People & Programs
Spotlight on People & Programs
These are just a few of the interesting things going on that we have heard about. Got your own good example of progress on green-collar jobs, or how service is creating green pathways out of poverty? Green For All is collecting stories from around the country. Please contact us us with your suggestions.
California Youth Energy Services
Teenagers working with California Youth Energy Services are turning urban neighborhoods into greener, healthier places to live by offering residents simple energy-saving repairs and advice.
American YouthWorks
In Central Texas, where 36 percent of teens drop out of high school, American YouthWorks gives at-risk youth in Austin ’s poorest neighborhoods a second chance, offering hands-on training in green construction and conservation along with academic classes for a high school diploma.
Greencorps Chicago
Greencorps Chicago Prepares Ex-Offenders For The Green Economy. As a program of the city government, Greencorps Chicago bridges the most economically-disadvantaged people with the nascent green economy of the region, by providing paid nine-month training programs in diverse environmental trades.
Bay Area Women Growing Green Businesses, Creating Healthy Jobs
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, WAGES (Women’s Action to Gain Economic Security) works to build worker-owned green businesses that create healthy, dignified jobs for low-income immigrant women. Over the past decade, WAGES has built three successful green‑housecleaning cooperatives that have given hundreds of women the opportunity to become financially secure, gain business skills, and lead healthier, fuller lives.
Building Workplace Democracy and Green Industry in the Bronx
Green Worker Cooperatives has worked since 2003 to build worker-owned green industry across the South Bronx. In early 2008, after years of fundraising, education, and building ties with the local community, the organization opened its first cooperative: Rebuilder's Source, which collects and markets waste construction supplies for re-use.
Urban Farmers in Chicago
Using the context of an organic agriculture venture, Growing Home’s mission is to foster life- and job-skill training in a transitional employment program for previously incarcerated, homeless, and low-income Chicagoans.
Pre-Apprenticeship: Best Practices, Best Results
Seattle Vocational Institute Pre-apprenticeship Construction Training (PACT) helps to meet the demand for green-collar workers in the construction trades by preparing low-income people for family-wage career opportunities in commercial construction. SVI PACT has been working for 10 years to develop best practices for pre-apprenticeship. PACT graduates enter the apprenticeships for carpenters, ironworkers, electricians, plumbers, laborers, and 10 other construction trades.
Cleaning Up—Environmentally and Economically, Recycling Makes Sense
Standing up for the rights of sanitation workers, the Teamsters Union is promoting recycling and other “green” initiatives that help the environment and create family wage jobs. By promoting curbside recycling, a wealth of new jobs are created as they often require extra pickups and additional people to sort and separate the waste.
Green-Collar Workers Vital to Washington, D.C. Policy Goals
As the Nation's capitol, Washington DC is playing an important leadership role in advancing green jobs in America through the DC Green Collar Jobs Initiative, a cooperative effort among city government, for profit entities, non-profits, & academic institutions. Together, these actors are enacting policies that will create large demand for a variety of green-collar jobs and new markets for DC-area businesses.
Newark Neighborhood Revitalization Effort Trains Green-Collar Workers
The Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District (LPCCD) is a Community Development Corporation transforming a low-income neighborhood in Newark into an arts and cultural district. The arts and cultural district will include 300 "green" mixed-income housing units, music festivals, historic restoration projects and the Museum of African American Music. There will be over one-million square feet of development, including sixteen USGBC LEED Certified buildings and participation in the USGBC LEED-Neighborhood Development pilot program.
Chicago, A Green-Collar Jobs Pioneer
Mayor Richard Daley has declared his intention of transforming Chicago into the "the greenest city in America" - and green jobs are a key component of this effort. For the last 12 years, Chicago has administered a green-collar job training program called "GreenCorps Chicago." Over the course of 9 months, program participants - primarily ex-offenders - receive training in one of four separate tracks: landscaping and urban gardening; computer refurbishing and recycling; household hazardous waste handling; and home weatherization. While receiving training, participants give back by building community gardens or refurbishing computers for underprivileged residents.
