Caring for the Community

LOPCO Contracting’s long-term vision is to BUILD and PAINT the way to social consciousness while becoming a leader in its industry.

LOPCO has been very fortunate over the years as it has been able to work towards this goal through a wide number of community partnerships which it has been very blessed to be able to form throughout its time in business.

LOPCO is a company with deep roots within its community and makes it a point to get involved as much as possible in needed areas where it believes it can make a difference.

A sample of organizations we have been grateful to be affiliated with as well as brief descriptions of our relationship with each:

Amos House

Since 1976 Amos House has had the mission of building and re-building lives, through a variety of programs, for thousands of Rhode Island residents in need. LOPCO Contracting is proud to be associated with Amos House’s Workforce Training program and has been honored to be able to contribute towards the employment realizations of a number of individuals that have gone through the program. We consider it monumentally fulfilling to see someone who is down on their luck be able to pick themselves up, regain focus, and gain a career path through the help of an organization such as Amos House. We are VERY proud to be involved with so worth a partnership.

Children’s Wishes

Children’s Wishes grants wishes to Rhode Island children between the ages of 2 1/2 and 18 years of age who are facing life-threatening, malignant, or degenerative medical conditions. LOPCO Contracting has been able to help out with granting wishes to a number of recipients over the years. The types of wishes LOPCO has helped grant vary but often are centered around transforming a room of the recipient’s choice into something magical. A great recent example would be Johnnel. See the story of Johnnel’s wish!

Clinica Esperanza

Clinica Esperanza provides high quality medical care to uninsured adults living in Rhode Island. LOPCO Contracting was thrilled to donate the labor and materials to completely transform the interior painting of their clinic in Providence. After an enormous amount of time, energy, and effort by a wide variety of individuals, those among us who are in the direst of circumstances can truly find “A Place to be Healthy”!

Goodwill Industries of Rhode Island

Goodwill Industries of Rhode Island has a mission to provide training, education, and other services which result in employment and expanded economic opportunity for people with disabilities and other barriers to employment in order to enhance their capacity for independent living, increased quality of life, and work. We at LOPCO Contracting find this to be EXTREMELY admirable and are happy to partner with Goodwill in any way we can towards the fulfillment of this mission. Over the years we have led various discussions for individuals going through the programs that Goodwill offers. LOPCO has been a sounding board for people served by Goodwill to be able to ask questions as to what certain employers specifically look for when recruiting and hiring. Whether it is a talk on the ‘Dos and Do-nots of Interview Behavior’ or employment searches in general, it is humbling to be looked upon as a resource for those that may need some direction and we look forward to continue to serve in this capacity for as long as we are requested to do so.

Habitat for Humanity of RI – Greater Providence

Habitat for Humanity – Greater Providence is a non-profit organization dedicated to building decent, affordable houses with low-income families who currently live in substandard housing. LOPCO Contracting has had a long-standing relationship with Habitat for Humanity. LOPCO has most often assisted in painting the exterior of properties whose layout was a bit too height challenged and equipment intensive for Habitat for Humanity’s typical project participants. LOPCO’s relationship with Habitat for Humanity has been extraordinarily rewarding as the positive feeling of helping complete someone’s home who may not otherwise have been in the position to own their own home (without the help of Habitat for Humanity), is tremendously hard to match!

The Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence

The Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence is an innovative and nationally acclaimed organization whose aim is the reduction of gang or group related violence in Rhode Island. The Institute does an absolutely amazing job as the circumstances that the staff is often exposed to are in the MOST dire of situations. We are grateful that we have been able to work with the Institute over the years in the development and implementation of a variety of career training and placement initiatives for the community it serves. We have been able to be a source for several individuals going through programs at the Institute; allowing participants to gain exposure in employer hiring and employment processes while possibly having the opportunity for specific internship and job placement along the way. During the formation of one of these such programs, we were even asked to serve on the creative board for the plan of the entire project. Our involvement with the Institute has been very humbling and we are privileged to be aligned with such a viable part of our community.

Johnston Police Department

The Johnston Police Department, in Johnston, RI serves the approximate 30,000 residents of Johnston and has been operating for more than 100 years! With town budget realities of today being what they are, the exterior of the Johnston Police Department’s headquarters had been needing some refreshing for quite some time. Recently LOPCO Contracting volunteered to completely repair and repaint the building’s exterior. The Police Chief, members of department, and Mayor of the town were overwhelming appreciative of this gesture.

Junior Achievement of RI

Junior Achievement programs help prepare young people for the real world by showing them how to generate wealth and effectively manage it, how to create jobs which make their communities more robust, and how to apply entrepreneurial thinking to the workplace. LOPCO Contracting’s President, Tom Lopatosky, has thoroughly enjoyed working with Hope High School (Providence, RI) students, through Junior Achievement, to learn about the concepts of entrepreneurship and the possibilities of at some point using these concepts to either develop a venture of their own or develop ideas that in some capacity can be used within the context of future employment. Junior Achievement is a program that can trace its roots in RI to 1921 and has been a vital resource to Rhode Island youth and the business and education communities ever since. LOPCO Contracting feels it to be a privilege to be able to assist in being a piece of their local puzzle.

