Fighting for Our Community

The legal challenge emerged when federal executive orders threatened to eliminate CWIT’s ability to serve our community. Rather than abandon our mission, we filed suit with representation from the Lawyers’ Committee and other leading civil rights organizations.

In April, we secured a preliminary injunction from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, protecting our federal grant funding and blocking enforcement of key provisions nationwide while the case continues.

“Chicago Women in Trades took the Trump Administration head-on in court,” the Lawyers’ Committee said in announcing the award. “The organization does critical work to empower women to pursue construction industry professions that have been historically denied to them.”

“We were founded by tradeswomen and, from the very beginning, we have been fighters, challenging exclusionary policies and practices and advocating for equitable opportunity in the courts, in the classroom, on the jobsite, and in the union,” said Jayne Vellinga, executive director of Chicago Women in Trades.

Last year alone, CWIT’s training programs added 168 new carpenters, electricians, plumbers, ironworkers, and more to the workforce, putting them on a pathway to middle-class wages.