Community Workforce · Youth Pipelines · Next Generation Developers
The SLC is not just building structures — it is building the next generation of community land developers. Through a coordinated ecosystem of funding partners, nonprofits, youth programs, and licensed contractors, the SLC creates paid pathways for community members to work, learn, and ultimately own a stake in the land economy they are helping to build.
The Vision
Every nail driven, every solar panel mounted, every hempcrete block laid on the SLC site represents an opportunity — not just to build a structure, but to build a person. The SLC workforce development program is designed to ensure that the community members who live near this land, who have been historically excluded from the construction economy, are the ones who build it, learn from it, and ultimately benefit from it.
Three anchor organizations — Key Tech Labs, the Black Agricultural Leadership Council, and the Minority Home Building Association — form the funding and placement backbone of this program. Together, they write the grant applications that fund community workforce stipends, recruit and vet participants, and coordinate placements with the SLC's licensed contractors across all four construction tracks.
The youth pipeline — led by the Washington African Coalition of Leaders and a network of youth-serving nonprofits — ensures that the next generation is not just watching this development happen, but participating in it, documenting it, and inheriting the knowledge and relationships that will make them the community land developers of tomorrow.
Priority placement for community members who live near the SLC land — particularly from Black, Indigenous, and low-income households.
Grant-funded stipends ensure that community workforce participants are compensated for their time and labor — removing the financial barrier to participation.
The most engaged participants are invited into the SLC cooperative ownership structure — creating a direct pathway from workforce to ownership.
Young people earn pre-apprenticeship hours, certifications, and academic credit while working on a real community development project.
Anchor Funding & Placement Partners
Key Tech Labs, the Black Agricultural Leadership Council, and the Minority Home Building Association are not passive supporters — they are active co-architects of the SLC workforce program, jointly responsible for securing the funding, recruiting the participants, and coordinating the placements that make community workforce participation possible.
Grant Research, Application Writing & Funding Strategy
Key Tech Labs leads the funding research and grant application writing effort for the entire SLC workforce development program. Their team identifies federal, state, and philanthropic funding streams — including DOL workforce grants, USDA rural development programs, and community foundation stipend funds — and writes the applications that bring those dollars to the community workers embedded in the SLC construction ecosystem.
Key Responsibilities
Agricultural Workforce, Land Stewardship & Green Economy Pathways
The Black Agricultural Leadership Council anchors the agricultural, land stewardship, and green economy workforce track within the SLC program. They connect community members — particularly from Black and Indigenous communities — to hands-on roles in the CE Hub greenhouse, aeroponics systems, hemp cultivation with Biofiber Industries, and the broader land stewardship work across the 70-acre Auburn site. Their network provides both the workforce and the cultural grounding for land-based economic development.
Key Responsibilities
Construction Workforce, Trade Pathways & Contractor Development
The Minority Home Building Association (MHBA) leads the construction and trades workforce track — connecting community members to paid, stipended roles working alongside the SLC's licensed contractors: House of Powers, Henry's Landing, SPWES LLC, and Biofiber Industries. MHBA also co-writes the grant applications that fund these stipends, ensuring that community members are not just observers of the construction process but active, compensated participants building real trade skills.
Key Responsibilities
Four Workforce Tracks
Stipended community workforce participants are placed directly alongside the SLC's licensed contractors — learning real skills in real time, on a real project. Each of the four tracks corresponds to a specific set of SLC contractors and a specific domain of the green economy.
Funding Partner: Minority Home Building Association
Lead Contractor: House of Powers + Henry's Landing
Funding Partner: Key Tech Labs + MHBA
Lead Contractor: SPWES LLC + Henry's Landing
Funding Partner: Black Agricultural Leadership Council
Lead Contractor: Biofiber Industries + CE Hub
Funding Partner: S.O.S (Safe On-Stage Sound)
Lead Contractor: Sunrise Fairs LLC
Youth Pipeline
The SLC workforce program is explicitly designed to create a generational pipeline — bringing young people from the community into direct contact with the construction process, the cooperative ownership model, and the green economy skills that will define the next era of community land development. Partner nonprofits like the Washington African Coalition of Leaders provide the youth programs, the mentorship structures, and the community accountability that make this pipeline real.
