Working Groups

Louise Auerhahn is Associate Policy Director of Working Partnerships USA - an organization that conducts research, produces policies, and develops programs to address the needs of working families in Silicon Valley. Her current focus is on the impacts of Silicon Valley’s changing economy on working families and the middle class, including efforts to create good green jobs and place working people, women and communities of color at the center of the emerging green economy. Louise’s current projects include development of the pilot for Santa Clara County Green Pays Program, a scalable residential energy retrofit initiative. The Green Pays model combines low-cost, accessible financing for homeowners with a self-sustaining financial model to spur private investment and strong standards ensuring creation of high-quality local green jobs with career paths.

Ben Beach is Staff Attorney for the Community Benefits Law Center (CBLC), a project of the Partnership for Working Families. CBLC provides legal assistance to community-based organizations, labor unions, and other advocates in their campaigns for economic justice. They focus on approaches that ensure good jobs, equitable access to opportunities created by economic development, and improvement in major land use and economic development decisions that affect low-income communities. In Partnership with Green For All, CBLC is supporting the City of Seattle’s stakeholder process for identifying appropriate standards and recommending implementation, enforcement and monitoring mechanisms for the City’s building efficiency programs. For more information visit the CBLC website.

Colin Bishopp is the Director of Business Development at the Clean Economy Development Center, which connects investors, entrepreneurs, labor unions, and policy makers through the integrated market analysis, business development and access to financing required to scale clean economy industries. Colin joins the Center from Change to Win, where he served as State Policy Director for the Home Performance Campaign. For more information visit the Clean Economy Development Center website.

Will Byrne is Co-Founder and Executive Director of The DC Project, a national nonprofit organization delivering training and technical assistance to city and state retrofit initiatives prioritizing high-road job creation in the efficiency sector. Founded in January 2009 with the mission of creating clean energy careers for people who need them most, The DC Project has been applying its cutting-edge organizing tools and tactics to mobilize community interest through WeatherizeDC, its anchor initiative. For more information read this overview or visit the WeatherizeDC website.

Sammy Chu is the Project Director of the Long Island Green Homes Initiative, a residential energy retrofit program developed by the Town of Babylon. The program is among the first in the nation to use property assessed financing for energy-efficiency home improvements, meaning loans are tied to the property, not the individual borrower. The program was seed funded with the Town’s surplus solid waste funds after it classified carbon as a solid waste to address climate warming emissions that result from wasted residential energy consumption. For more information, please read our case study or visit The Babylon Project website. 

Amanda Eichel is the Climate Protection Advisor for the City of Seattle Mayor’s office where she has led the development of the Green Building Capital Initiative. GBCI aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve the energy efficiency of Seattle’s existing homes and businesses by 20%.  For more information, read the GBCI Summary or visit the City of Seattle’s website.

Rey Espana is the Director of Employment, Housing, and Community Development at the Native American Youth and (NAYA) Family Center. Among other goals, NAYA seeks to increase the economic success of the Native community in Portland by providing opportunities for participants to gain the skills and experience needed to be successful in the workforce. Rey was instrumental in organizing “Community for Equity” a broad coalition of community partners that was key to Portland being awarded a 2010 DOL $4 Million dollar Pathways out of Poverty grant. Rey represented NAYA in the development of a Community Workforce Agreement (CWA) for Clean Energy Works Portland (CEWP), a home retrofit effort that is creating jobs, reducing pollution, lowering energy bills, and expanding business opportunities in Portland. Rey currently serves on the Stakeholder Evaluation and Implementation Committee that is working to ensure that CEWP provides high-quality employment and access for those in the community who have been historically left out of new economic opportunities.

Garrett Fitzgerald is the Sustainability Coordinator at the City of Oakland where he has been spearheading the creation of Oakland’s Energy and Climate Action Plan, a wide-ranging policy that will outline the steps the city must take to significantly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. The Plan includes a strategy to reduce the city’s carbon footprint through reduced energy use in buildings. Garrett helped develop Oakland’s funding applications for competitive Recovery Act grants from the Department of Energy, enabling Oakland to expand opportunities for its buildings to be retrofitted for more efficient energy use, while also expanding employment opportunities for the city’s residents. Through participation in California FIRST, a property assessed clean energy (PACE) finance program, Oakland property owners will be able to use property-secured financing to cover the installation of energy upgrades, with repayment tied to their property taxes. Click here for our case study on Oakland’s participation in CA FIRST.

