BOSTON– Suffolk is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its Build With Us @ Suffolk program.
The innovative business accelerator program provides an eight-course curriculum for minority-, women- and veteran-owned trade partners and subcontractors that helps them expand their businesses, develop important industry relationships and learn how to partner with Suffolk on the most sophisticated and complex projects in the country.
Originally launched in Massachusetts as the Trades Partnership Series, Build With Us @ Suffolk has expanded nationally to California, Florida, New York and Texas.
Build With Us @ Suffolk trains minority-, women- and veteran-owned small enterprises on Suffolk’s innovative construction management approach and processes, estimating and contractual rules of engagement, and comprehensive reporting systems and collaboration platforms, among other topics. Build With Us @ Suffolk is unique because it goes beyond simply providing a traditional training program and also pairs up subcontractors with Suffolk mentors and leaders who help guide them through the complicated world of navigating larger, more sophisticated jobs. Build With Us @ Suffolk has graduated a total of 180 participants since the program was founded ten years ago.
“Suffolk has always been committed to hiring diverse trade partners and subcontractors on our building construction projects. Build With Us @ Suffolk has been a game-changer for many minority-, women- and veteran-owned businesses because it opens doors and provides them the knowledge, expertise and relationships they need to partner with our company on exciting projects and grow their businesses,” said Brooke Woodson, National Director of Trade Partner Diversity. “We are excited to celebrate our tenth anniversary of Build With Us @ Suffolk and recognize the many trade partners who have benefited from this innovative program. We look forward to the next ten years.”
“We started as a small, hungry business that wanted an opportunity to prove ourselves to other general contractors,” said Deon Cameron, Estimator and Project Manager at KO Stone, Inc. “Build With Us @ Suffolk was the turning point for our company. Working on a Suffolk project opened doors for us and showed we were able to perform well on a larger scale. I highly recommend this program to any minority- or women-owned business with ambitions to partner with the most innovative general contractor on some of the most exciting projects in the industry.”
Suffolk has dedicated, specialized teams committed to hiring diverse employees for employment at Suffolk and minority-, women- and veteran-owned trade partners and subcontractors to work on Suffolk projects. Suffolk teams have also collaborated closely with community organizations such as Girls Scouts, Community Mentoring Team (CMT), YouthBuild, Building Pathways and others to increase the number of diverse construction professionals available for hiring on projects.
