Wave Staff Report
SOUTH LOS ANGELES — Charles Tilford was 41 years old when he walked into a classroom and decided to start over.
He was the oldest in the room by far and surrounded by younger men, many of them at their own crossroads.
None of them knew each other yet and many were unsure of what they had signed up for. But they had all shown up with a common goal: to learn a trade, earn a union card, and find a path toward a stable career.
Eight weeks later, Charles was standing in front of those same men as their graduation speaker.
“Sometimes the biggest thing standing between you and the life you want isn’t your age, your circumstances, or even your ability,” he told his peers. “Sometimes it’s just believing that you can.”
As Tilford spoke to his classmates, instructors, and graduation attendees, he shared the experience of someone who had almost talked himself out of being there, but chose to show up anyway, every day, until he stopped questioning whether he belonged.
The program that brought them together was the Multi-Craft Core Curriculum Apprenticeship Readiness Training, run by the Coalition for Responsible Community Development, a 20-year-old South Los Angeles nonprofit that has connected more than 12,000 residents to workforce training, affordable housing, and economic opportunity. and supported by the LA/OC Building and Construction Trade Council.
Over eight weeks, participants go through nine modules, listen to industry experts, visit union training centers, earn industry-recognized certifications in specialties from electrical and plumbing to painting, carpentry, heating and air conditioning, and heavy equipment operation, and get connected to union apprenticeship opportunities with real earning potential.
The MC3 Apprenticeship Readiness Training program gives residents a cost-free training pathway into union construction careers. The program is designed for people who are ready to build a future in the trades but need the right on-ramp to get there.
And while it teaches a variety of technical skills that prepare participants for stable career pathways, what many of them spoke about at graduation was the way they were personally transformed by the program.
Graduates shared how they carried sandbags and paint buckets in the parking lot at sunrise to build the physical endurance the trades demand, hiked to the Hollywood sign together — many for the first time — and walked away from eight weeks of hard work with something they hadn’t expected to find: hope for a future they hadn’t been sure was available to them.
“My background wasn’t always the best,” said Elijah Garcia, a Cohort 19 graduate. “I’ve been through things. I made mistakes. There were times where I honestly didn’t know where my life was going. Being here showed me that my past doesn’t have to decide my future.”
Graduates of the MC3 program represent what the Coalition for Responsible Community Development knows to be true of the South LA community, that they have always possessed the potential, skills, and desire to thrive but often lack the infrastructure that connects that potential to real opportunity.
The coalition has spent the last two decades building an ecosystem that connects workforce training, affordable housing, economic opportunities and social supports to ensure South L.A. residents have the tools they need to build stable, self-determined lives in the community they call home.
Los Angeles is standing at the edge of a historic moment. The FIFA World Cup was recently here, and the 2027 Super Bowl and the 2028 Olympics are on their ways, representing one of the largest infusions of investment, construction, and economic energy this city has ever seen. The infrastructure being built — stadiums, transit lines, housing — will define Los Angeles for the next generation.
The Coalition for Responsible Community Development has spent 20 years making sure South Los Angeles is prepared for this moment. Through workforce training programs, affordable housing, small business support and community coalitions, the organization has ensured that South L.A. has the people, the skills, and the infrastructure to play an integral role in the region’s growth. Despite historic disinvestment in local marginalized communities, South L.A. is showing up as a community and workforce ready to lead.
Myllex Guadamuz, a program coordinator and longtime MC3 leader, asked Cohort 19 to think beyond the trades and consider the legacy of the work ahead. One day, he told them, you will walk past something you helped construct and tell your grandchildren: your grandparent built that. South Los Angeles has always been worth building for. For South Los Angeles, that kind of permanence should be a birthright, not a privilege.
With Cohort 20 already underway, the coalition is on track to graduate more than 200 MC3 participants since the program began in 2022. Two hundred South L.A. residents who came through this program earned their certifications, connected to union trades, and stepped into careers that will support them and their families for decades. Each graduate is proof that when opportunity knocks and the support is real, the community shows up and delivers.
Charles Tilford is going to become an operating engineer. One day he may walk his family past a stadium, a hospital, or a transit station and say: I helped build that. South Los Angeles built that. Cohort 19 built that. And somewhere in South L.A. right now, the next Charles Tifford is walking into a classroom, about to take the first step toward figuring out what mark he will leave on this city.