Elena Foshay is a Research Associate at the Apollo Alliance, a coalition of labor, business, environmental, and community leaders advancing a bold vision for the next American economy centered on clean energy and good jobs. The Apollo Alliance New York State affiliate recently succeeded in helping to pass into law and implement the Green Jobs/Green New York Act of 2009. Click here to learn more about innovative work from state and local Apollo Alliances across the country.

Merrian Fuller is a Principle Research Associate at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). Her work focuses on the financing and deployment of energy efficiency and renewable energy, and workforce development opportunities in these sectors. She is a member of the Department of Energy's Financial Technical Assistance Team, providing assistance to cities and states deploying stimulus funds. Her current research also includes the interaction of stimulus funds with ratepayer funds, and methods for increasing the demand for building retrofits.  Merrian is the author of Enabling Investments in Energy Efficiency and a PACE Financing How To Guide, key reports that document best practices in the field.

Matt Golden is the co-founder and president of Recurve, a leading home performance company based in California. Prior to founding the company in 2004, Matt worked as an Energy Consultant, helping homeowners and businesses develop solar power systems. He soon realized that he was offering only a point solution and was not truly addressing most homeowners’ desires to make their homes and lives more sustainable. Matt developed the concept for Recurve to meet this market demand by providing a single, full-service resource and a brand homeowners can trust to help them improve the comfort, health, and efficiency of their home. Matt currently resides on the following boards: Department of Energy (DOE) Home Performance Council, Building Performance Institute (BPI), California Building Performance Contractors Association (CBPCA), Build It Green, and, Fine Home Building Magazine Green Building Advisory Board, and Efficiency First.

Howard Greenwich is Research Director at Puget Sound Sage, an organization that brings together labor, faith and community to build an economy based on shared prosperity.  At Sage, Howard provides technical assistance to community groups on development and displacement issues in South Seattle and participates on behalf of Sage on the Stakeholder Advisory Committee for the City of Seattle High Road Energy Efficiency Workforce Standards. For more information visit the Puget Sound Sage website.

Julian Gross is Director of the Community Benefits Law Center (CBLC), a project of the Partnership for Working Families. CBLC provides legal assistance to community-based organizations, labor unions, and other advocates in their campaigns for economic justice. They focus on approaches that ensure good jobs, equitable access to opportunities created by economic development, and improvement in major land use and economic development decisions that affect low-income communities. Julian has represented coalitions of community-based organizations in negotiation of many groundbreaking community benefits agreements. He has also drafted numerous local hiring and contracting policies, and has worked on living wage policies and many other community economic development initiatives. For more information visit the CBLC website.

Jordan Jones is the Social Enterprise Director for the Good Work Network in New Orleans. The Good Work Network helps low-income minority entrepreneurs start business ventures and be successful by providing a wide range of training and support services. It staffs the Green Collaborative in New Orleans, which was established in 2009 to create synergies among organizations engaged in environmental justice and sustainability. For more information visit the Good Work Network website.

Jenny is Research Director for the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE), which advances economic and social justice by building power and raising standards for working families. EBASE’s Community Benefits Program works to ensure that residents and workers concretely benefit from large-scale economic development projects. Working in coalitions of community and labor, EBASE helps ensure such projects provide local benefits such as affordable housing, living wages, and local hiring. EBASE has supported the development of efficiency programs and policies in Oakland that ensure local residents and workers are included in the growing energy efficiency market. For more information visit the EBASE website.

Darlene Lombos is Co-Director of Community Labor United (CLU) in Boston, Massachusetts. Her work with CLU, in coordination with the Green Justice Coalition, is bringing good green jobs and community energy savings to Massachusetts. Their plans for 2010 include launching community-based weatherization pilot projects across Massachusetts, and ensuring that the pilots’ best practices get incorporated into the utility companies’ statewide energy efficiency projects. Throughout the year they will be working for equity – good job standards, up-front financing for low-income families for weatherization, and funding to fix up old houses so they can be weatherized, among other projects. For more information read our overview of the Green Justice Coalition’s Campaign or visit CLU’s website.

Kelley McKanna focuses on federal and state policy, government and stakeholder relations and communications at Renewable Funding, an industry leader in the turnkey administration of Property Assessed Clean Energy  (PACE) programs – programs that eliminate the chief barrier to clean energy installations, the large upfront cost, and enable local governments to finance renewable energy and energy efficiency projects on private property, including residential, commercial and industrial properties.  Renewable Funding supports communities beginning the PACE program by financing district legislation, offering a comprehensive on-line application processing coupled with a financial package that provides competitive interest rates and no financial risk to the municipality. For more information visit the Renewable Funding website.

