Erie House Climbing New Heights

Erie House at ComEd’s Women in Construction Week

What does opportunity look like? Sometimes, it looks like a hard hat, a harness, and the courage to try something new.

Erie Neighborhood House was proud to join ComEd for their Women in Construction Week Climb Clinic, where our Workforce Development participants and team got hands-on with skilled tradeswomen and experienced the real skills it takes to build a career in the energy sector.

For many of our community members, events like this open a door they did not know was available to them. Careers in the skilled trades offer strong wages, long-term stability, and real pathways to leadership. And too often, those opportunities go unseen by the communities that could benefit from them most. That is exactly why partnerships and programs like this one matter so much to the work we do every day.

ComEd’s Women in Construction Week is a powerful reminder that these careers are not just possible for women; they are waiting for them. Our participants showed up ready to learn, and the tradeswomen who led the clinic delivered something far more valuable than a demonstration. They delivered proof. Proof that women belong in these spaces. Proof that with the right training and the right access, a career in construction or the energy sector is absolutely within reach for the communities we serve.

This is what workforce development is meant to look like: real skills, real connections, and clear pathways to careers that can change a family’s future for generations.

We are grateful to ComEd for the invitation and for their sustained commitment to opening doors for women in the trades. We are proud to stand alongside our community members as they take every next bold step forward, and we look forward to continuing to build these kinds of meaningful, transformative partnerships.

The climb is just beginning.