Obama Foundation Outpaces City Goals for Diverse Hiring, Awarding 52 percent of Contracts to Diverse Vendors
On Wednesday, Aug. 24, the Obama Foundation released its first annual workforce report highlighting that the organization is on track to meet its ambitious workforce business diversity goals for construction. With just 18 percent of the spend utilized to date, 52 percent of contracts have been awarded to diverse vendors. While workforce hiring has only just begun, 32 percent of the early workforce comes from the South and West Sides, a key priority for the Foundation to focus on specific communities rather than citywide residents.
The City of Chicago requires developers to award 32 percent of contracts to minority and women-owned businesses, while ensuring 50 percent of the workforce resides in the City of Chicago - though they do not distinguish between what neighborhoods the workforce will come from within the city limits.
In 2021, the Foundation committed $850,000 to a partnership with local workforce development organizations, including Hire 360, Chicago Women In Trades, IBEW-NECA Technical Institute, Revolution Workshop, and St. Paul’s Community Development Ministries, to train 400 new apprentices from the South and West Sides. The Foundation is using this model to recruit and train the workforce that will build the Obama Presidential Center, but to also create more opportunities in construction for South and West Side residents to work on projects across the city. The 2022 workforce report shares that to date 158 candidates have already been placed in jobs around the city.
The Foundation credits several measures with allowing them to meet their goals, including:
A barrier reduction fund to pay for expenses like apprenticeship fees or tools that have presented challenges for workforce candidates in the past;
Breaking up large construction bids into multiple smaller packages to ensure smaller and diverse vendors could compete for the bids;
Working with trusted allies and partners who have proven successes in engaging constituencies like women in trades and returning citizens who have paid their dues to society and struggled to re-enter the workforce.
The Obama Presidential Center broke ground in September 2021 and is expected to open its doors in 2025.
Interested applicants can visit https://www.obama.org/opc-jobs/ to start the workforce application process and learn more about upcoming orientation meetings.
