Assembling a Future Workforce Begins with an Invitation

Kelliann Amico, APR, Fellow PRSA

As I draw closer, I hear the unmistakable sounds of progress. The rhythmic hammering. The whir of drills. The buzz of saws cutting through wood. Around the bend, eight different workshops are underway, each filled with girls ages 8 to 18. Some are learning to use tools for the first time. Others move with the confidence that comes from returning summer after summer, eager to tackle a new challenge, or teach one.

I’m visiting the Portland camp of Girls Build, an Oregon nonprofit celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. It’s a Friday, the final day of this week’s camp, and Katie Hughes, founder and executive director of Girls Build, enthusiastically leads me through the stations.

Building confidence gradually

The workshops are filled with projects in various stages of completion: three-legged wooden stools, handcrafted bowls and chopsticks, and a metalworking project designed by each camper.

A camper named Cora carefully saws one of the legs for her stool while another camper, Julia, sands her seat smooth, occasionally running her hand across the surface to check her progress. A year or two older, Olivia and Zoe proudly show me their freshly finished stools and explain every step, from shaping the legs to drilling the joints and making sure each stool sits firmly without wobbling. When I ask whether they’d be able to build another one at home, I receive an unequivocal yes.

“We already know all the skills,” says Olivia. “All we’d need are the tools.”

Across the lawn, another group carves serving bowls and chopsticks from tree branches, transforming raw wood into something both beautiful and practical. Nearby, Marin carefully uses a blowtorch to shape a charm for a necklace. Around camp, confidence grows as quickly as new skills. Girls who may never have held a drill, saw or blowtorch just days ago now work with a sense of purpose.

At the far perimeter of camp, we arrive at what Hughes describes as every camp’s signature project: a playhouse. Unlike the projects that campers take home, the playhouse belongs to everyone. Throughout the week, all 80 campers work on it every day, with two of the day’s eight workshop rotations devoted to the project. By the end of camp, every girl has helped build every stage of the playhouse, experiencing firsthand how individual contributions come together to create something far larger than any camper could build alone. If time allows on the final day, Hughes says campers often use leftover materials to create personal touches, from built-in benches and shelves to dollhouses, making each playhouse one of a kind.

The completed playhouse will be delivered to a Preschool for All site. Hughes tells me the delivery is always met with excitement as children eagerly rush to explore a space built especially for them by Girls Build campers. Before partnering with Preschool for All, Girls Build donated its playhouses to domestic violence shelters throughout the region.

Girls Build also partners with foster care organizations and other community groups to ensure girls who might not otherwise have access to these opportunities are welcomed into the program. The camps always fill quickly, but girls in foster care receive priority placement in camps and on waitlists. By creating environments where trusted adults encourage curiosity, resilience and problem-solving, Girls Build helps build confidence that can influence educational choices and career aspirations long after camp ends.

An invitation to imagine

The seed of the idea for Girls Build was born while Katie was teaching high school construction classes in Portland. Many of the boys in her classes already understood what the skilled trades were. Some had family members in construction. Others had grown up around tools and job sites. Many of their other high school classes also focused on the trades.

But Hughes came to realize that many of her girl students were hearing about careers in the trades for the very first time from her. “I was selling them on the idea that the trades even existed,” she says. By then, many career aspirations had already begun to take shape. So, Hughes started Girls Build as a pathway for reaching girls much earlier than high school, before assumptions about who belongs in the trades had a chance to take hold.

Hughes observes, “Kids can only picture themselves in careers they have been invited to consider.” During my morning at camp, I see that invitation take many forms. Older campers return as interns and leaders, patiently demonstrating techniques, answering questions and encouraging younger girls. One of those interns is Kandyce.

Kandyce first attended Girls Build as soon as she was old enough, at age 8, after watching her older sister come home excited about everything she had built. At the time, she thought construction was “only a guy thing.” Over the years, she tackled increasingly ambitious projects, including a pinball machine she mused was bigger than she was at the time she built it. The annual electrical workshops led by women members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW Local 48) inspired Kandyce to regularly take on electrical projects at home, much to her mother’s delight.

This fall, Kandyce will begin working toward earning a degree in education at Portland State University. She says her experience with Girls Build inspired her to become a teacher. I ask what she would tell a young girl considering camp. Without hesitation, she replies, “Girls can do anything.”

Hughes says stories like Kandyce’s are not unusual. Parents often tell her their daughters return home eager to repair broken furniture and build new projects. Just as importantly, families describe girls who are more confident in the classroom and willing to try difficult things. The lessons, she says, extend well beyond construction.

Looking beyond recruitment

The architecture, engineering and construction industry has made meaningful progress in introducing young people to careers through classroom visits, jobsite tours, mentoring and hands-on learning experiences. Girls Build complements those efforts by specifically inviting girls to discover they belong. As tomorrow’s workforce grows up around us, the industry will need similarly creative ways to introduce girls to opportunities long before it’s time to recruit them.

On Nov. 7, 2026, Girls Build will celebrate its 10th anniversary with “Built to Last: A Girls Build Fundraising Bash” at Irving Street Studio in Portland. Proceeds from the event will help expand programming throughout Oregon and create year-round opportunities for girls to explore careers in the built environment and associated trades. Learn more by visiting girlsbuild.org or by emailing info@girlsbuild.org.

Originally published July 24, 2026 as part of Kelliann’s Oregon DJC “Women at Work” series.