A union construction and building trades career can put workers on the path to the middle class. The Metropolitan Washington [D.C.] Council Community Services Agency's Building Futures pre-apprenticeship construction program can be the first step on that path.

The next course begins in October and applications are due by Sept. 14. Click here for a brochure, or call 202-974-8223 for more information.

Want to help your favorite NFL player and member of the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) fight against school dropout rates in your community?

Pledge to become a reader, tutor or mentor, along with the 30 football players and the United Way initiative.

This is a crosspost from the Fire Fighters (IAFF).

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the IAFF encourages affiliates to participate in fundraising and awareness campaigns in
support of women in their fight against breast and other cancers.

Over the last several years, IAFF affiliates across North America have participated in events throughout October, prompting a movement to wear and sell pink  t-shirts as part of their breast cancer awareness efforts. Inspired by the  success of these campaigns, in 2010, the IAFF passed a resolution  that supports and encourages IAFF members to develop campaigns to benefit local  and national organizations dedicated to finding a cure for cancer.

Hundreds of babies and toddlers from low-income families in the Green Bay, Wis., area will be happier and drier in the coming months, thanks to the 13,000 diapers collected by Brown County United Way, in partnership with the Greater Green Bay Labor Council Community Services Committee and 21 community partners. Dan Wadle, the AFL-CIO Community Services liaison, says:

It’s a case where there’s a lot of need in the community as far as with low-income families. It’s difficult to afford diapers.

United Way of Metropolitan Nashville was in dire need of a new trailer to help with community outreach efforts. That’s where the local unions came in.

Central Labor Council of Nashville and Middle Tennessee, Nashville Building Trades, Tennessee AFL-CIO Labor Council and 39 affiliated local and regional unions pitched in donations for the trailer and the artwork along the sides. The trailer was used last Thursday for United Way's Day of Action, when it delivered backpacks and school supplies to area schools for children in need. 

There’s nothing like a new pair of sneakers to start the school year off on the right foot. For children whose parents are struggling to get by on tight budgets, the Soles for Christ program in Missouri makes it possible for them to receive new shoes. 

AFL-CIO Community Services is hosting the Soles for Christ program Monday and today in their local headquarters in St. Joseph, Mo. Thousands of shoes from private donors were picked up by area children in need at the AFL-CIO building.

Something as simple as a pair of “Cars” sneakers can make a huge difference in a family’s budget.  UAW Local 685 in Kokomo, Ind., handed out school supplies and shoes to more than 200 children Tuesday at its headquarters during the annual UAW giveaway, the Kokomo Tribune reported.

Union members in the Marietta, Ohio, area are joining with several charitable organizations to raise funds to build a “smart home” for Army Private First Class Kyle Hockenberry who lost both legs in an improvised explosive device attack in Afghanistan last year.

The Parkersburg-Marietta Building and Construction Trades Council has volunteered the labor to build the house. The group is also working with the Gary Sinise Foundation and the Tunnels to Towers Foundation’sBuilding for America’s Bravest initiative in promoting an Aug. 16 fundraising concert in Marietta featuring Sinise’s Lt. Dan Band. Sinise portrayed double amputee Lt. Dan in the movie “Forrest Gump.” 

Check out the AFL-CIO's new Innovators website feature, "Law Students Connect with Workers, Community in Summer of Service" here.

As participants in the AFL-CIO’s Law Student Summer (LSUS) program, Mehta, Callahan and 10 others “are learning, hands-on, how they can make a difference in people’s lives,” says AFL-CIO Associate General Counsel Nancy Schiffer, who coordinates LSUS. 

LSUS’ sister initiative, the Minority Outreach Program, taps into the extensive network of some 1,900 union attorneys who belong to the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee(LCC) and encourages law students of color to apply for summer clerkship opportunities at LCC law firms and legal departments throughout the country.

The LSUS and the Minority Outreach Program internships are no fillers for vacationing office support staff. They are all about boots on the ground, with interns fanning out across the country to help workers gain a voice on the job and help unions represent members and contribute to the community.

Click here to find out more. 

America’s unions need to focus on “solution-driven unionism,” that advances solutions centered on uniting union members, the people they serve and the communities in which they live, AFT President Randi Weingarten told delegates at AFT’s convention in Detroit today.

More than ever, we need to act in innovative, creative and new ways—simultaneously refuting our critics, advancing our values, connecting with community and proposing solutions. That’s solution-driven unionism.