Oakland Green Jobs Corp Fights Poverty, Pollution
A pioneer in the green collar job movement, the Oakland Green Jobs Corps provides young adults from Oakland ’s poorest neighborhoods a path out of poverty and into careers in the green economy. Participants take classes in green construction techniques, solar installation, weatherization, electricity efficiency and general life skills and then are placed in 3-month on-the-job training apprenticeships.
In a hushed classroom inside a sprawling plant in an industrial part of Oakland , 40 young people in hard hats listen to their instructor explain a trigonometry equation and why it will matter when they're out on a rooftop placing solar panels.
The students are attentive, knowing they are lucky to be there. They've been selected to the Oakland Green Jobs Corps, a job training and paid apprenticeship program that offers at-risk young adults an entree to careers in the green economy.
They start here, at the Cypress Mandela Training Center Inc. in the midst of Oakland's industrial west side, and take classes in everything from "applied math for construction" to hazardous waste recycling, green carpentry techniques, scaffolding, plumbing and blue-print reading. After 16 weeks they move on to classes from instructors at the local Laney Community College to learn such things as the principles of solar energy, electricity transfer, solar installation and the like. Successful graduates will then be placed in 3-month paid apprenticeships with one of a dozen local green companies which have agreed to support the program with on-the-job training.
The Oakland Green Jobs Corps, operating in a city troubled by grinding poverty and violence, has been held up nationally as a model for the promise of the green jobs movement, touted by Congressional leaders and followed by other cities.
The Corps was initiated by Van Jones while he was at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and the Oakland Apollo Alliance back in 2007 as a method for solving two problems at once: poverty and pollution. The two organizations won support from Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and the Oakland City Council which provided $250,000 in seed money to formally launch the Oakland Green Jobs Corps in 2008. The city then solicited bids from organizations to run the program and chose Cypress Mandela - an established, award winning training program - along with Laney College and Growth Sectors Inc., an apprenticeship placement firm, to operate the program in a three-way partnership. The Oakland Green Jobs Corps has since won an additional $500,000 from the state of California and $120,000 from Yahoo!
The 18-to-25-year-olds in the program have come of working age with employment barriers such as prison records or incomplete educations.
"I wanted to make changes in my life," said participant Montrelle Kirkwood during a break in his green construction project at Cypress Mandela one day. His life had been all about the streets of Oakland and he didn't know where it was leading. "Now I've learned a whole lot about the building trades and techniques. I am very thankful."
Art Shanks, director and founder of Cypress Mandela, puts them through boot-camp like training in which things like tardiness for the 7 a.m. start time can jeopardize their participation. "Tuition is free but the rules are strict," Shanks said.
For most of the participants, there's no need to convince them the model works.
"I feel like I am part of the American dream," said Kehnx Huynh, one Oakland Green Jobs Corps trainee speaking from the rooftop of a house he was working on at Cypress Mandela. Huynh moved from Vietnam to Oakland seven years ago only to find that language barriers kept him from getting anything beyond short-term dead end jobs. Now he has skills in green construction and solar installation and a shot at a good paying job that will sustain him - and help sustain the planet.
"This is not just for me but for my daughter," said Olivia Caldwell, a participant with a baby to support whose prison record for a minor infraction kept her from finding a decent job. "I don't want to leave the world in disarray," she said. Enrolled in the Oakland Green Jobs Corps she is now learning skills that can win her a green building job and make a healthier planet for her child.
The Oakland Green Jobs Corps enrolled 40 students in its first year. After the 8 months of classes, successful graduates will be placed into 3-month paid apprenticeship programs with one of a 10 local green businesses which have promised to hire graduates. They include SolarCity, Borrego Solar Systems Inc., SunLight & Power Co., and Sungevity solar companies, the Weathertight Roofing and Waterproofing and Rising Sun Energy Center energy efficiency firms, Swinerton Builders, Kaiser Permanente, Pankow Builders Ltd. and Turner Construction Co.
To learn more about the Oakland Green Jobs Corps, refer to the Ella Baker Center Web site at www.ellabakercenter.org and click on green collar jobs. To enroll or participate please contact Cypress Mandela at www.cypressmandela.org or Laney College , division of Vocational Technology at www.laney.peralta.eduor 510-834-5740.
