By Lynda Pomeroy, OCA Membership & Advancement Foundation Director
- On March 20, 2014, the OCA Board of Directors established the OCA Advancement Foundation (OCAAF), a 501(c)(3), tax exempt entity. Its purpose: to support the association with funding for educational and workforce awareness initiatives that power the association’s strategic plan. In 2018, an endowment fund of $1.6 million – gifts from OCA member firms – was secured for the OCAAF.
- At the OCAAF’s most-recent trustee meeting, the total assets of the foundation were $2,020,108. In the face of continued market volatility experienced in 2023 and allowing for the many grants awarded by the board, the endowment fund established in 2018 continues to offer opportunities to enhance OCA’s Workforce Development and Awareness programs.
The OCA Advancement Foundation is overseen by a Board of Trustees, with Chair Nick DiGeronimo (Independence Excavating Inc.) and Trustees: Jackie Alf (John R. Jurgensen Co.), Mike Dinneen (Agg Rok Materials), Parr Peterson (The Paul Peterson Co. – retired) and Jim Ruhlin Sr. (The Ruhlin Co.).- In 2023, OCAAF funding continued to augment OCA’s existing workforce awareness activities through grants, all designed to meet students, educators and jobseekers where they are in their exploration of future career opportunities.
Digital Awareness Campaign
In the first quarter of 2023, supported with funding from the OCAAF, OCA partnered with AGC Ohio, secured matching funds from the Associated General Contractors of America and piloted a Digital Awareness Campaign.
The goal: reach 18–30-year-olds in Northeast and Southwest Ohio (think OCA Cleveland, Akron/Canton, Youngstown and Southwest chapters) who were either looking for a job, were unemployed, or were job transitioning, and encourage them to learn more about working in our industry. The content and images employed were strategically selected to communicate a specific set of proven messages about Ohio’s construction industry, both to address persistent misconceptions about the industry and to highlight the advantages of working in construction. Visual images supported the heavy/civil segment. Messaging was served through display placements, video, Meta (formerly known as Facebook) and web searches.
As with similar campaigns, overall awareness created is both invaluable and difficult to measure. To help gauge and communicate the measurable impact of the campaign, we delivered compelling campaign messaging to drive visits to our I Build America-Ohio (IBAO) website (www.ibuildamerica-ohio.com/), from where we were able to direct visitors to member hiring pages: messaging highlighting money, technology, learn a skilled trade, job security.
Results:
3M+ total impressions drove > 21K+ visitors to IBAO and > 1K+ clicks through to member hiring pages.
Encouraged by the positive results delivered in 2023, the OCAAF funded a second digital campaign in January/ February of 2024, this time in Northwest (OCA Toledo chapter), West Central (OCA Dayton Chapter), and Southeast Ohio (OCA Eastern Ohio Chapter), again with measurably significant results:
2.2M+ impressions drove > 28K+ visitors to IBAO and > 2.8K+ clicks through to member hiring pages.
(See top of page for examples of visuals used in the campaign.)
COSI/OCA Connects:
With funding from OCAAF, OCA partnered with the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) Columbus, to develop and deliver a dynamic, hands-on classroom lesson designed to introduce eighth-grade students to our industry. COSI’s team created a turnkey product that contained everything needed for completion, including a teaching guide for the program that followed Ohio Department of Education curriculum guidelines. The deliverable was a minikit that directed students through an activity requiring them to build either a road or a bridge to cross a river; age-appropriate math and science knowledge helped students complete the exercise. In the spring of 2023, OCA staff and member volunteers delivered the kits to 500+ eighth-grade students in five diverse schools throughout the state – from rural to metro. Educators and students alike were highly engaged with the activity, resulting in high energy and creative problem solving.
OCA-Member Legacy Scholarship Program is all about Who you Know!
Approaching three decades of success, in which OCA has awarded nearly $400,000 to college upperclassmen through OCA’s Hall of Fame Scholarship program, the OCA-Member Legacy Scholarship program was piloted in 2023. While the Hall of Fame Scholarships were developed for college students who are more likely to believe they will be pursuing careers in heavy/civil construction, the Legacy Scholarship program is designed to reach students earlier in their education and encourage them to consider the industry as a potential career.
The program looks to those who are already part of the heavy/highway/ infrastructure industry workforce – who have made the industry part of their own lives. The OCA-Member Legacy Scholarship Program encourages these workers to reach out to recent or soon to-be high school graduates and extend an “invitation” to promising future workers to join our industry:
- a child or other relative
- a neighbor
- a young worker who has already performed summer work for the company
Taking a cue from colleges and universities around the country, OCA Member Legacy Scholarships require the sponsorship of an OCA member firm. The program supports that sponsorship.
Each OCA-Member Legacy Scholarship Award is $2,000, and the term of the program is two school years, plus the summer bridging those two years.
Perhaps the most powerful, pivotal piece of the OCA-Member Legacy Scholarship is that of ongoing connection between the sponsoring firm and the scholarship recipient. Scholarship sponsors commit to offer summer employment to keep recipients engaged with the industry between the first and second years of college. Recipients also agree to attend an association meeting and a mentoring event TBD. Sponsors agree to support this requirement.
“This program came directly out of discussions with members,” said OCAAF Administrator Lynda Pomeroy. “They wanted to reach graduating high school seniors who were not yet certain of their career path – students not heading toward a traditional college path. Because of the sponsorship component, this program is truly a benefit of membership, in that it focuses on the sponsor/ sponsoree relationship. As we have already seen, company employees have sons/daughters, nieces/nephews contemplating entering the field. Or perhaps their neighbor has a child graduating from high school. This program is very much an incentive for those key employees a sponsoring company may want to acknowledge.”
Each sponsor company may receive one scholarship throughout the duration of this pilot program, unless otherwise announced. Three companies have already taken advantage of this opportunity: Jack Ford Construction Consulting, J.D. Williamson Construction Co. Inc. and Miller Bros. Construction Inc. All other companies are encouraged to sponsor.
OCA Hall of Fame Scholarship Program
Since 1996, OCA’s Hall of Fame Scholarship program has awarded nearly $400,000 in scholarships to support promising future talent studying for careers in civil engineering, construction technology and construction management. Once supported by OCA, these scholarships were moved under the OCAAF umbrella, which resulted in considerable growth for the program. Awards are available for students in Ohio with graduation goals set at the associate and bachelor’s degree levels who are entering their second or third+ year of study. In the spring of 2023, $30,500 was awarded to 11 students.
If you would like information, have questions or any suggestions regarding the OCA Advancement Foundation and its workforce initiatives, contact Lynda Pomeroy at (614) 488-0724 or send an email to lpomeroy@ohiocontractors.org.