A native New Yorker from Brooklyn, Latoya Richardson has always been a hard worker. Her first job was at a local summer youth program at the age of 15 and after high school she worked at the Kings County courthouse. She later developed an interest in the outdoors and worked landscaping, brick layering, demolition and other construction-type work. Although she enjoyed the work, Latoya found great difficulty in finding a fulltime construction job with good, stable pay.

After a car accident that resulted in the traumatic loss of her unborn child, Latoya worked to rebuild her life by pursuing a full-time construction job with opportunity for growth. She was referred to Building Skills and, soon after connecting with a recruiter, Platinum Construction Services, Inc. hired her. The local construction site is near her home in Brooklyn.

“It was the most difficult time in my life and Building Skills helped me through it.”

Latoya says she hopes to be an inspiration for other young women who want to break into the male-dominated industry. She says that she is often “the only woman on the site” and strives to “help change that.” She aspires to build her own construction company one day and work with Building Skills to provide jobs because “Building Skills is the best vehicle to help women enter the field and stay in it as well.”