Construction Safety Week 2025 has come to an end. This year’s theme was Plan, Own, Commit–and we were fortunate to visit sites, conferences, and dinners filled with tradespeople and other construction professionals who are incorporating mental health into their safety efforts!
A CSPP tradition is to take some time to reflect on Safety Week. Please check out my colleague Emily Haro’s reflections, too. To keep my part of the tradition going, here are my thoughts about Construction Safety Week 2025!
Tuesday, May 6th: Oregon Association of Oregon Counties and Oregon Building Trades Recovery Night
On Tuesday, I presented to OACES (Oregon’s County Engineers, Public Works Directors, Road Masters, Surveyors) at their Spring Conference in Sunriver, OR. I followed Ryan A. Semerad, ESQ, who gave an engrossing and fascinating presentation about his federal circuit court case about land rights and corner crossing. If you want to take a deep dive to learn about the complexity of land ownership and public lands, you can read about it here--this case may go to the Supreme Court.
I felt no pressure as I had to follow a lawyer on the precipice of arguing a case before the Supreme Court! My presentation was a lot less complicated. I highlighted the importance of incorporating mental health into safety planning.
OACES members work for counties throughout Oregon and lead road crews that work long hours away from their families. OACES members face the same challenges of construction, tight timelines, long hours, and dangerous work; attendees appreciated that our resources can be adapted to meet their needs.
Following my presentations, many attendees shared appreciation for our presentation and emphasized the need to make sure their crews are able to get adequate rest and access to mental health services.
Trades Recovery Dinner
After the presentation, I hopped in the car and headed back to Portland to attend Oregon Building Trades Recovery Night at IBEW-Local 48. Lines for Life was a sponsor for the event. Men and women from the Laborers, Elevator Constructors, Pipefitters, and IBEW-48 shared powerful testimonials of pain, resilience, recovery, and hope. The two keynote speakers were Ken Simonton, a former OSU Beaver running back, and Darren Waller, a former NFL tight end.
Ken spoke about how the people in the building trades are like professional athletes because their bodies are their number one tool.
Darren shared his incredible recovery journey. His passion, authenticity, and humor were on full display. You can read more about his story here–one of the cool bits he shared was how his recovery community in Las Vegas has many tradespeople who support him. After his presentation, Darren took part in a panel discussion with Ana Rigsby from Local 669 JATC Sprinkler Fitters.
Huge thank you to John Mohlis for connecting CSPP with this great event, where I not only listened to great speakers, but after four years of only seeing her online, I finally met the one and only Jodi Guetzloe Parker, former LiLuna Business Representative, who helped lay the foundation for the CSPP. She was there with her granddaughter.
The Recovery Dinner not only preached about connection and hope; it demonstrated it.
All the speakers at the recovery dinner shared how the recovery mindset boosted their physical, mental, and spiritual health and provided a framework for evaluating their behaviors, examining their inner thoughts, building healthy relationships, and sharing their accomplishments and struggles.
Thursday May, 8th: Turner Monthly EHS Meeting | Tabling at OAME (Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs)
The day kicked off with a virtual presentation at Turner Construction’s Monthly EHS meeting. It was an important time to share information about CSPP and our new Construction Careline with their safety teams.
Following my presentation, I headed over to the Oregon Convention Center for the OAME (Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs) 37th Annual Trade Show and Luncheon.
We had a table at the event and engaged with a vast spectrum of organizations, businesses, and entrepreneurs, sharing perspectives on each other’s work and exploring ideas on how our resources can help them address mental health challenges. In addition, many CSPP partners had exhibits set up, too.
Two visitors to our booth stood out. One woman, who lost her husband to suicide in October 2024 and is now in recovery, came by just to express gratitude for our program. She did not know that there was a specific program for construction workers, and she deeply appreciated our efforts to address stigma.
The second was a veteran who was working security for the event. He liked hanging out at our booth, and we had many deep conversations. He shared, what was for me, a paradigm-shifting perspective on PTSD(Post-traumatic stress disorder). He refuses to accept that PTSD is a disorder or a disability; he sees it as an experience, as something that was done to him. He noted that it took him too long to access Veteran Administration services because he worried about the stigma of asking for help, but his isolation after the death of his wife changed his perspective, and he began accessing VA services, which have helped him feel better. He now encourages his fellow veterans to access VA services.
The OAME lunch featured Portland’s Mayor Keith Wilson and Oregon’s Secretary of State Tobias Read. They spoke about revitalizing community engagement and making it easier for people to do business by advancing OAME’s mantra, “EVERYBODY’S IN, NOBODY’S OUT.”
We were grateful that so many people took the time to come to our table to share personal stories, learn more about our program, or grab some resources and candy!
