[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 90 (Tuesday, June 18, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1111-E1112]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO CAPITAL COMMITMENT

                                 ______


                          HON. CARRIE P. MEEK

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 18, 1996

  Mrs. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate a 
dynamic local organization which has brought telecommunications 
training and knowledge to the economically disadvantaged of the 
Washington area. Capital Commitment, recently celebrated its 50th 
anniversary. And, through its fine work, 424 disadvantaged students 
have graduated from programs which have prepared them for well paying 
jobs in telephone installation, maintenance, and repair.
  Capital Commitment was born from a vision held by Ernest and La Verne 
Boykin who recognized in June 1991 that the telecommunications industry 
in which they had worked for so many years had few minorities. They 
also witnessed increased violence in their Washington neighborhood and 
had the compassion to ask themselves what they could do to help these 
young people bring focus to their lives. The answer to Ernest and La 
Verne was to leave their jobs at high technology telecommunications 
companies to set up Capital Commitment.
  In the fall of 1991, they formed partnerships with the DC public 
schools, Ballou STAY and Northern Telecom [Nortel], a world leader in 
designing, engineering, building, and maintaining digital networks. By 
January 1992, they

[[Page E1112]]

graduated their first class, which consisted of six homeless men from 
the Omega-Alpha Brotherhood. They were successful in placing this class 
in good jobs and they used their success to solicit support from local 
foundations.
  As they struggled financially, they continued their important program 
and, by the end of 1993, had graduated 150 students and had an all-time 
high placement record of 97.5 percent. They still had not met their 
most important goal, to raise $100,000. However with continued support 
from Nortel as well as help from the National Center for Neighborhood 
Enterprises, the Hitachi Foundation, The Beer Institute and the United 
Black Fund, they reached 50 percent of their money raising goal.
  In the summer of 1994, their success in training and placing their 
students in high paying, high technology jobs--by this time they had 
graduated 219--attracted additional partnerships with Bell Atlantic and 
the Eisenhower Foundation. Things had started to turn around for them.
  Capital Commitment has been featured on several TV and radio stations 
within the last year. They have announced further partnerships with the 
Pentagon Renovations, BISCI, the Private Industry Councils of 
Washington, DC, Prince Georges County and Montgomery County. Their 
partners provide funding and also help secure employment for Capital 
Commitment graduates.
  It gives me great pleasure to ask my colleagues to join me in 
congratulating Ernest and La Verne Boykin and all of their partners in 
Capital Commitment for making a real difference in their communities by 
providing hope and a future to the economically disadvantaged.