DETROIT – NAWIC Detroit, the City of Detroit Construction and Demolition Department, and Sleep in Heavenly Peace teamed up to kick off ‘Women in Construction Week’ with a community bed build that produced about 30 beds for children in Wayne County.
Organizers said the event paired community service with efforts to spotlight careers for women in the trades.
“We don’t think that any child in Detroit should sleep on the floor,” said LaJuan Counts, president of the National Association of Women in Construction’s Detroit chapter.
“A lot of times we do these events and people are thinking like oh it’s just for guys and it’s not it’s for everybody. We’ve got kids out here, we’ve got women, men, anybody can help us out with this kind of stuff,” said Tim Fisher, president of Sleep in Heavenly Peace’s Western Wayne County chapter.
The build served as a hands-on invitation for women and girls to consider careers in construction.
“I’ve been in construction for over 30 years and we’ve always made a small percentage of less than 10 percent of the total population, so the fact that we’re able to engage and expose women to the industry as an opportunity for them for their own careers it’s significant for me,” said Counts.
“Don’t think you have to be something different because it’s a male dominated industry right. You just go in and you be yourself and do the job that you came to do,” said Laura Drakon, who works in the construction field.
For a full schedule of Women in Construction Week events, visit NAWIC Detroit’s website here.