Today we’d like to introduce you to Rick Held.
Hi Rick, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, how can you bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
In the aftermath of record gun violence in Knoxville and the shooting deaths of 6 Austin-East High School students in early 2021, the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Central Labor Council convened a series of conversations with inner-city community leaders that eventually led to the establishment of Youth-to-Unions JobSquad, a project to increase outreach and recruitment of inner-city young people, people of color, women, and veterans for earn-as-you-learn union apprenticeships and placement in top-paying union jobs.
Alright, let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
Our main target population of inner-city young people mostly, have never heard of labor unions, much less about the life opportunities afforded by entering a skilled trade apprenticeship. These opportunities have been largely ignored or downplayed in most schools for many years, instead cultivating a culture of anything less than college after high school equals life failure. However, even if we manage to correct these misconceptions in the minds of young people, for too many inner-city residents, the challenges of transportation and child care can be non-starters for being able to show up for work.
Let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
For 25 years, Rick Held has been an organizer and instigator of visionary and practical leadership for social, economic, environmental, and racial justice and equity, primarily in Knoxville, but also building statewide coalitions in Tennessee and throughout Southern Appalachia. After a decade and a half as a community organizer and executive director of social change and economic justice organizations, Rick returned to school to get a real job. He taught U.S. Government and Economics at inner-city Knoxville schools until the school budget cutbacks of the Great Recession put him back on Knoxville’s streets again. Over the next decade, as Director of Community Engagement with the inner-city community organization SEEED, Rick worked with at-risk youth to build GreenCAP Community Engagement. This innovative grassroots community outreach program leverages relationships and networks in at-risk communities to increase environmental literacy and climate resilience. In 2019 Rick coordinated the Equity Campaign for Community Voices, an unprecedented coalition of inner-city Knoxville organizations and individuals who organized a series of Community Conversations and mayoral candidate forums on economic and racial equity. The Equity Campaign resulted in the Community Voices Equity Framework, a set of policy and program proposals for racial and economic equity. Knoxville’s new mayor agreed to implement in partnership with Community Voices. Rick writes on equity, energy, and sustainability at https://medium.com/@rickyheldmail and previously at The Knoxville Mercury and http://tnergyblog.blogspot.com/.
So, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you before we go? How can they support you?
If you know any young people, women, and veterans interested in getting paid to learn a skilled trade that will put them on the path to 6-figure compensation within 5 years, send them our way! Please email us at jobsquadknox@gmail.com.
Contact Info:
- Website: jobsquadknox.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/knoxvillejobsquad