Youth Leadership, Civic Engagement & Community Development
WACL brings their youth leadership programs into direct alignment with the SLC construction timeline — placing young people in structured, supervised roles on the site during the Green Build Party and throughout the construction season. Their youth participants gain firsthand exposure to solar energy, sustainable construction, land stewardship, and cooperative economics.
Hands-On Construction, Energy & Agricultural Learning
Partner STEM and trades programs from across the region bring cohorts of young people to the SLC site for structured learning experiences — from solar array installation observation to hempcrete block laying to aeroponics greenhouse management. Each experience is documented by S.O.S for the educational documentary series.
Pre-Apprenticeship, Certification & Academic Credit
SLC partners with regional community colleges to offer academic credit for participation in the workforce program — creating a formal bridge between the construction site and the classroom. Students can earn pre-apprenticeship hours, sustainability certifications, and academic credit while working on a real community development project.
Wraparound Support, Mentorship & Community Accountability
Faith communities and neighborhood organizations provide the wraparound support infrastructure that makes workforce participation sustainable — transportation assistance, childcare coordination, mentorship pairing, and community accountability structures that keep participants engaged through the full construction season.
Signature Event
The Green Build Party is the SLC's signature workforce activation event — a community construction day where stipended workers, youth program participants, and volunteer community members come together to build alongside the licensed contractors. Coordinated by Henry's Landing and House of Powers, the Green Build Party is simultaneously a construction milestone, a workforce training event, a community celebration, and a media production opportunity for S.O.S.
The event follows a three-stage model: miniature model building (conceptual learning), a VR simulation experience (digital practice), and the real-world hands-on construction day — ensuring every participant arrives prepared to contribute meaningfully to the build.
Miniature model building — conceptual learning and team formation
VR simulation experience — digital practice before the real build
Real-world Green Build Party — hands-on construction with licensed contractors
S.O.S films the full event for the SLC documentary series and LMS content
The Development Pipeline
The SLC workforce development program is not a one-time event — it is a six-step pipeline designed to move community members from their first stipended shift on the construction site to a seat at the table as cooperative land developers and owners.
Key Tech Labs, BALC, and MHBA write and win grant applications to fund community workforce stipends across all construction tracks.
Partner nonprofits — including WACL and youth programs — recruit community members and young people into the workforce program.
Stipended workers are placed alongside licensed SLC contractors — House of Powers, Henry's Landing, SPWES, and Biofiber Industries.
Participants build real trade skills in construction, electrical, solar, agricultural, and media production — documented for grant reporting and the SLC documentary.
Graduates earn pre-apprenticeship hours, industry certifications, and academic credit — creating a formal pathway into the trades and green economy.
The most engaged participants are invited into the SLC cooperative ownership structure — becoming the next generation of community land developers.
The Bigger Vision
The SLC workforce development program is a prototype — a proof of concept for a new model of community land development in which the people who build the land are also the people who own it, govern it, and benefit from it. Key Tech Labs, the Black Agricultural Leadership Council, and the Minority Home Building Association are not just funding partners for this project; they are co-architects of a replicable ecosystem that can be deployed on community land projects across the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
By partnering with nonprofits like the Washington African Coalition of Leaders and other youth-serving organizations, the SLC creates a generational bridge — ensuring that the knowledge, skills, relationships, and ownership stakes built on this 70-acre Auburn site are passed forward to the young people who will lead the next wave of community land development in the region.
This is not charity. This is not a training program that leads nowhere. This is a deliberate, funded, documented, and replicable pathway from community member to skilled tradesperson to cooperative land owner — built on a real project, with real contractors, real stipends, and real stakes in the outcome.