Hello there listeners and viewers. This is Ron Stefanski, host of Disrupt Ed. And this is where we talk to the disruptors, those seemingly ordinary people who are having an extraordinary impact in our communities. And I have a super big treat today. I have two guests on my show today that have been here in Lab all day. We are live in New Lab with Power Up Detroit, a workforce conference sponsored by Perskolas and the Urban Institute to talk about workforce in the energy and tech sector. So we have the Executive Vice President of the National Organization of of PERSCOLAS, Ken Walker here today. And welcome Ken to the show. Thank you very much. Okay. And then we have Lara Chavez, who is the managing director for Prescolas right here in southwest Detroit. Lara, welcome to the show as well. Yeah. Thank you for being here. Thank you for inviting me to be here. Absolutely. Yeah. So I figured I would be exhausted after a morning of what do we call them, there was a panel discussion, there was a fireside chat, there was an executive briefing, and then there was a breakfast meet and greet. So I figured I'd be drenched and worn out. I'm actually highly energized because I thought the conversation was amazing. Ken, I'm going start with you. You know, this is one of your first times bringing the Perskolas message to the D. Tell me what you thought and what some of your takeaways were. I am invigorated. I am invigorated because we had forty people committed to figuring out solutions to getting folks into jobs in Detroit, specifically in the energy sector. And so from the executive breakfast, where we had twenty five folks really digging into solutions that could work in the Detroit market to the fireside chat with Paul Douglas and Carla Walker Miller where human centric concepts came into the conversation in ways that I think is needed as we look at workforce development. Thinking about mental health issues, thinking about inclusivity and really sort of talking about what really can work in our community. So, and then to the panel discussion where Laura Chavez gave us a little of her wisdom and passion for Detroit that came across from all the panelists and so so appreciative to New Lab Michigan Central for hosting us in this beautiful, beautiful Isn't this a crazy nice place to do this? So, Laurie, your thoughts about it, your major takeaways. It's great to have you on the panel for a Thank you. Yeah. I'm feeling powered up. And there you So just like you, feeling really energized and invigorated. But also as the new managing director for Poscolos Detroit, it's almost like a meet and greet. Know, it's almost like a housewarming party so that everyone gets to meet me and I get to engage with everyone. But been doing work, activating Detroit for a long time and super happy because a lot of the connections are still there, right? And I think that relationships really go a long way. And when people see that you're someone that is truly intentionable, intentional about the work that you do and you're authentic and you're honest and genuine, it makes people want to work with you. And I've been blessed to have people like Terri Wims who will constantly say yes I want to work with Laura, I want to help her, whatever we can do to partner. It not only makes me look good to my employer but it also allows us to do good for the learners. And at the end of the day it's about what can we do and how can we place these learners into quality of life jobs. And so every partnership, every relationship that I have, I'm excited to reengage, reactivate and allow those to be relationships that work for the learners. You know, think that's really true. And I think, you know, we gotta give a shout out to Terri Williams for being here today. She is the chief executive officer of workforce for the city Detroit, where it's for mayor Mike. And she's done an amazing job of bringing the various stakeholders together. And she was so authentic in her comments. You know, I got a real taste of real on that panel discussion today. I thought I'd have to prod and pick and sort of provoke a little bit, but man, everyone was pretty authentic about some of the concerns. And I think my sense was that was sort of, you know, it sort of took off when Carla said it's time to get real and talk about inclusion. We, you know, it's a time to be fearful that that's being pulled back. And so your thoughts about that? Yeah. So first of all, you for being such a great moderator and also not always sticking to the script because it is helpful for me. Because if I know what's coming, then I'm like, oh, let me make sure I say all the words right. But when I don't know then I feel like it's more genuine. And so thank you for that. But yeah See Kent, all that preparation. No, I love it. Love Both of them both. So Carla is amazing. I've been on panels with Carla before and I've actually been a panelist for her Recess Conference. And super grateful to the work that she's doing as a minority woman in energy is just something to shout from the rooftops. And just to interrupt you for a second, we're talking about Carla Walker from the Walker Miller. Walker Miller, thank you. From Walker Miller. She's been an entrepreneur in the energy