Building Futures

Building Futures, a tax-exempt nonprofit organization headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, operates as a prime recipient of federal workforce-development grants focused on apprenticeship expansion, women's enrollment in construction and manufacturing, and reentry-population skills training. The organization does not hold federal contracts or IDVs; all recent activity is grant-funded through the Department of Labor and the Department of Justice.

Building Futures' portfolio consists of four federal grants totaling $11.3 million obligated across three grantor agencies. The Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration accounts for two awards: a $5.656 million Registered Apprenticeship Federal Grant Program (CFDA 17.285) award dated July 1, 2024, running through June 30, 2028, which expands registered apprenticeship programs across emerging industries (clean energy, healthcare, early childhood education) through sub-awardee partnerships with the Finishing Trades Institute of Southern New England, the North Atlantic States Carpenters Training Fund, IBEW Local No. 99-JATC Trust, and the Rhode Island Association for the Education of Young Children, and supports Rhode Island's first K-12 teacher registered apprenticeship program designed to enroll 164 apprentice teachers over four years; and a $1.44 million Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations (WANTO) Technical Assistance Grant Program (CFDA 17.701) award from the Department of Labor Women's Bureau dated September 30, 2025, extending through September 30, 2027, which provides technical assistance to employers, unions, and project owners throughout southern New England to increase women's participation in construction and manufacturing apprenticeships, including a pilot Women's Apprenticeship Readiness Program targeting 90 women across six cohorts, operation of an Apprentice Utilization Program tracking 55+ large-scale construction projects, and support for Polaris, Rhode Island's Manufacturing Extension Partnership, to establish manufacturing Registered Apprenticeship Programs. The Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance funded a Formula Grant dated October 1, 2021, with ultimate completion September 30, 2025, for the Bridge to Opportunity reentry-to-apprenticeship program, which delivers construction training to incarcerated and re-entering individuals across four Rhode Island correctional facilities in partnership with the Rhode Island Building and Construction Trades Council and the North American Building Trades Union.

Two awards face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months: the Bridge to Opportunity grant (September 30, 2025) and a fourth early-portfolio grant dated March 16, 2017. Building Futures operates exclusively as a prime grant recipient with no subcontract or sub-recipient portfolio; the organization manages federal grants but does not sit on federal contract vehicles or provide subcontracting support to federal prime contractors.