Nancy Montoya is the Regional Community and Economic Development Manager for the Gulf Coast region of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Nancy provides expertise to community groups and financial institutions on a broad range of community development initiatives.  Currently she is focused on foreclosure prevention efforts directed to at-risk homeowners and markets; Gulf Coast housing, economic development and collaborative partnership promoting effective post-disaster recovery and renewal, and sustainable communities practices with an emphasis on energy efficiency and finance. Over the past two years Nancy has been building a knowledge base of nationwide best practices around sustainable development and has been applying this information to promote inclusive financing vehicles for sustainable affordable housing and energy efficiency retrofits in the metro New Orleans region.  She also is working to support the creation of a flexible and responsive qualified workforce and collaborative infrastructure that can advance holistic community development.

Chinwe Onyeagoro is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of O-H Community Partners, Ltd (OHcp). Under her leadership, OHcp has designed and launched a performance monitoring tool that is focused on assisting nonprofits, foundations, and government agencies with measuring the economic and social impact of programs and investments. This system has been customized to support energy efficiency retrofit programs around the country and tracks energy performance improvements, job creation and retention outcomes, as well as women and minority business enterprise supplier spending. For more information visit the OHcp website.

Satya Rhodes-Conway is a senior associate at the Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS), where she works on high-road state and local policy and organizes the Mayors’ Innovation Project and the Wisconsin Apollo Alliance. She is one of the authors of the Apollo Alliance's "New Energy" series, and co-authored "A Short Guide to Setting up a City-Scale Retrofit Program". COWS has been instrumental in the development of the Racine and Milwaukee Energy Efficiency programs, and runs the Efficiency Cities Network.

Derek Smith is Project Manager of Clean Energy Works Portland, a public-private partnership offering one-stop energy efficiency retrofits by combining low-interest financing and streamlined service delivery. The collaborative venture features Energy Trust of Oregon, utilities, financial institutions, building science contractors, Green For All and others, and is led by the City of Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, where Derek serves as Policy Advisor. Clean Energy Works was awarded in 2010 a $20 million ‘Retrofit Ramp-up’ grant from the US Dept. of Energy. Derek is now leading the scale-up of Clean Energy Works Oregon, which aims to leverage public and private capital to create a regional platform for quick, effective energy savings, carbon reductions and job creation. For more information read our white paper or visit the CEWP website.

Brad Swing is the Director of Energy Policy for the City of Boston. The City recently created Renew Boston, with the mission to help residents and businesses use less energy and generate their own clean energy. Brad is working with Renew Boston to coordinate customer-sited energy service delivery, particularly energy efficiency and alternative energy services.  Renew Boston connects businesses and residents with auditors and contractors providing energy efficiency and alternative energy services, works with local workforce providers, and monitors and verifies contractors’ work, among other things. For more information click here to read our case study on Renew Boston.

Loyd Ware is the Manager of the City of Oakland’s Residential Lending and Rehabilitation program, which recently added the Weatherization and Energy Retrofits Loan Program (WERLP) to its portfolio of available loans for low-income Oakland homeowners. WERLP was seeded with nearly $2 million in Community Development Block Grant funding made available through the Recovery Act. The program encourages residents to do deep energy retrofits of their homes, while also creating opportunities for local minority and women contractors and graduates of the Oakland Green Job Corps. For more information read our case study on WERLP or visit the program website.

Michael Woo is the Project Director of Got Green, an interactive group of urban youth and young adults dedicated to empowering themselves and communities of color by introducing “green” into their communities. By raising awareness they are pushing  for opportunities that will lift people out of poverty while promoting the certainty of environmental, social and economic justice. Through door to door canvassing, they raise awareness in communities of color about how to conserve energy and lower monthly utility rates, while also promoting the creation of related green jobs and training accessible to those in their community in the greatest need of employment. For more information visit the Got Green website.

Adam Zimmerman is the Senior Vice President for ShoreBank Enterprise Cascadia (SBEC) in Portland, Oregon, a certified non-profit Community Development Financial Institution serving urban and rural communities of Oregon and Washington.  Adam works closely with a wide variety of local governments, non-profit organizations and conservation entrepreneurs, providing loans, capacity building services and program development assistance.  He currently manages SBEC’s engagement as Fund Manager for Clean Energy Works Portland.  SBEC provides financial and business assistance to entrepreneurs, non-profits and governments that strengthen the economic, social and environmental resilience of communities of the northwestern U.S. For more information visit the SBEC website.

