American Historic Trades Summit Recap
Last week, I journeyed to the Windy City for the American Historic Trades Summit. Organized by The Campaign for Historic Trades, the Summit is a national convening that provides participants with the opportunity to share knowledge, pool resources, ensure consistent standards, and learn how to advocate for program support. I attended the first Summit in 2023 and found it incredibly useful, so I was excited to see what The Campaign had in store for 2025. They did not disappoint! I came away with lots of inspiration and practical tips that I’ll be bringing to the League’s work on the historic trades in New York State.
Summit attendees visited Pullman Tech Workshop, a historic trades workforce training program that serves young adults who have faced barriers like poverty, incarceration, or lack of work experience.
My top takeaways from the Summit:
Workforce development* requires an ecosystem. In order to have a successful trades training program that is truly building up the historic trades workforce, you need partners. Those partners include: local, state, federal government, organized labor, employers, educators, program participants/students, the community at-large, social services agencies, and other non-governmental organizations.
Employer partners are a key part of that ecosystem. In the historic trades, we’re often used to 1 or 2-person teams. However, not every individual who goes through a trades training program can or should start their own business. Collaborating with employers will help ensure that program participants have a job at the end of the training program and that employers are hiring employees with the right job skills.
Data collection and sharing will help us all understand what’s working and what’s not. Preservation organizations that are running trades programs can track the career trajectory of their program graduates 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years out.
We need to reach youth much earlier than high school to make them aware of the historic trades as a viable career path. Lindsay Blumer, President and CEO at WRTP | BIG STEP (a nonprofit workforce intermediary) reported that students start de-selecting careers in fifth grade if they don’t see themselves represented in that career path.
*The Campaign’s definition of workforce development: Workforce development prepares individuals to meet the current and future needs of the labor market and helps employers find, retain, and develop skilled talent.
Other Trades Summit highlights:
A tour of Pullman Tech Workshop that included a horse elevator(!) and lots of pets with the friendly shop cat.
A presentation from the City of San Antonio on their Living Heritage Trades Academy. This program offers unique training in traditional crafts and skills through apprenticeships, hands-on training, and classroom instruction. Through fellowship and collaboration with neighborhoods, community, and education partners, the Academy works to eliminate barriers to attaining training. One of the things I loved about this program is that trainees learn on real job sites in San Antonio, including on affordable housing projects.
I was also hugely inspired by the work of two local organizations: Chicago Women in Trades and Revolution Workshop.