Construction management firm Kwame Building Group, Inc. will provide owner’s representative services for the new Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis Community Empowerment Center of Ferguson, a job training center on the site of the burned-down QuikTrip convenience store in Ferguson. The Urban League broke ground on the site on July 9.

The new facility will house the Urban League’s “Save Our Sons” workforce program, which will provide job training and placement services for up to 500 African-Americans and other young men in Ferguson and North St. Louis County over the next two years. It also initially will have offices for Provident, Better Family Life, Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and Home State Health.

“The Urban League believes their mission of helping African American men find jobs includes giving them the opportunity to build the center itself,” said Joshua Randall, president of Kwame Building Group. “So an important part of our role as program manager is to achieve the maximum MBE and minority workforce participation possible.”

The QuikTrip Corporation donated the property, which had been destroyed during the unrest following Michael Brown Jr.’s shooting death 11 months ago by then-Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9, 2014.

The new building will be an expansion of the Urban League’s existing job training and education efforts. The center will offer four-week job-training programs to help young black men learn how to get jobs, keep them and work towards promotions. The center also will offer counseling for housing, rent and utility assistance, and mental health services provided by Provident, Inc.

Kwame Building Group, Inc. (KWAME) is an employee-owned pure program and construction management firm providing estimating, scheduling, project planning, value engineering and other project management services as an independent advocate for owners and developers.

Construction Forum St. Louis © July 2015

Source: Kwame Building Group – Articles