This trailblazing plumber seeks gains for other minority women in skilled trades – Las Vegas Sun

Steve Marcus

Evelyn Pacheco, founder and president of Nevada Women in Trades, poses with a plumbers wrench and welding helmet in a park across from her home Saturday, Oct. 3, 2020. Women in Trades is a nonprofit organization that prepares women for jobs in the construction trades. Pacheco was the first Black female union plumber in Nevada, shesaid.

By Sara MacNeil (contact)

Saturday, Oct. 10, 2020 | 2 a.m.

Evelyn Pacheco thought there was an error on her paycheck. After her initial workweek with the local plumber and pipefitters union, she received a check for $1,400.

After years of working low-wage odd jobs to make ends meet, the single mother of three had found a career.

Jokingly she said, If this is not right, Im (going to) cash it and not giving it back.

Pacheco, seeking more stability for her family, enrolled in a five-year trade apprenticeship program in the early 2000s to become a plumber. She was the only woman in the class to take the licensing exam, which she passed.

In the field, more times than not, she was the only Black woman on the job site.

You have to pick your battles and adapt to your environment ... Its about survival. Its about your family, said Pacheco, who is believed to be Nevadas first female Black plumber.

But she didnt want to be the last.

Years later, Pacheco began to ask herself, What am I doing for Black women? What am I doing for women?

She had mentors who pushed her along the way and wanted to help other women boost their earning power.

In 2018, she started Nevada Women in Trades, a nonprofit providing a free pre-apprenticeship program to eligible women who want to become carpenters, plumbers, pipefitters and electricians. Nevada Women in Trades works with other nonprofits doing outreach with a mission to assist minority women, victims of domestic violence, veterans, the formerly incarcerated and the homeless.

I want to be the pipeline in helping women get into the trades, she said. Women need to be allies. We need to come together and support each other. Thats important. Lets walk side by side, Pacheco said.

Nevada Women in Trades offers a 190-hour pre-apprenticeship training delivered in small group classes 20 hours a week over a six-week period. Students receive OSHA, CPR/first aid, forklift awareness certifications and participate in trade facility visits and presentations by trade representatives. They receive help with their resumes, preparation for job interviews and certification exams.

Its a very competitive process to become a highly skilled, blue-collar trade worker, and these women were given a second chance at getting their lives together and had to go through the rigorous training and the classes and all the hands-on requirements to become certified, said North Las Vegas City Councilwoman Pamela Goynes-Brown, who presented certificates at the groups graduation last January.

For her efforts with the nonprofit, the 55-year-old Pacheco has been nominated by the Las Vegas Senior Citizens Advisory Board for a Senior Citizen Recognition Award.

Nevada Women in Trades continues to overcome obstacles and empower women, even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Gregory Gray, the city staff liaison for the Senior Citizens Advisory Board, who introduced Pacheco for the award.

Pacheco said she was surprised to be nominated not because of her credentials, but because of her age.

I was like, OK, I guess Im a senior now, she said.

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This trailblazing plumber seeks gains for other minority women in skilled trades - Las Vegas Sun