Breaking down barriers: LIRA’s work to diversify the roofing industry

By Emma Peterson. 

Learn how LIRA is helping people across the industry from all backgrounds find their place in the roofing community. 

Roofing and the larger construction industry are fairly traditional spaces. But, as time goes on, more and more people are calling for reflection on diversity, or lack thereof, in our community. For example, 80-90% of the people doing field labor in roofing identify as Latinx, but this is not represented throughout leadership levels. In this episode of Roofing Road Trips®, Megan Ellsworth spoke to Susi Lee Massey Batista about diversity in the industry and what she and her husband Brunno are trying to do to improve it as the founders of Latinos in Roofing Associated (LIRA).  

LIRA is working for both proactive and reactive changes. Susi shared a bit of what they have been up to when it comes to proactively reaching out to the industry. She said, “As far as initiatives, we are trying to follow the local chapters, local connections... We want to be there for people who want to help. They want to do the right thing and don’t know how or what to do.” LIRA is there to give them manageable and productive ways to do the right thing. Industry members can join LIRA as a member and can then work with LIRA’s partner nonprofits to keep making change. 

When it comes to reactive change, LIRA is doing a lot of work related to raising awareness and fighting barriers that exist for Latinx people, women and other less-represented members of the roofing industry. For the Latinx community, one of the big issues is the language barrier that makes it harder for them to get certifications, training and promotions. Susi explained what LIRA wants to do, sharing, “There are organizations out there that are already doing so much in this space, and LIRA's goal is to bring them all together in one place, to be that one-stop shop where if you want to take training from this company or this company or you need help through this nonprofit or this one, that there's one place where all of these things kind of live and are easily accessible.” 

Read the transcript or Listen to the whole episode to learn more about LIRA and their work to make the industry more diverse.