Marta Nelson is the Director of Policy and Planning at the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO), a nationally renowned reentry program serving New York City for more than 30 years. CEO’s model of paid transitional employment, full-time job placement services, and job retention efforts has helped people with criminal convictions find over 10,000 full-time jobs over the last decade. Findings from an independent, random-assignment evaluation of CEO programs by the research group MDRC show that participation in CEO significantly decreases several measures of recidivism through three years of follow up. In October 2008, CEO opened the CEO Academy, which helps people with criminal convictions progress from the entry-level jobs they are able to find shortly after release from prison to careers in the skilled trades, specifically plumbing, electrical and refrigeration mechanics. For more information please read our case study or visit Center for Employment Opportunities' website.

Joseph Billingsley is the Senior Manager of Corpsmember Support Services at Civicorps Schools. Established in 1983, Civicorps Schools (formerly the East Bay Conservation Corps) is the oldest and largest regional urban corps in California. The mission of the Civicorps Academy is to promote youth development through environmental stewardship and community service and to further education reform and social change. Civicorps’ Recycling Program provides young adults who have demonstrated success and leadership in the Corpsmember Program an opportunity to gain advanced employment skills while still continuing to reach their academic goals. This innovative program operates as a specialized service contract for more than 150 public and private accounts in the region. The Civicorps also run a Field Program that includes job training in parks and open space maintenance and expansion, flood channel clearing, and tree cutting and pruning. For more information, please read our case study or visit Civicorps Schools' website.

John Mello is the Project Director for Civic Works’ green career initiatives. Civic Works is a non-profit organization that serves Baltimore City’s disadvantaged youth and adult residents. John oversees “B’more Green” and “EnergyReady” operations. B’more Green is an environmental workforce development program that prepares participants for entry-level careers in environmental technology and brownfields mitigation. EnergyReady retrofits existing residential buildings to create living spaces that are more energy efficient, more affordable, safer, and more comfortable. John is an Offender Workforce Development Specialist (OWDS), and a Building Performance Institute certified building Analyst Professional and Envelope Professional. Civic Works is committed to developing environmentally sustainable living wage employment opportunities that benefit unemployed and under-employed people in the Baltimore region. For more information, please read our case study or visit Civic Works' website.

John Gardner is the Executive Director for Construction Apprenticeship & Workforce Solutions, Inc. (CAWS), a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the representation of people of color and women in the construction trades. CAWS is a membership organization created by construction industry stakeholders, including major public and private developers, general contractors, trade unions, apprenticeship training organizations, and community-based organizations, to be a comprehensive, long-term solution to this under-representation issue. CAWS is part of the Community Equity Project coalition, established in 2009. The Community Equity Project targets low-income individuals living in areas of high poverty, with a special emphasis on people of color, veterans, homeless, ex-offenders, and low-skilled adults. The project combines employment and training resources of the Workforce Investment Act public workforce system with culturally specific case management. For more information, please read our case study or visit the Construction Apprenticeship & Workforce Solutions, Inc. website.

Kinnus Paul is a Job Developer for the Green Jobs Training Program at Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice (DWEJ). DWEJ is dedicated to preparing urban residents to take a meaningful role in the environmental revitalization of their communities. The Green Jobs Training program equips Detroit residents with the skills to pursue careers in environmental industries. Their trainees receive certifications in twelve areas related to the green economy. Throughout the sixteen-week program, trainees are required to maintain a strong work ethic, and receive six weeks of basic instruction in job readiness, math, computer literacy and life skills. DWEJ is committed to producing a highly skilled workforce. For more information, please read our case study or visit Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice's website.

Keith Bennet is the Program Director of Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit's Flip The Script program. Flip the Script continues to blaze an extraordinary trail as a multidimensional outcome based male empowerment and training program with extensive and measurable success in transforming the lives of hundreds of minority males, specifically young African American men 16-30 years of age living in the City of Detroit and surrounding areas. FLIP THE SCRIPT has quietly positioned itself as a nationally recognized leader in providing human services, educational training, GED preparation, workforce development skills, vocational training and/or retraining, critical life and social skills development assistance to a populations many in society consider lost, hopeless, helpless and menaces to society. For more information, please read our case study or visit Goodwill Detroit's Flip the Script website.

Marcelino Salazar is a Program Manager at the Fresno Local Conservation Corps. The Fresno Local Conservation Corps (LCC) has been providing services in Fresno for since 1997. They currently offer paid job training in the areas of grounds maintenance, recycling, landscaping, construction and solar installation, including a job-training program for youth at the Elkhorn Correctional Facility. They also offer non-paid training in the areas of network cabling, solar Installation and the Reclaiming of rainwater. For more information, please read our case study or visit Fresno Local Conservation Corps' website.

