How Denver sales tax dollars are helping students enter the trades

On July 10, just short of 60 students graduated from the African American Trade Association’s five-week pre-apprenticeship program for renewable energy. Quinten Newbern, a 20-year-old who lives in Denver, was among the graduates. Early in the program, Newbern’s instructors picked him out as an advanced student and tasked him with a special project.

“I was working on a project to basically build a mini solar array,” Newbern said. “Mr. Robert took me into the other room. He told me to wire two solar panels that he found I don’t even know where. We hooked them up to a charge controller, a breaker and an inverter. Got it to play a radio. It was a pretty enriching experience.”

The graduation, which took place at the ABC Community Hub in Aurora, Colo., was paired with a renewable energy field day, where partner companies met with students about job opportunities. The event was hosted by the nonprofit African American Trade Association (AATA), which started operations in 2020.

AATA runs free trade-training pathways — from pre-apprenticeship programs to multi-year apprenticeships — in renewable energy, healthcare, construction and infrastructure. The main focus of AATA is to bridge gaps in education, wealth, and employment in the African-American community. 

Newbern wants to become an electrician. During AATA’s pre-apprenticeship program, he got his HBI PACT Core certification, which validates entry-level construction skills, and completed an OSHA 10 safety training course. 

“A lot of things happen on the job site,” Newbern said, “especially an electrician working with a lot of voltage — kill somebody, kill yourself. So just getting the opportunity to learn those safety measures, getting an opportunity to take those courses that would cost me $200, $300, $500, was really huge.”

Drew Jackson, field director at AATA, explained that not only are their programs free, but their pre-apprenticeship students also receive a $1,000 stipend dependent on their attendance and engagement. Jackson said AATA’s programs are reserved for students with financial need.

“A lot of our students are severely impoverished,” Jackson said. “Almost all of our students have to sign an attestation form to be able to get accepted, to be able to get their scholarship, and that says they either are on SNAP, are on Medicaid, or their family household income is below the average mean in Denver.”

The Prosperity Denver Fund, a 2018 city initiative funded by 0.08% of Denver’s sales tax, helps pay for programs like AATA’s. Rebecca Arno, CEO of Prosperity Denver Fund, said organizations can apply to be reimbursed for up to 75% of what they spend on eligible Denver students who successfully complete training.

“We’ve contributed $65 million in our history to almost 100 organizations,” Arno said. “Just last year, contributed $18 million to organizations like AATA, who help our young people in the city of Denver to find their futures and build a career.”

Overall, Prosperity Denver Fund has supported over 63,000 students. Some organizations focus on college education, such as Greenhouse Scholars. Others, such as the Puksta Foundation, provide scholarships tied to social justice community projects, while Colorado UpLift assists high school students with their next steps after graduation.

The small sales tax percentage granted to Prosperity Denver Fund expires in 2030, when Denver voters will be asked to renew it. AATA was one of the first organizations Prosperity Denver Fund worked with. Prosperity Denver Fund has granted AATA a little over $200,000 since 2024.

“For us to be able to start six programs, we’ve never done anything like this,” Jackson said. “We are serving 140 students right now. It’s pretty remarkable compared to last year, which was 40, and even the summer before that, 20. So we’re talking about massive scaling. And scaling is the name of the game, as our waitlist now has grown to 700 students.”

Directly after the graduation, at the renewable energy field day held outside the ABC Community Hub, partner companies set up tables and tents to showcase the kind of work they do and allow students to network with them. Some even gave graduates the opportunity to interview with them.

“I got to talk to GRID Alternatives,” Newbern said. “They hooked me up with some information about a training program for solar, which kind of goes hand in hand with the project I’ve been doing during my five weeks. I got to talk to Xcel Energy. They have a couple electrical apprenticeships for being a lineman.”

Stephan Long, a 28-year-old Denver resident, was at the field day, working the table for R&R Electric. A few years ago, he was in the same shoes as Newbern and the other graduates from AATA’s pre-apprenticeship program. Before starting at AATA, he worked various jobs — selling life insurance and officiating sports — but he needed something consistent and was eager to start on a real career.

“I was a young father,” Long said. “I have three children, so I was just trying to stay above water. Trying to feed my family without having a consistent income. That’s always challenging.”

Now, Long is in his first year of a four-year apprenticeship with AATA to become a journeyman electrician. In his apprenticeship program, Long sees a clear path to the future he wants. In a few years he’ll be a licensed journeyman electrician, with the end goal of owning his own company.

“Once you get that license, you’re probably at the minimum making $60 an hour wherever you go,” Long said. “Just having an income that I’ve never had before. I’ll be able to support my family, my children, everybody that I never have been able to support.”

Newbern hopes to do an electrical apprenticeship in a few years as well. On the day of the graduation and field day, he got to soak in how far he’s already come.

“I feel accomplished,” Newbern said. “I was putting in a lot of work these past five weeks because I knew that it would pay off — I would get a lot more opportunities, and I’d be able to kind of have that pathway to what I want to do. Being able to show these different companies my project — basically the culmination of my efforts, showing them what I’m capable of — was definitely very satisfying.
It was very cathartic in a sense.”