Exciting times are ahead for our collaboration! With the addition of the St. Mary's Seminary Project, the Construction Career Collaborative (C3) now has six designated projects. In my capacity as C3's Executive Director, I sat down with Steve Dishman, President of Brookstone, to talk about the renovation on the Borski Center, which is owned by the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.
KK: Tell us a little about this project.
SD: The project scope includes substantial renovations and upgrades to the Borski Athletic Center.
KK: What made your organization decide to designate this project as a C3 Project?
SD: A combination of factors including concern over the well being and growth of our industry's skilled labor force as well as working for a client historically known to be proactive with efforts to improve the lives and working conditions of all they can reach.
How has your client responded?
The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston supports any effort that makes a positive difference in people’s lives.
Your project represents the first C3> Designated Project that is not in the medical center. How do you think this might impact future projects outside the medical center?
Our hope is that others will see that C3 principles can and should be applied to all types of projects.
How have your specialty contractors responded to instituting C3 principles on the project?
Change often creates some uncertainty and while a few specialty contractors were concerned with some of the C3 concepts, we encouraged them to become engaged as hopefully, projects using C3 principles will become more widespread. By becoming engaged now, the specialty contractor will be ahead of their competition with the small learning curve already behind them.
Have you encountered any obstacles to date?
The biggest question to date has been how to comply with the safety training requirements. Options and venues to accomplish that are being developed and should not be an obstacle to future projects.
Tell us what impact you feel that implementing C3 principles might have on the future of the construction industry?
If C3 can gain some critical mass, it will promote a better trained, more efficient and better paid work force. It will also help improve the image of the craft worker which in turn will encourage a greater enthusiasm for young adults to consider the benefits of beginning a career in the skilled trades.
Thank you, Steve.
Thank you.
Project data is coming in from these sites. We are tracking progress on safety performance and training, total man-hours, and violations of the C3 principles. We will also be tracking the average age of our workforce as we begin work to impact our ability to attract young people to our industry. -KK
Add new comment