WHEREAS, The Phillies and Eagles stadium construction projects, which cost $346 million and $395 million respectively, have not met employment goals of 45 percent for minorities, and 5 percent for women; and
WHEREAS, The $295 million Neighborhood Transformation Initiative has set more aggressive employment goals, and the $464 million Convention Center Expansion Project has not yet established employment goals; and
WHEREAS, The Diversity Apprenticeship Program (DAP) is a pre-apprenticeship training program for unemployed and under-employed adults seeking job opportunities in Philadelphia's building trades, and seeks to increase the percentage of disadvantaged persons employed in construction jobs; and
WHEREAS, In the two years since its inception, DAP, a program of the Philadelphia Revitalization and Education Program, Inc., has successfully moved 49 people into the building trades, and helped 108 people to gain employment; and
WHEREAS, DAP, which is funded by the Pennsylvania Secretary of Labor and Industry's Workforce Investment Network, and administered by the Housing Association of the Delaware Valley, is among the most effective and diverse programs of its kind, with training in 29 apprenticeship areas; and
WHEREAS, In order to effectively move greater numbers of unemployed and underemployed adults into the building trades, DAP is in need of additional funding; now therefore
RESOLVED, THAT THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, Calls upon on the Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation to conduct a needs assessment of training opportunities within the Building and Construction Trades, particularly to improve minority and female employment participation through PWDC financial support of initiatives such as the Diversity Apprenticeship Program, and authorizes City Council's Committee on Commerce and Economic Development to hold hearings into the state of training opportunities for minorities and women in Philadelphia's Building and Construction Trades.
End