MAYHEW, Miss. – A summer camp for girls in northeast Mississippi is designed to help produce the next generation of skilled construction workers.
FORGE’s Girls Construction Camp brought together 12- to 15-year-old girls last week for mentorship, interactive workshops and hands-on experience in the traditionally male-dominated field of construction.
This is the program’s second year, and 24 campers participated, double last year’s number. The camp took place at East Mississippi Community College’s Golden Triangle campus.
FORGE is a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing awareness of skilled trades among young people.
“We start out young, work with them as they grow, hoping to get more and more interested in construction and the skilled trades,” said Melinda Lowe, FORGE’s executive director.
Demand for workers in construction and other skilled trades is growing. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the U.S. will have an average of 663,500 job openings per year in construction and extraction until 2033. This field has a median annual wage of $58,360.
Christee Roberson is owner and founder of West Point-based Graham Roofing. She is also a founding member of FORGE and a trade partner for the camp. She and her team taught the girls about roofing.
Roberson said it’s important to introduce construction and other trades to young people, especially girls.
“I think, being a female in the industry and never knew that this was something I could do, it’s important for sure to show other females that they can be in the trades, too,” she said.
Aveline Webb, 12, of Starkville was a first-time camper.
“We have been building our boxes,” Webb said. “We put up drywall. We’ve done roofing, electrical, plumbing, all the stuff that you would need to build a building.”
In addition to the lessons, the campers heard from guest speakers and worked in groups on a central project – building and decorating food pantry boxes.
Jada Brown, 15 from Lowndes County, attended the camp last year and came back as student mentor.
“What I hope they take away is knowing how to build and wanting to want to do it in the future, and see themselves doing it,” she said.
Lowe said the camp provides useful information even for those who don’t enter construction.
“We already have one young lady who has been helping her family replace some shingles that were damaged in a recent storm,” Lowe said. “We’ve had others who have fixed the stoppers in their sink, because they learned here how to fix that.”
The food pantry boxes will be placed in and around Lowndes County in the coming weeks.
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