space for over twenty five years now. Just a seasoned executive and a seasoned engineer. I just wanted to shout her Truly authentic. Yes. And really has so much care and empathy for her employees, but then also for the people, the talent that she's also upskilling. And to say, I'm going to feed them. Like, who says that? I love that. Ken, who said that? Because we all need to be fed. Yeah. And you know, so my degree is in bilingual, bicultural education. And as a Detroit public school teacher, it's very important that the children get fed. And any learner, right? And when you're looking at communities that have been maybe disadvantaged or marginalized or haven't been looked at or overlooked, when we're talking about low to moderate income levels, sometimes they're not packing lunch or they're skipping lunch. And so in her program, she's making sure that they're fed. To me that just really hit the core, hit my heart. And so it also allows you to see that she's looking at it from every aspect. She's looking at it from all the lenses. And so us, with Prescolis, we're always looking at wraparound services. What can we do to really help these learners excel? To take away, to dismantle as many barriers as possible. And some, of course, career coaching, professional development. But then also the long term relationship that we have with them, the follow through. We're following up on them three months after graduation, six months after graduation, nine months. And they feel like I have a person that I can turn I have a constant contact, a point of contact. So if I lose my job, now they're gonna reach out to me and we have the relationships to help find them new jobs. I think that Prescolas, again, being a national nonprofit for thirty years has definitely done the work. And to be here in the city of Detroit and to bring this to this community when technology is all around us, it's everything. It is literally in everything. And so when people say, oh, I don't know if there's technology. Oh, it's there. It's there. It's there. And so there's an opportunity for us to place people and to look at what is a tech job? What does that really look like? And so super, super, a lot of takeaways but also keeping the person in the personal education and the aspect of making sure that we're looking at all those little touch points that really make a difference for success. Right. Now Ken, you started at Perskolas when you were in your adolescence. A baby. Thank you very much Ron. And you've been there a couple decades now. Yes. And so I want to talk a little bit about how you're seeing the emerging future Ready for Workforce as opposed to when you first started. What's different about it? What do you think we have to prepare for and what do you think we have to be armed with in order to be effective today in delivering workforce training for the needs of today? Yes. So I started in two thousand and five. We were about a four million dollars organization. We're about eighty million now and we're in twenty four locations. For a number of years, we focused just on IT support because we were focused on entry level jobs because we thought, well, folks from marginalized communities. It's a stepping stone. Right, it's a stepping stone. But we're in technology, right? And technology moves incredibly fast. And so there came a point where we said we really need to expand outside of help desk and IT support and leverage all the fantastic technologies that we're now experiencing in the workplace. Cyber security, data analysts, software engineers, Salesforce, AWS. We have more than twenty five training tracks across our twenty four locations. Depending on where you are, you have an opportunity to go on prem five days a week, nine to four. We have remote classes. And what we're seeing right now is that we really need to be creative in the different ways in which we offer training, right? We need to meet people where they are. So everybody can't necessarily commit to nine to four, right? So they may need remote, they may need evening, they may need weekend. And so Laura and I, we were just in a managing director summit where we convene all the managing directors from all of our locations. And the focus of the conversation was innovative ways in which we could create sort of a baseline across all twenty four of our locations. However, and here's the important part. What do we do differently in Detroit that may look different than LA because we understand the culture. We are leveraging the expertise of the local talent. So Laura is the bomb diggity in Detroit. And she knows the people and she just talked about the importance of relationships. So she is going to be able to get into the rooms with those that she has relationships with, employer partners, etcetera, really listen to what they need and then customize sort of look at the timing in which we're gonna be offering our courses so that at the end of the twelve to fifteen weeks that people are with us, they will be prepared to move into those jobs because you already had the conversation with the organizations. They said, we need the people. And so, looking at timing of projects, obviously looking at AI and its influence within the tech sector and