BJC's largest investment: the BJC Campus Renewal Project enhances infrastructure, collaborative partnerships, career opportunities, and lives

With over 30,000 employees in 15 hospitals and multiple community health locations, BJC HealthCare is Missouri's largest non-profit provider of unreimbursed care and among the largest private employers in the St. Louis region. Having over 2,100 BJC Career postings to date, BJC is committed to recruiting, training, hiring, and supporting a diverse workforce to provide award-winning, world-class health services. Yet, BJC's impact extends well beyond health care, even into design, engineering, construction, and the trades.??

Since 2012, vast transformations have occurred through the extensive BJC Campus Renewal Project to renovate Barnes-Jewish Hospital and St. Louis Children's Hospital on the Washington University Medical Campus. As BJC's largest community investment thus far, overall, Campus Renewal focuses on improving the patient and family experience from both a clinical and campus perspective, with additional private inpatient rooms and easier access and parking around the entire campus. These 21st-century structural renovations have been strikingly visible, beautifying the boulevard the moment one exits Forest Park or Interstate 64 onto Kingshighway.

Such state-of-the-art transformations to the academic campus require a broad array of industry leaders, employees, and supporting?architectural, engineering and contractors to innovate and expand, such as general contract partners throughout Campus Renewal – Clayco and Regional Business Council (RBC) members Alberici Constructors Inc., KAI, S.M. Wilson, and McCarthy. These organizations have expanded opportunities for women and communities of color, enhancing inclusive prosperity in St. Louis through this decade-long project and beyond.?

?"BJC HealthCare continues our ongoing efforts to be a collaborative advocate for increased diversity workforce development across all of our current and future design and construction projects. Our Campus Renewal Phase 1 project was able to achieve a combined 25.6% minority workforce for both male and female union tradespeople on one of the largest community investment projects in BJC's history. We welcome additional partners and continuously assess current and future diverse opportunities," said Greg Mohler, BJC HealthCare Facilities Vice President.

BJC Diversity Manager Charles Henson establishes benchmark goals and metrics for the partners and contractors to ensure equity and work opportunities for underrepresented populations. "In my 40 years of experience in this field, never has there been this type of inclusion of diversity from the start,” said Henson. “Nearly a dozen MBE and WBE (Minority/Women Business Enterprise) firms, inclusive of architectural and engineering design working under CannonDesign and BR+A, have been at the table from the beginning planning stages. Such unified efforts allow all to be on the same page before, during, and after implementing the BJC Campus Renewal Project.”

?McCarthy Building Company, the oldest privately held national construction company in America, is BJC’s trusted build partner for the next phase of Campus Renewal. "As the largest contractor in St. Louis, we believe we have a unique responsibility to foster a diverse, thriving community of local businesses. Having a strong team of diverse industry partners supports innovation and creativity that not only drive better solutions for our clients, but also is good for our community," explained Ralph Powell, McCarthy Building Company's new Director of Diversity, succeeding Monica Bailey, who retired in July.??

?Along with other RBC members, McCarthy has been committed to the BJC and RBC workforce and talent development priorities to increase diversity and strengthen the workforce and region. Scott Wittkop, McCarthy Holdings, Inc. President and Chief Operating Officer, serves on the RBC Workforce Development committee, and Powell understands the impact of this work. "My work is part of a national Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) program that leverages best practices from every McCarthy region. Our team's priorities are to promote inclusive hiring practices; equip and empower employees to grow their careers, and continue to expand our supplier diversity and community engagement program. As the new Director of Diversity for McCarthy's Central Region, I will draw on my 18 years of construction field experience to expand our supplier diversity and community outreach program. I'll also lead and support diversity initiatives for major building projects across the region, including the Next NGA West campus in north city, the Neuroscience Research Building for Washington University School of Medicine at Cortex, and the next phase of the BJC HealthCare Campus Renewal Project."?

For the past year, BJC, McCarthy, CannonDesign and BR+A have partnered with the RBC's STL.works to engage with the community on design and construction opportunities, training programs, apprentice recruitment, and more. Interested St. Louisans with and without skilled trades experience are being recruited, trained by the unions and corporate partners, and empowered to start a career pathway in construction and trades. STL.works connects St. Louis city and county schools with speakers and site visits to increase the awareness with guest speakers at schools, exposure through site visits to see the work in progress, and experience via internships, apprenticeships, and employment in these STEM areas. BJC plans to place its Workforce Development Resource trailer onsite to provide learning opportunities for St. Louis area high school students to come on-site, meet professionals engaged in this work and learn about these career pathways firsthand.

More than ever, regional leaders are expanding infrastructure, collaborative partnerships, career opportunities, and lives through construction opportunities and beyond. Connect with these organizations and STL.works for more information and access to these excellent opportunities.

?Go to www.STL.works for more information on job opportunities.