ComEd aims to create presence in Chatham
ComEd has sponsored the resource room at the Chatham Education and Workforce Center, located at 640 E. 79th St., as well as funded computers in the room, but they are looking to have a larger presence and a bigger impact in the community. Photo provided by Sofia Melgoza
Chatham Education and Workforce Center, located at 640 E. 79th St., opened in January. ComEd sponsored the resource room and funded the computers in the room.
The 11,000 square foot center includes classrooms and meeting spaces, as well as a manufacturing classroom and maker space, with instruction provided by Jane Addams Resource Corporation and Richard J. Daley College. The Center will also house the Greater Chatham Initiative, which
was launched in 2016, with the aim to strategically invest in Chatham,
“It’s really a part of the broader ecosystem of the Chatham facility which has other classroom space, it has a maker space lab, it has a multipurpose room that’s next door to the resource room,” she said.
Sharpe said ComEd saw this as an opportunity to provide the resource room, as well as the resources, in a community that doesn’t always have adequate resources or availability of resources, like computers.
Sharpe said early on, Karin M. Norrington-Reaves, CEO of Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership, walked ComEd through the space and Reaves told them about her vision for it. That was back in December 2019.
“It was very appealing to us because we were establishing our workforce development strategy. With ComEd, we’ve had workforce development programs that we’ve sponsored or hosted for a number of years,” she said. “But we had never pulled everything together, developed a cohesive strategy and focused around workforce development and how we wanted to work with communities, establish partnerships to really advance that work.”
Sharpe said ComEd thought the partnership with Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership would be a great one because of the work the Partnership does with the community and the impact it has. “We thought this was a great way to contribute to the impact that they were looking to make in Chatham,” she said.
Sharpe said ComEd didn’t just want to fund computers and sponsor the resource room, they also wanted to have a presence in the community, something that is more long term and more than just physical. So, ComEd is working on developing programming at the Center and possibly some mentoring opportunities at the Center, with the youth in the community. “We look at it as a longstanding partnership, not just a one and done,” she said.
Sharpe said people recognize there is an underserved population in Chicago – people of color and women – that struggle with getting jobs that are life sustaining and life changing. She said the energy industry offers a lot of
opportunities for that population, and it is going through a transformation, as it looks towards more renewable energy, enhancing the grid and building a smart infrastructure. “And so, it opens up a lot of opportunities and I think it also opens up a lot of opportunities to bring in people who have been traditionally underrepresented. As you look at the energy
and utility industry, it has historically been male dominated and it’s also a union environment and that has historically been underrepresented when it comes to people of color,” she said. “This gives us an opportunity to have that presence in the community, be able to establish relationships with job seekers, develop training and make sure we’re recruiting from some of those communities for our training programs that we have.”
Sharpe said sometimes, people are not aware of the job opportunities that exist in the energy and construction
industries or jobs that may exist at ComEd. “Part of our workforce development strategy is looking at trade and vocational roles, we’re looking at entry level roles that we have, both within ComEd, as well as some of our suppliers and contractors that we work with, and how do we make sure we have training to get people acclimated to what they need to do to land these roles. We see this as another avenue to touch the community and recruit the people we’re hoping to be able to impact,” she said.
For more information about the Chatham Education and Workforce Center, email Ray Bentley at rbentley@ chicookworks.org, or call 773-493- 4632.
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