“I like seeing people’s lives change as they develop the skills to be crafts people,” says Leah Rambo, training director for Sheet Metal Workers Local 28 in New York. A sheet metal worker with 26 years of experience, Leah uses her talent as an educator and her passion for her trade to develop the next generation of tradespeople. Her energy and dedication has helped to attract an increasing number of women to the trade, and her current class of 406 students has 35 women students, making up 9.4% of the class. This is far above the national average of 2.5% women in construction trades apprenticeships. Read Leah Rambo’s Story

“I’m their lifeline,” says Wendy Webb, of her current role as Apprentice Program Field Director for the Construction and General Building Laborers’ Local 79. This role takes Wendy out into the field to talk to apprentices as they learn the ropes on their job sites on the road to success. Read Wendy Webb’s Story

“I’m a success story. It’s a good career. It’s rewarding at the end of the day and that you worked for your paycheck,” says Marie, a New York City Operating Engineer. Marie has been in the trades 13 years and is a member of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 15. Before Marie joined the trades she was a cargo handler in the military and dealt with forklifts. At some point she met Alice Rone, another operating engineer, who told her about the trades, served as her mentor, and was a part of her attraction to them. This meeting led Marie to enter into New York City’s Non-Traditional Employment for Women’s (NEW) pre-apprenticeship program. It took her three months to get into the apprenticeship program after leaving NEW and four years to become a journey worker. Read Marie Sullivan’s Story

“When I wake up in the morning, I don’t feel like I’m going to work,” says Maggie, a native New Yorker and journey-level carpenter. As one of very few female foremen in the industry, Maggie is a quintessential example of the strength and dedication of tradeswomen throughout the U.S. Read Maggie Sepulveda’s Story

Lela Goren is the founder of Goren Group, a real estate development company that creates buildings that make change and foster community.

Today, her vision draws from a blended background – a builder and a catalyst, in equal measure. Her buildings combine public and private, old and new, rural and urban, art, commerce and community. In 2012, she purchased an abandoned historic Power Plant in Yonkers and is redeveloping it as The PowerHouse, a gathering place for art, culture and renewal.  A few miles away is The Plant Manor, a turn-of-the-century estate that houses retreats, film shoots and events.  In 2015, Goren Group is leading the redevelopment of the former Bayview Correctional Facility.  This former women’s prison will be transformed into the Women’s Building, a hub for the global women’s movement.(See below for more details) Read Lela Goren’s Full Bio

On October 26, 2015, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the Empire State Development awarded NoVo Foundation, in collaboration with Goren Group, rights to restore and redevelop the former Bayview Correctional Facility, located at 550 West 20th Street, New York, into The Women’s Building. The medium-security women’s prison will be reclaimed by girls’ and women’s rights groups working to create a world free from violence, poverty, and injustice. The Women’s Building will serve as a hub for the women’s movement, service providers, and the community. The Women’s Building stands for what’s possible when the potential of girls and women is nurtured, rather than locked away. Through its very structure and planning, it serves a new kind of justice, one based on collaboration, partnership, fairness and equity.

Reborn as a hub of activism and engagement, The Women’s Building will offer social justice leaders the resources and support they need to drive critical change. It’s a workspace – and more. It will rise as a vertical neighborhood, designed to spark serendipitous interactions, build partnerships, create networks and grow sustainable solutions. It will bring diverse organizations together, as they envision and build a better world for girls and women, around the globe.

Activists have always embraced collaboration, despite office locations that keep them apart – far-flung, dictated by rent. For NYC, The Women’s Building will change that. With co-located organizations and shared infrastructure, the work inside these walls will improve lives on the outside, with greater creativity and cohesion. It will also pull the outside in, through public lectures, conferences, performances and art. A transformed building, dedicated to a transformed world.