the different ways in which we need to offer, trainings moving forward, are the big things. But those more different ways in which we meet people where they are is I think gonna be really important to increase the number of folks that we impact. You know, think you were really intentional about bringing this PowerUp conference to Detroit, number one, and to NewLab, number two. And I think the narrative here, you know, speaks to this as a very timely, you know, initiative. And here's why. You know, we have an organization, NewLab, that's taken over the building and is part of the Michigan Central Campus Innovation Campus now. And so you have a hundred and ninety founders in this building who are looking for people. And so they're mixing it up because they're all founders, they're all startups, so they're looking for different things. They're looking for a level of agility, a level of resilience because someone coming into a startup may be doing everything all at once. And so the training is gonna need to be responsive to that. But I'm curious your thoughts about this because one of the other things I see happening is that there are a couple other headwinds and tailwinds going on here. And one of them is, we have an African American and underrepresented brown community that have said, you know what, we're not waiting anymore. And they've created a community movement here through Black Tech Saturdays. And they started out by bringing a food truck from Southwest Detroit and inviting people here and talking about jobs and talking about real things. And now we have over twelve hundred people showing up for that. So I can I wish you could have met Alexa and Johnny while you were here today? But, you know, Lars, maybe you can speak to that and how that's empowering our community to bring black and brown people into the world of tech and say, you know what? It's our turn. It's our time. Yeah. I think that and and maybe it's bold to say it, but sometimes It's bold. Okay. Yeah. Sometimes when there are no seats at the table, you make your own table. Bring your own chair. You know? And so I think that us as Detroiters, we're gritty. We are gritty. We're resilient. And so when there's not, we create. And I think that that's true. I I I use my my great grandfather who came here from Mexico City. He helped rebuild the Belle Isle Bridge and build the Ambassador Bridge. He wasn't an engineer, but he wanted something better for his family. And so when you think about how do we make better for our family, I want better, we deserve better, there's not a space, let's create a space. And, Black Tech Saturdays is amazing. I've gone to them. And, obviously, the city of Detroit is definitely, known for being a black city, but we have a lot of diversity within the city. And when we think about the diversity in the city, you know, there's a lot of tech happening even in the Latino community with Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation, Urban Neighborhood Initiative, you know, even Tech Town. And so when we're looking at what do we do, who are we partnering with, who is actually opening the door, then let's bust it down, let's get through there, you know, and let's make these spaces that maybe were not traditional spaces, but here we are and as I spoke to multiple times, being bilingual is a skill and tech comes in every language. Yes, it know and I have so many friends that do IT for Puerto Rico, for Mexico, for Brazil, for wherever and they speak Spanish and they're right here in Detroit. Live here in Detroit but they're doing the technical support. And so that is a skill, and it is a skill that deserves to be paid for. And so when we look at what we can do with that and saying, is Prescola's ready to possibly do a satellite in Southwest Detroit? That would be near and dear to my heart. But, you know, just saying like what can we do to really create those spaces? And so it is things like Black Tech Saturday. It is someone saying, you know what, I'm not gonna stand on the sidelines anymore. I'm not gonna let this happen to me. I'm gonna be part of the movement and create a movement. You know, I feel like it's a rebirth in some respects. I mentioned in the panel discussion earlier today that I'm a you know, I was born here in the city of Detroit on the east side. And I grew up in a very immigrant neighborhood. You know, I grew up on a street of Polish Americans that had moved here from Europe and were working in the factories. You know, my grandparents worked at the Chrysler plant. My grandmother was the classic Rosie the Riveter and worked in, in Poole Town, and worked at the Dodge Main plant and then worked at, East Jefferson Assembly. And she worked on, you know, the irony was my grandmother worked on cars in a factory and never learned to drive one. Oh, that's interesting. Worked there for forty years. And I said, grandma, I understand you went there during the war because they needed people, but you stayed afterwards. What's you know, I asked her, why what made you stay? She's like, you know, I was working right alongside your grandpa, and quite honestly, it wasn't that hard. I thought, woah. A non air conditioned factory moving molten steel around the building, that's