Green For All Recovery Blog
Blog entries categorized as "Recovery"
Blog Entries categorized as "Recovery"
Pathways Out of Poverty training grants for green jobs announced!
Today the Department of Labor announced the award recipients for $150 million in Pathways Out of Poverty grants to train disadvantaged populations for green jobs. This investment, part of the Recovery Act, will allow people who have been left out of our economy to enter the workforce and secure jobs in the new clean-energy economy.
$100 million in grants for green job training released by Dept. of Labor
Yesterday, Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis announced nearly $100 million in grants to train workers for clean-energy jobs. This critical investment, which Green For All and our supporters advocated for, was authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
The growing green jobs boom.
This week marks a major milestone for our movement. Cities and states are beginning to report how many jobs have been created locally through funding from President Obama's Recovery Act. And today, the government released the first job creation numbers, covering just 1.5% of total Recovery investments. With just this first small glimpse, and less than 50% of the Recovery money distributed, we are already seeing amazing victories for green jobs from across the country.
American Youthworks wins green jobs training grant
Congratulations to our friends at American Youthworks for winning a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce to build a green jobs training center! Earlier this year, this Austin-based job-training organization shared their best practices for obtaining Recovery money in an interview and participated in a conference call hosted by Green for All.
Recovery Alert - Green Jobs in Navajo Nation
In this edition you'll learn about an exciting green jobs victory in Indian Country on Tuesday, an update on prevailing wages for weatherization projects, details about state-level implementation of two key Recovery programs, $3 billion in direct payments for renewable energy projects, and a webcast next Wednesday on economic analysis for renewable energy.
Recovery Alert - Good News
What a great week to be part of the green jobs movement. First, $500 million in hard-fought Green Job Training grant money is now available. Second, the federal Department of Energy has distributed more than $1 billion in Weatherization Assistance Program and State Energy Program funds since our last Alert. Third, we strengthened the House version of the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) to include opportunity and access to jobs for low income communities and communities of color. And fourth - some local news from where I live - the first class of 40 trainees just graduated from the Oakland Green Jobs Corps program!
$500 million for green jobs training - Grant guidelines released!
Today, the Department of Labor (DOL) released grant guidelines for $500 million in green jobs training, including $150 million for "Pathways out of Poverty" grants! This is the money Green For All and our supporters fought hard to have included in the Recovery Act that Congress passed in February.
Recovery Alert - Green-collar Block Grants
We just put the finishing touches on a new Pamphlet on the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program. This resource will help you to ensure that EECBG funds are used to create green-collar jobs for people that need them the most by the June 25th deadline. In this edition, you'll also find: an announcement about our new Frequently Asked Questions for the Recovery Package, an update about prevailing wage labor standards for weatherization funding, resources on green job training grants, and more.
New Recovery FAQ
We've just produced a brand new Frequently Asked Questions resource for the Recovery Package. For three months we've been digging hard for answers to questions about how to leverage stimulus funds for green jobs. This FAQ is designed to answer some of those common questions.
Recovery Alert - 100 Days of Recovery
Yesterday marked 100 days since President Obama signed the Recovery Package into law. According to the White House, over $100 billion of the $787 billion has now been obligated and 150,000 jobs have been created. The money is going fast. In this edition, we've got some tools and information to help you: Prepare for green job training grant money, leverage EECBG funds to launch a city-scale retrofit program, stir up a local debate about green-collar jobs with a letter to the editor, and more. It's time to create green-collar solutions.
A Letter to the Editor helps build the drum beat for a green Recovery for all...
Check out the letter that Jim Schaefer, of Otis, Oregon, just got published in his local paper The Statesman Journal: "The foundation for a better economy is in the hands of our mayor and local officials. They are now responsible for implementing millions of dollars in green investments from President Obama's recovery package..."
New report: People of color hurt worst by the Recession
Foreclosure. Unemployment. Loss of health care. These hardships have been fixtures in American life during this recession. But some of us have been hit harder than others, and it falls along racial lines, says a new report. The Applied Research Center just released Race and Recession: How Inequity Rigged the Economy and How to Change the Rules.
What a Recovery fueled “Green Impact Zone” can do for a troubled city
Troost Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri, has been dividing rich and poor, black and white, jobless and employed in this city since the days of Jim Crow when it was a legal line of segregation. Today the neighborhoods east of Troost Avenue still bear the marks of disenfranchisement: abandoned homes, an unemployment rate that’s as high as 53 percent in some census tracts and gun violence that takes many young lives. But tomorrow, this area could be a center of green jobs, retrofitted energy-efficient homes, a green transportation system and hopeful residents if Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver’s plans for using American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding come to full fruition.
Recovery Alert - Are you ready for some good news?
We've got good news to report this week. In this edition we'll tell you about our new Letter to the Editor tool, a big stimulus victory in Washington State, the first local official to sign the Green Recovery For All Commitment, a model pathways out of poverty program in Denver poised for funding, an important deadline update, more than a dozen new resources, and a Retrofit America's Cities conference call next Tuesday. Enjoy.
Pathways out of poverty in Denver - Mile High Youth Corps poised to get Stimulus Funds
When La’Kyla Byrd cleared trails and tended to trees in Denver’s City Park this past year as a member of Mile High Youth Corps, she also cleared a path for herself and three siblings out of the violent and drug-infested neighborhood of their childhood into college and service-oriented futures.
Join May 19th Conference Call: Retrofitting America's Cities
Are you working on energy efficiency policies or programs in your city? Do you want to learn about city-scale energy efficiency retrofits? Please join Green For All's first Community of Practice Learning Call: Retrofitting America's Cities. Tuesday, May 19th. 1pm pacific / 4pm eastern
Recovery Alert - May's the Month
May is a big month. By May 12th your state will submit its plans on two key green job opportunities - the State Energy Program and the Weatherization Assistance Program. May 26th is the deadline on Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants. Taken together these three programs account for more than $11 billion in green jobs potential.
Local Recovery Story: Community-driven planning in PA
On Tuesday, a number of organizations met to plan out how portions of the Recovery Act should be spent in counties in Pennsylvania. These organizations covered many sectors: for-profit, non-profit, academic, government, grassroots, labor, and community development. The purpose of the meeting was to identify community-driven and sustainability-based priorities for Recovery money.
Millions in stimulus money to pour into poor KC neighborhoods
Within a couple of years, Kansas City could become a green model for turning around some of its poorest neighborhoods, officials said Thursday. Up to $200 million in federal stimulus money will weatherize every home that needs it in a 150-block area, upgrade bus services and provide much more help, they said. “I’m so excited, I’m trying to calm down,” said U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat who came up with the idea for a Green Impact Zone. “This is a perfect storm of opportunity.”
