Oakland Green Jobs Corp Fights Poverty, Pollution

The Oakland Green Jobs Corps is a complete job training pathway into green careers for Oakland residents with barriers to employment. Beginning in 2008, it will provide young adults with job training, support, and hands-on work experience so that they can independently pursue opportunities in the new energy economy.

The Oakland Green Jobs Corps is a central achievement of the Oakland Apollo Alliance, co-convened by the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 595. The Oakland City Council recently voted to fund the Corps in the amount of $250,000, which provides a vital pool of seed funding for attracting matching funds over the long-term.

The first three months of the program will provide wraparound services including basic literacy, life skills and job readiness training, financial management, environmental awareness, and other specialized support services. Trainees will also go through several rotations learning vocational hard skills related to green-collar work in key sectors.

Participants will finish the program with 6-month paid internships in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and green construction projects. Local firms comprising a Green Workforce Business Council are playing a critical role by shedding light on their workforce needs and providing internship placement opportunities for Corps trainees.

The Corps will be a collaboration between workforce training institutions, community-based organizations, unions, the City of Oakland, educational institutions, and private companies. It will fight both poverty and pollution at the same time by preparing those who have been left out of previous economic booms for promising careers in the emerging green economy.

Excerpted from the forthcoming publication, Green-Collar Jobs: Guidance for Cities, by the Apollo Alliance, Green for All, Center for American Progress, and Center on Wisconsin Strategy.