WAP and the Green Workforce

On the weekend of April 4 – 6, over a thousand energy efficiency and antipoverty advocates joined together in Memphis, Tennessee for Green for All's (http://www.greenforall.org/) "Dream Reborn" conference to discuss ways to “bring jobs, justice, wealth and health” to low income communities and share the many new programs and projects underway designed to move out individuals of poverty through environmentally sustainable, living wage jobs.

Sessions included an overview and formal definition of the national green jobs movement and key policy issues. Attendees also learned about successful green-collar job training programs already taking place across the nation including the Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training Program, Greencorps Chicago, and Solar Richmond which offer a range of training and job placement options to disadvantaged individuals.

During this conference, NASCSP staff met with individuals from several key "green workforce" organizations to discuss areas of potential collaboration between the Weatherization Assistance Program and other environmentally beneficial initiatives. Such partnership seems natural. After all, WAP was green before green was cool, generating 45 green jobs for every $1 million invested in the Program.

In addition to working towards national partnerships we have also continued to research green workforce programs currently taking place across the nation. In order to better understand this movement it helps to recognize that it is the product of several simultaneous movements through several major organizations including environmentalists, unions, and antipoverty groups.

Perhaps the clearest guidelines for defining green collar jobs have been offered by Green for All (http://www.greenforall.org/resources/green-collar-jobs-overview).

Based upon the criteria offered by Green for All, NASCSP is currently conducting a formalized survey to learn what jobs taking place through assistance from the Weatherization Assistance Program and Community Services Block Grant Programs.

We encourage you to visit
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=PMKlt_2f2dWW_2f1iK_2fLqfvj_2bA_3d_3d and complete this form. A summary of responses will be available on the NASCSP website in the near future.

For additional information on the movement, visit:

Greener Pathways: Jobs and Workforce Development in the Clean Energy Economy -
http://www.cows.org/greenerpathways/

Green-Collar Jobs in America's Cities: Building Pathways Out of Poverty and Careers in the Clean Energy Economy -
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/03/green_collar_jobs.html