Support the Work

The Campaign is taking an inclusive and innovative approach to the effort and invites nonprofit historic preservation and workforce development organizations from across the country to join the effort. Partners will receive Campaign materials to share in their community. Here’s how your organization, agency or company can help:

1. Identify locations and resources of the National Park Service that might benefit from hosting a cohort to complete directed preservation work,
2. Introduce the Campaign to local workforce programs, veterans services organizations, and other potential sources of apprentices,
3. Connect the Campaign with historic preservation businesses and contractors in your region where the Campaign may be able to place program graduates,
4. Support this essential program by helping the Campaign expand in your region with leads about potential funders to support local cohorts and programs,
5. Share our recruitment announcements in your local networks and forward any questions or interested candidates to our website at: historictrades.org

• Fort Pulaski National Monument, Savannah, Georgia
• Mary Ellen Dogan House at Manassas National Battlefield, Virginia
• Fort Caroline Palisade Wall at Timucun Ecological and Historic Preserve, Florida
• Monument preservation at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, Tennessee

The Campaign for Historic Trades is a national partnership with the National Park Service’s Historic Preservation Training Center that is preparing the next generation of skilled workers in the traditional trades. Our Historic Trades Business Council gives you strategic access to program graduates with the best skills for your work. Council members support the program which strengthens the training and helps deliver more qualified recruits to the program.

Graduates of this innovative and intensive training have:

• Completed a two-week intensive training through the Traditional Trades Apprenticeship Program,
• Completed the “Introductory Construction Craft Skills” module accredited by the National Center for Construction Education,
• Worked for at least six months in small directed cohorts led by master tradespeople working on some of America’s most treasured resources in National Parks across the country.

Apprentices gain valuable experience in a variety of trades and skills, including:

• Historic Masonry
• Frame Carpentry
• Detailed finish carpentry
• Rehabilitation of historic windows
• Historic roofing
• Painting standards and techniques
• Use of Traditional Tools & Power Tools
• Job-Site Safety Practices

Funds raised by the Campaign are directly supporting a cohort of veteran apprentices this summer who are working to rehabilitate and restore historic resources at Antietam National Battlefield, Gettysburg National Military Park and Manassas National Battlefield. Additional cohorts of apprentices from the Training Center are also working this summer to restore similar resources in Georgia, Puerto Rico, coastal Virginia and northern California.

Funds raised by the Campaign are directly supporting a cohort of veteran apprentices this summer who are working to rehabilitate and restore historic resources at Antietam National Battlefield, Gettysburg National Military Park and Manassas National Battlefield. Additional cohorts of apprentices from the Training Center are also working this summer to restore similar resources in Georgia, Puerto Rico, coastal Virginia and northern California.

This is a big project and has the potential to transform and reinvigorate the face of the historic trades of America. The program comes at a critical moment for workforce development and has the potential to create many well-paid careers. There are many ways for funders to support this important work. Among the impressive projects impacted by this traditional trades apprenticeship program, five veterans, supported by a grant from Tauck Tours, assisted in the rehabilitation of the Mary Ellen Dogan House on the Manassas Battlefield, which is one of only two surviving structures located in the 19th-century village of Groveton, Virginia. The group was assigned to stabilize the structure, which is the first of a three-phase process of restoring the property.  During their assignment, the group removed the non-contributing carport and shed that were attached to the house, stabilized the foundation under the crawl space, and weatherized the exterior.