How to build space for kids to grow in urban areas

By Emma Peterson. 

The roofing industry and technical schools are great opportunities for kids in underserved areas, but there are steps that need to be taken to give them a chance.  

In Episode 64 of Season 5 of Roofing Road Trips®, host Heidi J. Ellsworth talks to Kyle Nurminen about his entrepreneurial and philanthropic hopes for the inner city using SeedRegion1.com as a platform. Kyle grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, which is a very urban area. He is also a Navy veteran and has experience working in the prison-system, both of which instilled in him the belief that “a young adult or a child in an urban area has no less capability than the one in the better off suburbs, they just lack the opportunity.” 

Now that he’s working with Total Roofing Systems, Kyle is joining his history and beliefs with his work. He attended a construction summit between technical schools and employers in the industry that then led to Kyle “discovering makerspaces and actually mapping those resources as a resource for employers and technical schools to tap into the intellectual property in our most deprived neighborhoods.” This is where Kyle discovered what he believes to be the source of the problem. He shared, “Kids in these urban areas going through engineering programs and learning all this stuff have nowhere to set that up. They don't have that home. They don't have that means to outsource their labor.” This limits the next generation of entrepreneurs in the industry.  

SeedRegion1.com, Kyle’s platform, was originally designed to bring together talent in underserved areas to attract existing companies to invest in the area. However, he had a realization, sharing, “The actual odds of someone from our immediate community making it to the top are very slim. It may turn out well for a few, but not enough to make an overall impact on our immediate economy.” Kyle shifted his goals with this realization, instead focusing on investing money into revitalizing existing infrastructure into collaborative makerspaces – the spaces those kids in urban areas that have technical skills need to set up in. 

Read the transcript, Listen to the podcast or Watch the full Roofing Road Trips videocast episode to learn more about SeedRegion1.com and roofing in urban areas.