BALTIMORE — About 80 volunteers are inside a building in downtown Baltimore working to set up the Triple Crown Academy with everything they need to train young women to be our next generation of skilled trade labor.

I went inside to find these volunteers assembling classroom furniture. It's an IKEA challenge kind of situation.

I overhear one volunteer trying to track down a missing piece.

“We’re missing like half this bookcase.”

Natasha Guynes founded the Triple Crown Academy partly because of the need for skilled trade labor. It's a natural next step in her work with women who come from a tough start in life.

Guynes: "The Triple Crown Academy is an 18-month workforce development program that helps women enter the construction trades through union apprenticeship programs."

The three

See Full Page