April 26, 2023
Building a better future
Around Town
COMMUNITY VOICES By Dr. Larry A. Brown. Pg. 2
Features
Recipe, Movie & Sudoku. Pg. F-1 CLASSIFIEDS AND HOME & GARDEN. Pg. F-2 /F-3 Moore On Life, Lifestyle & Crossword Puzzle. Pg. F-4
Weather Black Girls Build, a nonprofit that offers non-traditional job training to women and girls beginning at the age of five years old.
Submitted photos
Black Girls Build is a nonprofit that offers non-traditional job training to women and girls beginning at the age of five years old By Wendy Todd Black women are the largest growing group of entrepreneurs in the country, having started their own companies at four times the population rate. Often black women are not only looking for autonomy and ownership in their work, but also more respect and equitable treatment than they’ve received in corporate America. These types challenges are what led JC Sykes to found Black Girls Build, a nonprofit that offers non-traditional job training to women and girls beginning at the age of five years old. “I came up with the idea of BGB in 2019
during my time in the St. Louis and Kansas Carpenters union, which has since been
dissolved,” Sykes said. “It was the lack of women I saw in the industry that motivated me. When I did see women on job sites, they were just as frustrated from the conscious and unconscious biases against us being in this male dominated Industry.” Sykes began her career as a nurse in oncology, but then decided to make a switch and joined the carpenter’s union. She met the man who became her husband, Robi Sykes, who helped teach her about the craft. They actually worked on several projects together including the LIVE! by Lowes Hotel See ‘BUILDING’ page 2
Serving North & Northwest St. Louis County | FREE Online at mycnews.com | Vol. 102 No. 17 | 636-379-1775
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