By Dianne M. Pogoda
Jordan Parisse-Ferrarini aims to knock out urban blight in Philadelphia, one building at a time.
And in the process of restoring buildings, he’s also restoring confidence of an under-resourced youth community by teaching young adults skills in the general construction trade — and in life.
Parisse-Ferrarini, 31, comes from a family immersed in the business. He works with his mother, Donna Ferrarini, an interior designer, and brother, Matthew Ferrarini, principal designer, at Ferrarini Kitchens, in Elkins Park, Pa., a suburb just north of Philadelphia. This business specializes in design and remodeling of higher-end kitchens, baths and interiors. Jordan founded Trades for a Difference, a 501c3 non-profit organization, in February 2016 as a way to give back to underprivileged neighborhoods throughout the city.
“This came about as part of my personal journey,” Jordan said. “Through the construction and design trades, my family has been able to carve out a successful life. But I don’t see a lot of people from the inner cities with the resources to do this. So, I started TFAD as an apprenticeship prep program for kids from these under-resourced areas.
“We started very controlled with three clients — two of whom are still active in our ranks as senior mentees and employed by our work program,” he continued. “Initially, our program was the ‘contractor shadow’ program, in which we had at-risk young adults working with companies like Ferrarini Electric and Northwest Pro Services,” two of his other businesses.
The program helps guide young people, age 16 to 26, prepare for apprenticeships and ultimately careers in a number of facets of the construction industry.
“This could be through the unions, through personal contractor relationships, and on to different avenues of higher education,” he explained. “We bring them in and assess what they like and where their strengths are — carpentry, electrical, masonry, plumbing — and help some of them into trade schools, and help others move toward higher management education, like a degree in construction management.”
Jordan holds multiple trade licenses and certifications including a Construction Management Certification from Temple University, an ICC Master Electrical License, and a National Association of Home Builders Carpentry Certification. He is also a winner of NKBA’s prestigious Thirty Under 30 award, taking home that honor in 2016. (His brother, Matthew, also won the Thirty Under 30 accolade in 2013.)
TFAD has helped about 15 trainees through its “apprentice preparatory program,” which includes six weeks of construction training. Parisse-Ferrarini has another 12 joining the program in September, and ultimately for 2017, he expects to have a total of about 35 or 40. He gets a lot of his students through social media and word-of-mouth in the neighborhoods, and through hosting back-to-school events or “Build Day,” in which the team builds mini-libraries to share throughout the community. As word has started to spread, some schools have also begun to reach out.
Right now, he funds the program himself, with some donations, and “a lot of volunteer efforts from the community. A lot of people respect what we’re doing, and they want to be involved. We are now transitioning into the next steps of our revenue model/strategic plan, where a large portion of our funding will come from contractor services, where we are performing blight removal service contracts (revitalizing and repurposing of dilapidated structures) and also community-engagement projects contracts, like Build Day, public workshops, and civic projects.”
His certifications allow him to train mentees in various fields, and he also has a lot of other specialists who volunteer as instructors. TFAD is in the process of writing grants to apply for additional funding, and is starting a fundraising campaign.
The group’s first undertaking, dubbed the “Chew Avenue Project,” was a restoration mission, rebuilding a run-down structure that once housed a nefarious bar that was a haven for drugs and criminal activity. The community banded together and under the direction of TFAD’s board of directors, it is being transformed into a Trades for a Difference Community Learning Center. Initial demolition started last fall, and after plan review and securing permits, the second phase of the project began in March.
“It’s a 6,000-square-foot training facility,” Jordan revealed. “It’s been an instructional lab, and will continue to be a place where we can teach. We are all about blight-removal — dilapidated structures, abandoned buildings — as a way to offer in-depth, in-field training.” He hopes the venture will be completed early this fall. Besides the upcoming Build Day that will teach carpentry skills, TFAD will teach electrical skills, troubleshooting and repair to mentees at the St. James Methodist Church, a 3,800-square-foot Mission House in Philadelphia. Next spring, mentees will work alongside a local artist to produce a community empowerment art project, a mural on an 1,800-square-foot canvas on the side of TFAD’s three-story learning center.
TFAD chooses projects based on community needs. In the case of the Chew Avenue Project, he said, “it is personal endeavor and a case of us putting our own money and resources behind our community’s needs. In other instances, projects will be sourced through different means, like city inventory, donated, and collective efforts. In some cases, we will act as a full turn-key operation. In others, we will assist and take contractor roles under our work program. In all instances, the overall agenda will remain the same to remove blight, repurpose properties for better use, while training and mentoring our clients from within.”
Leveraging the actual construction process into a live, hands-on teaching operation has been the practical side of TFAD’s mission. But the organization’s heart reaches much deeper.
“Trades are the vehicle, but sometimes, even more important is the re-establishment of hope in these mentees,” Jordan affirmed. “We teach them life skills and give them positive reinforcement. For many of these kids, no one ever told them they could do it.
“We teach them basic life processes, from how to be on time to how to get a driver’s license or birth certificate, how to execute an idea,” he added. “We also help them with social behavior, telling them there’s no need to be the tough guy in the neighborhood, it’s better to be the smart guy. We give them a roadmap for success well outside the realm of construction.”
For more information on Trades for a Difference, visit its web site at www.tradesforadifference.org.
