Business View Magazine | February 2021

26 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2021 Besides lobbying, the association is also involved in capacity building initiatives to attract more young people to the industry. One way it is achieving this is through scholarships. “We give out annually about 15 four-year scholarships to high school graduates to provide financial assistance to go to college,” says Prasad. “We’re also engaged with the Florida Department of Transportation on their workforce initiative, Florida Road Jobs.” Since March 2020, the association has attracted close to 700 people to the transportation construction industry that were initially employed in other sectors. The FTBA constitutes a full-time team based at its DeSoto Park Drive building and is governed by a board of directors drawn from its members. “We work closely with the Florida Department of Transportation, the Florida Chamber of Commerce, and the Associated Industries of Florida to influence policy at a state level but also work at a micro-level helping our members achieve success with their contracts with the DOT,” avers Prasad. “These efforts are coming at a crucial time in Florida’s history. The infrastructure in our country, including Florida, continues to lag behind other developed nations. Our country has grown tremendously, but infrastructure has not kept pace. Some of the challenges we face are outdated funding policies and general resistance to raising taxes, making it difficult to raise the necessary funding to invest in infrastructure. Nevertheless, states have been taking the lead in trying to raise revenue through innovative financing to keep up their infrastructure.”