The carpenters union could help restore the Asbury Park Westside Community Center — and teach there

ASBURY PARK – The Westside Community Center used to be a hub that helped produce everything this town needed, from musicians, workers, nurses and doctors to pastors, athletes and actors. Now the site could soon become a hub producing carpenters, union labor and opportunities.

Felicia Simmons, a lifelong resident who serves as president of the Westside Community Center Renovation Association, renovated the historic building and is currently in talks to bring in the carpenters union to help complete the renovations and establish a local job center to provide more opportunity.

“Let’s have a community presence in terms of a recruiting center, an educational center,” said Anthony Abrantes, who serves as assistant executive secretary-treasurer for the East Atlantic State Regional Council of Carpenters. “If there’s an appetite from people in the community, young people coming out of high school or going into middle school to understand what construction is or what union membership looks like, we want to be there to have those conversations.”

The council represents approximately 43,000 carpenters in New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Washington, DC, Virginia and West Virginia.

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“I’m thinking long-term about building something in the community center where we can start preparing these people for the construction industry through pre-apprenticeships,” Abrantes said. “We already have an apprenticeship program, whether it’s Edison or Hammonton, so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel there.”

Last year, the Asbury Park school district began working with the city, local unions and the Asbury Park Housing Authority to implement a trades curriculum for high school students, and any city projects costing $5 million or more they will use union labor and/or hire. most local residents at a union level after the city council approved a pre-employment agreement.

“Making sure that any barriers that might prevent (the Westside Community Center) from being built, between the carpenters union and Felicia (Simmons) we overcome that first, that seems to be the biggest challenge and collectively we can overcome those challenges Abrantes said. .

The Westside Community Center had long been a gathering place and trusted space for residents of Asbury Park and Neptune. The home component of the center was owned by Asbury Park’s first black practicing physician, William J. Parks, who donated his home to the community in 1942, and the gym component was built later.

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Over the next several decades, the Westside Community Center provided vocational training as well as drum and bugle corps, marching band, Girl Scout and Girl Scout troops, Bible study, after-school programming, tutoring, nursing, dance, community talent shows, and , possibly computer. literacy courses.

Simmons became president of the Westside Community Center in the summer of 2022 while she ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Asbury Park. Simmons said he was told the first phase of restoring the building would cost about $300,000, including a new roof and floors.

“The first step is literally making that main building/administrative building accessible to the public where people feel comfortable coming in and doing all the volunteer work needed through the local unions to get this up to code and up to speed,” Abrantes said.

All work required to complete the renovations will be voluntary. Of course, the reliance on unpaid volunteers slows down the timeline for when the community center can be expected to reopen and start producing new skilled carpenters.

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Finding someone to pay for the materials remains a challenge. “I think (if) we start laying the groundwork and building this, the first floor will be finished pretty quickly,” Abrantes said. “Obviously the gym needs to be brought up to code and waterproofed because it doesn’t have a roof on it right now.”

Once the gym gets a roof, they can use the open floor concept for educational purposes.

“I think that’s when you’ll start to see some of the soft skills, the non-power tool training, where people can come in and start learning the business through a pre-apprenticeship program,” Abrantes said. “I think once that happens you’re going to start seeing a pipeline of people coming straight out of Asbury Park.”

He added that he hoped they would join the carpenters’ union following the program, but “if they want to go into another trade, more power to them, but at least the opportunity was there.”

Simmons said there’s always a need for people who can build “and that’s historically what our community does.”

“Our community needs access,” she said. “Between the historical African-American community, the black/brown community and the union we’re in a great space right now to build something that’s permanent and impactful.”

Charles Daye is the metro reporter for Asbury Park and Neptune, with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. @CharlesDayeAPP Contact him: [email protected]

This article originally appeared on the Asbury Park Press: Asbury Park Westside Community Center could get help from carpenters union