Wilbur Wright College Trains Workers in Building Energy Technologies
Wilbur Wright College (one of the City Colleges of Chicago) developed, accredited, and, in the fall of 2006 began offering a six-course, 21-credit hour Occupational Certificate in Building Energy Technologies (BET). During curriculum development, learning objectives and topics were suggested by a focus group of professionals in the sustainable construction sectors (architects, energy engineers, organized labor, construction contractors, etc.) The intent was to address labor market needs identified within the booming green building field in the Chicagoland area. The initial target student population was incumbent workers in the construction industry and trades. This project was funded through grants from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
Chicago Organizations Launch Green-Collar Jobs Initiative
The Chicagoland Green Collar Jobs Initiative was founded in September 2007 and is a collaboration of sustainable and educational organizations whose focuses include: workforce development, sustainable business initiatives, labor, environmental education and green building leaders. The founding groups are, LEED Council, Chicago Sustainable Business Alliance, Wilbur Wright College, Chicago Federation of Labor- Workers Assistance Committee, City of Chicago - Department of Environment, Delta Institute, Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, US Green Building Council - Chicago Chapter, BIG: Blacks in Green. Other organizations have joined this initiative as information about its activities have become more widespread.
Sustainable South Bronx: Green Jobs, Not Jails
Sustainable South Bronx connects poverty alleviation with the environment in ways that benefit both concerns. Their Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training program has successfully moved people from welfare into living wage green-collar jobs for 4 years, while SSBx concurrently advocates policies that fuel demand for those jobs.
New Orleans Reconstruction Corps to Create Green Pathways out of Poverty Starting in March '08
Starting in March '08, 800 young people will begin as full-time corps members in the New Orleans Reconstruction Corps reducing energy consumption in homes and buildings, improving public spaces and restoring the natural environment in the Greater New Orleans area. Mostly court-involved, formerly incarcerated youth, the corps members will gain experience through their service on a path to employment in the green economy. Service is the centerpiece of a program model that includes formal working partnerships with justice agencies, employers, and other community agencies; individual case management and intensive services; life-skills development, education, and employment preparation - and meaningful service projects.
Cooling Roofs and Creating Opportunities in Baltimore
Full-time service can act as a stepping-stone in green pathways out of poverty. Service and conservation corps like Civic Works train youth in green construction and weatherization, with the goal of linking them to good jobs in the green economy. B'more Green, one of Civic Works' initiatives, is an innovative job-training program designed to prepare unemployed or underemployed Baltimore residents for entry level careers in the field of environmental technology. Upon completion, graduates receive assistance with securing jobs that build on their training.
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.
Solar Richmond Trains Low Income Residents
A unique jobs training program in Richmond, California is moving low-income residents and youth of color into the green economy. As the green-collar jobs idea builds momentum throughout the nation, this program is among the first to "walk the talk" by providing low cost and free solar system installation to low-income homeowners and training low-income residents from the community to do the work.
Los Angeles Apollo Alliance Partners with City to Create Jobs and Opportunities in Green Retrofits
Through a combination of door-to-door organizing and policy development with city officials, the LA Apollo Alliance is getting the city to invest in water and energy retrofits for hundreds of city buildings. The “Apollo Challenge” will reduce global warming pollution and save the city up to $10 million in energy costs per year, while at the same time establishing a Green Career Ladder Training Program to connect low-income residents to job opportunities created by the investment.
New York City's PlaNYC 2030 Will Create Thousands of Green-Collar Jobs
In 2007 New York City launched PlaNYC 2030: 127 long-term sustainability initiatives that will expand green collar jobs citywide. PlaNYC's goals range from ensuring that every New Yorker has access to a park within a 10 minute walk to reducing citywide greenhouse gas emissions 30% by 2030. Meeting these goals will create thousands of jobs, particularly in energy efficiency retrofits for existing buildings.