MTTI

MTTI is a school based in Seekonk, MA that was founded in 1985 as a workforce development program to serve as a bridge between employers who could not fill jobs in a specific occupational area and unemployed or underemployed people who needed a set of skills that was attractive to such employers. LOPCO Contracting has been involved with MTTI for some time. We are delighted to have sat on their Building & Property Trades Advisory Board since 2010 to help ensure that their curriculum is in-line with what is currently needed in our industry. MTTI is a tremendous resource as well as their program generates well trained candidates for positions that our company may have open on occasion and which we have benefited from our alignment with them by being able to hire out of their school in the past. Their instructors are tremendous and really aim to do things the correct way as well as set “real world” expectations for all of their students coming through their programs.

One Neighborhood Builders (formerly Olneyville Housing Corporation) 

One Neighborhood Builders (ONB) is an organization that continually works toward the community revitalization in the Olneyville and Elmwood neighborhoods of Providence, RI. LOPCO Contracting’s involvement with ONB is one that is as lengthy, if not more so, than any of the other community partnerships that we are so fortunate to be united with. Over the years LOPCO has joined with ONB in many different capacities. We have led community cleanups, sponsored Holiday parties, and served as an employment resource amongst many other initiatives. This organization, based out of Olneyville, holds an especially dear place in the President (Tom Lopatosky) of LOPCO Contracting’s heart as he grew up in the Olneyville neighborhood and LOPCO’s initial involvement with ONB (back when it was Olneyville Housing) is what led to much of what people see today with LOPCO Contracting’s contributions within the community. We continue to support the efforts of ONB and look forward to carry on teaming up with them for a long time to come.

Providence FOP Lodge # 3

We are always grateful for the local partnerships that help us support the community we’re proud to call home. We recently partnered with the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council (WRWC), which manages the bike path near the Providence Fraternity of Police (FOP) building. The WRWC contacted us in regard to updating the exterior of the FOP building, and with our longstanding partnership with WRWC, we knew this project would be worth the added work. For years, we have helped WRWC with multiple community projects. The FOP project involved an entire revitalization of the exterior of the building, including a new paint job with a paint donation from Benjamin Moore. After a stipend payment from the FOP, LOPCO Contracting covered the remaining cost of the time, labor, and miscellaneous materials needed to complete things. A special thank-you to both WRWC & Benjamin Moore for their support and guidance with this project.

Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council

The Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council (WRWC) promotes and supports the restoration and preservation of the Woonasquatucket River Watershed in Rhode Island. LOPCO Contracting has had a very enjoyable partnership with WRWC over a time period of many years. Since 2008, LOPCO has lead the charge in an annual Spring cleanup with WRWC, (typically around ‘Earth Day’). This event often draws several hundred volunteers and is known to make a HUGE difference, in terms of beauty and overall structural maintenance, along the river and the bike path that runs along it. LOPCO has been instrumental in the creation of quite a number of murals associated with the bike path. Our company is eager to help in any way it can as we believe environmental preservation combined with healthy outdoor activities is something that benefits our whole society!

YouthBuild Providence

YouthBuild Providence provides the youth of Providence with opportunities to empower themselves mentally and morally. It helps them build solid futures through the development of relevant life skills. LOPCO Contracting has made a concerted effort to work with YouthBuild for over a decade. We have had the opportunity to partner with YouthBuild in numerous community activities. For the last several years, LOPCO has worked directly with YouthBuild to establish an annual ‘Build-a-Bed’ event that has been able to build several hundred beds for children in Providence families that do not have a bed to sleep on at night. This heartwarming day each Spring brings smiles to many and serves as a true example to YouthBuild students of how they can easily make a dramatic, lasting impact on others in the community. Over the years LOPCO has created several mentorships with YouthBuild students and has even hired a number of students that have gone through the program – which we still employ to this day!

YMCA of Providence

YMCA of Greater Providence aims to build healthy spirit, mind, and body for all, through programs, services and relationships that are based upon their core values of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility. With this being said, involvement with the program seemed like an overwhelmingly natural fit for LOPCO Contracting. Over the years LOPCO Contracting has partnered with the YMCA of Greater Providence in various community initiatives. LOPCO President Tom Lopatosky has enjoyed mentoring a number of different students involved with YMCA of Greater Providence. Whether at the ‘Y’s headquarters or at Central High School (both in Providence), the mentorship activities and programs have been fun ways to connect and work towards inspiring the youth of today ☺

A Sampling of Community Involvement Features & ‘Thank You’ Letters:

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