not hard. It was low. You know? That's Yes. Yes. And it was your point. Yes. Exactly. It was about making you know, like your great grandfather on the Ambassador Bridge is my grandparents who were saying, no. We want better for our kids. You know, we want better for our kids. And that's a real, real emotional strain of the Detroit spirit. It's that's where you get the resilience, and that's where you get And what's so fun is and you can go down on the river walk now, which is incidentally the number one river walk in the US four times in a row. Say it again. Say it Yep. But if you walk down there now, it reminds me of the Detroit of my youth. It's so diverse down there. Yeah. You know? And it's interesting because talking with some of the folks at the Riverfront Conservancy, we have, you know, an equal balance of people who are coming from all over the state and outside of Detroit and native Detroiters. And you see so many families there. That to me is rebirth for Detroit. Yeah. Living in Southwest Detroit growing up, I always went to the riverfront, you know, and I always knew the value that we had as part of our community, as having the riverfront, as part of our neighborhood. But then most recently, last year, for a year and a half, I was on the board of the Riverfront Conservatory. And so it meant so much to see everything that's happening and now the Centennial Park that's about to be there. And guess what they're gonna need? They're gonna need workers. They're gonna need tech support. They're gonna need tech support. You might be able to find a solution. Yeah, baby. Well, you know, the interesting thing about that is the Hispanic community in Southwest Detroit has made an imprint on the very building itself. I was at an early community meeting and they were asking for feedback on the facade of the building itself and they said, You know what? We look at entrance as the southwest side of the building, not the back end of And so then the architects went back to work and they changed it so that facade is as prominent. And they're going to have an eight acre park on that side of it. That's phase one. Phase two is they've connected with the Southwest Greenway, which is part of the Joe Louis Greenway, a twenty eight mile walkway around the city of Detroit. Connected the Southwest Gateway already, which is gonna go from here at Michigan Central and New Lab to the Riverwalk, to the Centennial Park, and then across the river to Belle Isle. It's gonna be crazy nice, and it's opening in October. And, Ken, that's our invitation to have you back. You gotta come back for the grand opening. I do It's gonna be a party. Okay. Well, Lauren knows how to party. Yeah, she does. And so I will be here. Okay. Good. Yeah. It's gonna be great. I'm really excited about it. And, you know, again, just seeing all the rebirth happening in our community, having all the rebirth happening in the city of Detroit and seeing everything just at an accelerated pace, you know, everything is happening. We're really excited to be a part of it. And, you know, Periscolas is here to stay and Proscolas is here to grow and to continue to allow learners to get what they need to to get quality of life jobs, you know, and that that's the at the end of the day, that is what we are doing. We are we are educating learners in tech to take tech careers and create quality of life. It changes the legacy of families. It changes the demographic of neighborhoods. It changes the dynamic. It now allows you to have skin in the game. I can now afford to buy my home. Those type of things are so essential. They are very essential. So you've been listening to Ken Walker and Lara Chavez from Lara Chavez. We love Lara. And from Persepolis. And just sharing the energy, the enthusiasm, the intentionality of today's event, PowerUp Detroit. Thank you both for joining us. Thank you. Last takeaways, Ken, before we send you back to New York. My takeaway, let's build on the momentum. We had awesome conversations. Conversations are nice, but activation and execution is what it's all about. And so I am committed to powering up Detroit in partnership with Laura Chavez and her team at the Fisher Fantastic. Laura, your thoughts? Yeah, do wanna shout out my team, an amazing team that I walked into and so super grateful to that. But yes, I am very, very committed to making this not just be a conversation, but have actionable items that we take away from this and the follow-up, right? Following up with every one of those individuals that showed up for us today and listening to what's next, how can we partner, how can we build, and how can we grow, and how can we really support this talent. Absolutely. So to my listening and viewing audience out there, this has been Disrupt Ed with Ron Stefanski, your host, and Ladra Shevaz and Ken Walker. Thank you both for a great day. Thank you both for the work you're doing in our city of Detroit and in our community. And until next time, you'll get more on Disrupt Ed. So come on. Get Disrupted with us. Get engaged. Tell us what you think. Tell us what you think of Ken and Lotta. Yeah. You know? Give us your honest opinions. You know? Engage with us, and we'll see you next time. Adios. Adios. Adios.
