internally and externally to the community.

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25:57
Speaker 1
Love it. That's great. Stacy, what would you. What kind of questions would you tackle?

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26:01
Speaker 2
Well, I do want to add to what you just said, Maurice. So what business owners might not realize too, when you're doing community service projects and you. So there's different awards that you want to apply for, whether it's a social corporate responsibility, awards in your community or accredited contractor. The AQC accredited quality contractor with abc. There's an ethics award with associate or American Subcontractors Association. All of these awards have a huge, like, criteria that you have to fill out. And they usually have a community service or community relations portion that all of these, you know, all of your efforts actually come into play with these submissions and can help you get awards and increase your marketing for recruiting people to your organization. Also, some of the proposals that we do, they want to see how you're participating in the community.

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27:07
Speaker 2
So that's really important to consider.

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27:09
Speaker 4
I think.

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27:10
Speaker 5
You know, I think that's a great point. In addition to volunteering, you know, there are other ways companies can give back to nonprofits, whether in kind donations of materials and supplies or time. You know, we can give tax letters so that they can. Folks can use those to. For their tax purposes. So I think the in kind is a. Is a really important thing. Also, there's sponsorship. So sometimes when people are so busy but they want to do to give back, you know, they can sponsor a nonprofit event or maybe send some folks to. If it's a golf event or a 5K or, you know, something like that. That's another tip. Way to kind of tiptoe into a. A relationship.

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27:51
Speaker 2
Yeah, definitely. I did want to ask Molly if you could talk about your awesome campaign for the 2020, your 20th anniversary and the events that are surrounding that.

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28:05
Speaker 4
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. This is something we are super excited about. This year is MTech's 20th anniversary. So really great to see the longevity of the company. And so we wanted to celebrate that by giving back. And so this year we are hosting 20 events throughout the year in Colorado. And so we're partnering with 20 different organizations. And that all looks a little bit different, you know, from like a minimal standpoint. We are partnering with a local school to do two STEM grants. We'll be judging those submissions, you know, very minimal, you know, minimal time required or effort versus we had all of our general superintendents go to Volunteers of America, deliver Meals on Wheels for a morning. So you are pulling 18 people off of a job site for three hours.

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28:53
Speaker 4
You know, that's much more of a commitment from the business end as well. We're doing this across the state. We have four offices in Colorado. So we really want to kind of touch each of those areas was also really important. And then finally we are donating $2022 to all 20 of those charities. So it has just been amazing to see. And usually the check part is the spoiler alert that they have just been amazed to, you know, receive that. And we've been, you know, so thrilled to be able to give that too.

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29:24
Speaker 1
That's awesome though. You're sending an extremely dangerous precedent for.

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29:28
Speaker 4
Yeah, right.

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29:30
Speaker 1
The 50th is going to be a whole thing. Really saving up for the next 30 years.

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29:35
Speaker 2
Yeah.

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29:36
Speaker 4
But yeah, you can, I'll just put a small plug. You can definitely learn about it on our website, mtechg.com 20years. And all the events are listed there and updated throughout the year. And you can also submit a charity to get involved. So if you are in the Colorado area or no Colorado charity to give back to, we'd love to hear about them.

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29:56
Speaker 1
Awesome. Thank you. Maury. I'd love if you gave our view, our audience an opportunity to get involved in rebuilding together Montgomery County. How, how would we take some steps in learning more and getting involved?

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30:12
Speaker 5
Thank you. So you can visit our website, which is rebuilding togethermc.org and so there you'll see that we have a number of great events coming up. We also do tailored events for specific companies that say they have three hours on a Thursday in September. And we can do things that are specific to those organizations. I'll just reiterate. We're part of an affiliate network of 120 affiliates across the country. So our parent affiliate is@rebuildingtogether.org and you can also search an affiliate in your area if you'd like to get involved.

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30:51
Speaker 1
Wonderful. Thank you. It's amazing how many different organizations you said. 120. Yeah, that's every state.

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31:02
Speaker 5
Not quite, but they're very much neighbor helping neighbor. They were all started primarily by volunteers and then have grown up into non profits. And so ours has been around for 32 years, started by just good neighbors that wanted to help other neighbors. And we've been able to help 2,600 homeowners and galvanized 50,000 community volunteers just in our community alone. So across the nation, it's a pretty profound impact. It used to be called Christmas in April and it's now called Rebuilding Together. So.

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31:31
Speaker 1
Got it.

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31:32
Speaker 2
Okay.

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31:32
Speaker 5
Some folks may remember it as Christmas in April.

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31:35
Speaker 1
That's wonderful. What an important conversation. What an important mission you guys have. Thank you both so much for joining and, you know, having this discussion and getting all of our wheels turning about creative ways to do something important both for our own organizations and for our communities. So I think that thanks for having.

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31:58
Speaker 5
Us and I will just, I'm sure probably Molly feels the same if there's anybody out there that has questions or needs help, you know, I know I would be happy to help anybody answer any questions on how to get started. So thank you for having me.

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32:12
Speaker 2
Yeah.

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32:12
Speaker 4
Thank you so much. This was great.

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32:14
Speaker 2
Thanks so much.

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32:15
Speaker 1
Likewise. Yeah. So, Stacy, let's talk a little bit about what we have coming up next week. Next week we've got Amy Rock, who is from Prince George's County Public Schools. She is an awesome success story. She's got a fantastic story to tell about how to engage young people in educational programs that land them with careers quickly and sustainably and end up, you know, saving a whole bunch of money on debt. So I think we're going to have a really cool conversation with Amy. Is there anything that you want to add on that I'm missing?

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32:59
Speaker 2
Nope, you're not missing anything.

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33:01
Speaker 1
Awesome. Just a reminder, just a reminder for everybody. If you don't want to have to try to keep up on the posts on LinkedIn to get registered, please just shoot us a note. Stacy h. @steeltoe com.com she will help to get you on our weekly email list, which comes straight to you with the link to register. And you don't have the stress of trying to keep up with LinkedIn, which Lord knows I can't, and I don't think most people can. So thanks so much. Have a great one. We'll see you next week.

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33:36
Speaker 2
All right.

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33:37
Speaker 4
See ya.

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33:37
Speaker 1
See ya.