Raise the B.A.R. St. Petersburg was formed to ensure that tax dollars invested in improving St. Petersburg also improve the lives of the local people and responsible contractors that perform publicly funded construction work. When local residents are gainfully employed, they support our small businesses, strengthen our neighborhoods, and help our community move forward. Raise the B.A.R.’s efforts include:
Recruit Local Workers – Raise the B.A.R. St. Petersburg will utilize targeted neighborhood and coalition partner outreach to recruit skilled workers and attract and assess future workers. Raise the B.A.R St. Petersburg will assist prospective future construction workers on measuring their skills and experience, steering them to career training opportunities, and/or connecting them with responsible contractors working on significant public projects. Through an aggressive and strategic outreach effort, we will ensure that St. Petersburg’s most qualified workers will help build our community’s future.
Ensure Accountability & Responsibility – Raise the B.A.R. St. Petersburg is committed to ensuring Accountability & Responsibility by insisting transparent records are maintained and accessible. Raise the B.A.R. St. Petersburg will demand mandatory reporting and analyze key data about contractors bidding on publicly funded construction opportunities to ensure public projects are accountable, and exceed our community’s expectations. Information will be shared to give public stakeholders a clear view of how tax dollars spent on infrastructure return to the local community and to potentially avoid investing tax dollars in Contractors that have committed egregious safety violations, discrimination, wage theft, or other unscrupulous practices.
Value the Work – Raise the B.A.R. St. Petersburg will help raise area standards, celebrate local workers’ successes, and promote the projects that give them a real opportunity at a career in the construction industry. By emphasizing the “value of the work”, the public will see the faces of their neighbors who are working every day to make our neighborhoods stronger. Raise the B.A.R. coalition partners offer highly regarded apprenticeship programs to area residents seeking to enter the multi-billion dollar construction industry. Apprentices receive instruction in the skills of their desired trade, along with training for safety awareness and prevention. To complete most Construction apprenticeship programs, an apprentice must have 4,000 hours of on-the-job training combined with formal classroom-style learning. Many apprentices graduate from their programs in two-to-four years, while earning a family-supporting wage, and go to build successful careers in the construction industry, without the burden of student loan debt.