Vamos actively works to bridge workforce and business development gaps through technical training, bilingual instruction, and interactive workshop facilitation. With a focus on digital capabilities, project management, team building, pathways to capital, and business operations. Mobilizing collaborative team environments that improve organizational effectiveness and provide successful project outcomes, ensuring each member understands the value they bring and can recognize their contributions. Specifically as it relates to small business contractor operations, where every day significantly affects cash flow and profitability. We have worked with teams of different age groups and multicultural backgrounds, promoting the need for knowledge sharing, encouraging creativity, excitement, and collective problem-solving.

Program

Vamos A Construir “Let’s Build” is an initiative we developed to build capacity for groups that are experiencing challenges with access to resources in the local construction market. Through collaborative programming, we foster the business resources and technical assistance that are not always available.

We believe vibrant cities are built from quality housing, diverse commercial corridors, infrastructure access, and available maintenance and improvements. This work is driven by skilled labor, minority contractors, and local builders yet, too often, these groups come across resource gaps and language or communication barriers, are intimidated by technical or municipal requirements / processes, and cannot reach their full potential. Affecting their business and economic mobility, and in turn, overall neighborhood development.

We have seen how significant permit and inspection delays place site work on hold, affecting the contractors hired to carry out project phases, and the builder or site owner. This leads to challenges with cashflow, payroll, and how owners and employees support their family. The lack of clarity or updates from city departments, eg. permit technicians, engineering, and inspectors can lead to financial loss on work days, if the material used or scope of work is not accurate. Most small-local firms have limited business capital they can access, they don’t have lines of credit, or other financial resources to remain sustainable and make it through times that are out of their control. Often times they are also underpaid, not fully paid, or paid late by the hiring company, especially when there’s a long list of subcontracts. This in turn affects profitability, having enough funds for operations, and becoming lendable.

Vamos seeks to address these challenges and resource gaps while also supporting small local firms with achieving project or site ownership by leveraging collaborations with local organizations that can help us curtail access to opportunity and project/ business success for minority firms. By meeting the greatest need for this community, offering training and education in their language, teaching material at their pace, and on their availability.

Small local firms, diverse & womxn-led teams

Our work supports

• Skilled Laborers, Contractors, builders, or Project management trainees
• Womxn or early-mid level construction Entrepreneurs
• new or growing firms seeking tailored training or technical assistance
• spanish speakers or those not fluent in english
• teams with limited tech or digital abilities

Collaborators

We seek to work with organizations and cities offering resources and service such as

• 1:1 guidance to spanish speakers or those with limited tech ability
• courses, workshops, training, or technical assistance
• bilingual online platforms, forms, and support staff
• competitive workforce or contract opportunities
• business capital, Vehicle or equipment financing, Lines of Credit, etc
• Land or Property Acquisitions, Pre-Development Loans, and debt Refinancing

We don’t only labor and build, we can also design, engineer, own, manage and lead.

Presentation slide of the speakers during the L.AEC event on 9.24.24.

Latine AEC + Latine PM

Through the L.AEC and L.PM program we actively support initiatives that create space for knowledge sharing and collaboration, where industry professionals and business owners can engage in discussions about their projects and companies. We also highlight the ongoing need for more skilled and licensed professionals in these fields and emphasize that Latine groups have an important role to play.

Some key statistics:

• In 2022, 10.2% of architects identified as Latine.
• In 2021, less than 1% of architects were Latina.
• The majority of Hispanic civil engineers were of Mexican (69%), Puerto Rican (21.1%), and Cuban (9.9%) descent.
• Latines make up 12.7% of project management managers.
• Latines represent 9.5% of finance professionals.
• In 2020, Latines owned 13% (59,000) of all employer businesses in tx, yet, made up 38% of the state’s workforce.
• In Tx, management companies were more likely to be owned by Latines than in the management industry nationwide.
• After taxes, we had $82.2 B in spending power, which often went back into the local economy as we spent this on housing, consumer goods, and services.
• In 2023, Latinos made up 49.5% of home buyers in the us.

Sources:
https://latino.ucla.edu/research/10-facts-latino-biz-tx/ 
https://latinodonorcollaborative.org/reports/the-2024-official-ldc-u-s-latino-gdp/ 
https://www.workingnation.com/the-growing-impact-of-the-hispanic-or-latino-workforce-and-why-its-key-to-the-u-s-economy/
https://research.newamericaneconomy.org/report/contributions-of-undocumented-immigrants-by-country/