Thanks to a partnership between the Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA), Sherwin-Williams, the Cleveland Foundation and Towards Employment, CMHA residents are getting hands-on training in commercial painting skills.
Sherwin-Williams instructors come in and teach participants about brush technique, taping and masking baseboards, cutting in and mixing paint. Students get one week of classroom instruction, followed by a week of hands-on training.
“We, as a housing authority, identify residents to participate and identify locations for painting,” explains CMHA manager of youth and adult services Robin Holmes. “We have plenty of housing and we always have plenty of areas for painting. It really benefits our residents in looking for opportunities to get training and get employment.”
About 60 percent of the program graduates have gone on to get jobs or start their own painting companies.
The program also provides classes in demolition and asbestos abatement. Participants can enroll in job readiness training and job placement assistance.
John Fitcheard is one such resident who took the class and went on to get a job thanks to it. While he has some interior painting experience, he figured he’d brush up on his skills. “I enrolled in the program because I was sitting at home and not doing anything else,” he says.
Fitcheard went on get a job with Precision Environmental doing asbestos abatement and continues to do painting jobs on the side.
Sources: Robin Holmes, John Fitcheard
Writer: Karin Connelly