Empowerment, Skills Program Cuts Ribbon in Danville

By Kacey Martin - Star-Tribune Intern

Aug 6, 2021 Updated Aug 6, 2021

DANVILLE, Va. ­— There is a new opportunity for those seeking employment in Danville to obtain specialized, highly marketable skills in painting or carpentry.

The SPM Empowerment & Skills Apprenticeship Program is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) training program designed “to give women and men an opportunity to learn a trade. While learning, they become self-sufficient while being able to provide for their families,” according to the mission statement.

Vincent Brown started the program in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, but decided to open a second location in his hometown of Danville.

“I am originally from Danville, Virginia,” Brown said. “I was raised there, as a paint contractor, and my dad was a paint contractor around town for many years. And I also attended Dan River High School, where I graduated from. So, coming back to Danville after all these years sort of shocked me, but it's a needed program.”

The program’s grand opening banquet and ribbon cutting ceremony was held Wednesday at the new Danville location on West Main Street. Danville Mayor Alonzo Jones was present, along with other notable community leaders and those wishing to demonstrate their support for the apprenticeship program.

“It is a bonafide, registered program with the State of Virginia, and the Department of Veterans Affairs,” Brown said. “Our program is a vision that I've had for over 30 years, and it is the ability to take the unskilled and to give them a skill, which is painting—a pretty good skill in the residential-commercial-industrialized industry.”

Brown is proud that the SPM Empowerment & Skills Apprenticeship Program is the first of its kind in the State of Virginia, as there are no other nearby paid apprenticeship programs that offer specific and certified training in painting. The program accepts trainees ages 16 to 50, and apprentices can choose either the painting or carpentry track, which include classroom instruction as well as on-the-job training.

“Our program also pays the trainees while they're being trained, $10 an hour, which is the caveat to all of this,” Brown said. “So, they get paid to train, and they sort of do an OJT while they're being trained. And then we guarantee full-time employment after the training. So, the program will train them in many facets of painting…they will get OSHA certification...they will get other, different types of certifications that they could use anywhere in the United States of America, and it’s recognized. It should help propel them to be journeymen painters and even propel them to be entrepreneurs.”

Brown recognizes that a significant barrier to securing employment involves lacking either a social security card or driver’s license, so the SPM program also helps participants obtain those necessary identification documents, as well as connecting them to wraparound services such as babysitting and transportation.

“Our program is designed to help felons and those who need a second chance and [those] not going to college,” Brown said. “We like to work with the school systems; we actually have a partnership with DCC as well, where we are actually going to do our training at the college, using their classroom and shop areas.”

Joyce Culley presented on behalf of Danville Public Schools at the grand opening ceremony.

“If you look at our students, we have about 20 to 25% that actually go to college and complete a four-year track, but we're looking at about 75 to 80% of our students that need skills—they need the skills that you can give them,” Culley said.

“It is my anticipation to give folks a step up, to reduce the crime in the city of Danville by giving job opportunities to the less fortunate, and we do not discriminate against anyone,” Brown said.