Mayor Tom McNamara congratulates Jeanne Bizimana on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, during a graduation ceremony for participants in a workforce development program run by the city and Kee Solutions. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — The city and construction contractor Kee Solutions joined together Tuesday to honor six budding trades workers for their contribution to transforming a vacant building on the city’s North End into a new business accelerator center.

Six young adults — Jeanne Bizimana, Isaiah Walker, Khadijah Wormley, Armon Bailey, Jaylyn Brown and Johnny Seymore — were celebrated for graduating a workforce development program during a ceremony with Mayor Tom McNamara and other city department leaders at Veterans Memorial Hall.

“This program builds a lot of character,” Bizimana said. “It will show you who you really are and what you really want to do.”

The city hired the six participants to work with Kee Solutions on a pre-apprenticeship program that provided them mentorship and jobs skills as they learned everything from carpentry to roofing an electrical work.

“I think I now know a little bit of pretty much everything,” said Brown, a 19-year-old who graduated from Jefferson High School a year ago. “It was a really fun program — you get to learn a lot and you get to get hands on experience and hands on practice about real-life situations.”

The yearlong project had the group working on renovating the former Jerome Interiors building, 1311 N. Main St., into the Think Big small business development center. The program is done but some more finishing touches are in store before the center officially opens.

“It felt like it’s the biggest accomplishment that I’ve had only because most jobs that I used to have I would lose interest within a couple of weeks,” said Bizimana, a 23-year-old who found the program through YouthBuild. “With this one, my passion went throughout the whole time I was there. I was happy to go to work every day.”

Quentin Wainwright Sr., president of Kee Solutions, speaks to graduates of a workforce development program on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, during a ceremony at Veterans Memorial Hall in Rockford. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)

Bizimana said she appreciated the opportunity to work with a variety of different trades. She hopes to delve further into carpentry in her next career step.

Brown said he hopes the program can lead him into a carpentry or electrician apprenticeship. On site, he worked on drywall, framing, concrete, roofing, drop ceiling tiles and other construction elements.

“It was a really fun program — you get to learn a lot and you get to get hands on experience and hands on practice about real-life situations,” he said.

The program already has some success stories shortly after its conclusion, said Luther Rainer, CFO of Kee Solutions.

Seymore, one of the graduates, was also learning project managing skills on the job site. He now landed a job as a project manager for a local construction company.

“I’m very proud of every single one of them. I know their skills and I can see how they’ve improved, and I can see how they’re applying it already,” Rainer said. “Now there’s proof that bears it, and we look forward to the next project where we can bring the next cohort along and do the same thing.”

Mayor Tom McNamara, Kee Solutions and graduates of a workforce development program pose for a photo on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, after a graduation ceremony at Veterans Memorial Hall in Rockford. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas