Flintridge Center in Pasadena and the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building Trades Council AFL-CIO are preparing community members for careers in the construction trades.

Men and women returning from incarceration face nearly insurmountable barriers in housing and employment, which lead to high recidivism rates – a waste of taxpayer dollars and a serious threat to the community’s public safety. Career paths with trade unions provide living wages, health benefits, retirement options, opportunities for advancement and a boost to self-esteem and accomplishment.

Flintridge Center offers the Apprenticeship Preparation Program (APP) three times each year at its headquarters at 236 W. Mountain St. The current session began Aug. 31; the next session will begin in January.

The APP consists of 240 hours over 12 weeks and provides a 120-hour classroom component based on the Building Trade Council’s Multi-Craft Core Curriculum (MC3), which introduces participants to all of the construction trades.

The program also provides an orientation, life skills course, classes in career planning and employability skills, workshops focused on developing money management skills, site visits, guest speakers, one-on-one coaching, community service, hands-on training and job development assistance for up to one year following graduation.

“Eighty-six percent of participants in our 2014-15 program were successful,” said Jaylene Moseley, president of Flintridge Center. “Over the last eight years, we have watched hundreds of community members transform their lives.”

The cost of the program is $4,000 per participant, compared to the $47,227 per inmate annual cost of incarceration in California prisons. Flintridge Center raises the entire $380,000 annual budget so the program may be offered free to participants.

For more information about Flintridge Center visit www.flintridge.org or call (626) 449-0839.

Flintridge Center has been in the Pasadena community for more than 30 years, working to combat the effects of poverty and violence through effective community dialogue, action and innovative programs that create lasting change. For the last eight years Flintridge Center has been working with the community to prevent and intervene in community violence by creating opportunities for community members in high-need, high-risk circumstances.