Matilda A. Tennessee serves as the Director of Limitless Vistas, Inc (LVI), a non-profit organization devoted to creating career opportunities for disconnected youth by engaging them in Environmental Community Service Projects. Under her leadership for the past four years, LVI has received several grants totaling over 1.5 million dollars from the following organizations: Environmental Protection Agency, Americorps and the National Emergency Grant through the Corps Network. Part of LVI’s mission is to help disadvantaged young people complete their education, learn the necessary skills to become gainfully employed and build a hopeful future for themselves, their families, and their communities.  Since its inception in 2006, LVI has enrolled over 200 participants in one or two of the following programs: Brownfields job training, weatherization, and/or basic construction.  Students who matriculate through the program receive several certifications: Hazwoper, OSHA Construction, asbestos, mold and lead. For more information please read our case study or visit Limitless Vistas' website.

Martin Flores is the Executive Director of the Students for Higher Education Program at Los Angeles Youth Opportunity Movement in Watts. The Los Angeles Youth Opportunity Movement, established in 2000, provides 14 – 21 year-olds who live in the City of Los Angeles with services in the area of employment, education and training. Their OneSource Center connects youth to the workforce with training and skills development, including basic skills classes, GED preparation, resume writing, and computer literacy. The Students For Higher Education (SFHE) Program targets offenders aged 16-18 being released from Los Angeles County Juvenile Detention facilities that are returning to the City of Los Angeles and its surrounding communities. The goal is to get the youth engaged in school (alternative, high school, community college), employment (community based organizations, including green sites) and training opportunities.  For more information, please read our case study or visit the Los Angeles Youth Opportunity Movement website.

Jim Reid is the Project Coordinator for the Southwestern PA Reentry Coalition (SWPARC). An outgrowth of the Mon Valley Initiative’s Workforce Development program, SWPARC is a concerted effort to foster and sustain collaboration among agencies and employers in Southwestern Pennsylvania to coordinate and deliver resources, workforce skills and employment links to individuals whose criminal record presents a barrier to self-sufficiency. For more information, please read our case study or visit the Mon Valley Initiative website.

Amy Rynell is the Director of The National Transitional Jobs Network (NTJN),  a coalition of over 4,000 city, state, and federal policy makers; community workforce organizations; anti‐poverty nonprofit service providers and advocacy organizations committed to advancing and strengthening Transitional Jobs programs around the country so that people with barriers to employment can gain success in the workplace and improve their economic lives and the economic conditions of their communities. NTJN provides technical assistance to programs and government agencies which takes many forms, including sharing of forms and best practices, in depth program assessment and consulting, and drafting of RFPs and related materials. The NTJN also organizes conferences and events, promotes public policy improvements and supports research and evaluations of best practices across the country. For more information, please read our case study for visit the National Transitional Jobs Network's website.

Sol Rodriguez is the Executive Director of Open Doors, a non-profit whose mission is to strengthen communities by supporting the formerly incarcerated. The organization's goals are to successfully reintegrate formerly incarcerated individuals, reduce recidivism, stabilize families, and reinvest in communities and reduce incarceration rates. OpenDoors offers employment case management and group employment readiness classes, both inside and outside the prison. The OpenDoors employment preparation and placement program employs a full-time, experienced job readiness specialist who prepares clients to enter the world of professional employment and become responsible employees. These employment specific services are designed to compliment other services offered in the Resource Center to provide clients with holistic support as they prepare to apply for, get, and maintain sustainable employment.  For more information, please read our case study or visit OpenDoors' website.

Jessica Rooks is the Director of the Green Career Center at The Osborne Association which provides men and women with criminal records environmental literacy and comprehensive career development training that prepares them to enter and advance in the green economy.  Trainings began in January 2010 of this newest department of The Osborne Association, which has been serving formerly incarcerated men and women and their families for over 75 years.  The Green Career Center seeks to embody making a difference by helping people in the re-purposing of their lives and advocating for opportunities for them to contribute to their families, communities and the environment. An educator by nature Jessica believes environmental literacy is essential in preparing people for good green jobs.  She teaches ROOTS of Success curriculum as part of the Green Career Center’s training. For more information, please read our case study or visit the Obsorne Association's website.

John Valverde is the Business Manager of The Green Career Center of The Osborne Association which provides men and women with criminal records environmental literacy and comprehensive career development training that prepares them to enter and advance in the green economy.  Trainings began in January 2010 of this newest department of The Osborne Association, which has been serving formerly incarcerated men and women and their families for over 75 years .  The Green Career Center seeks to embody making a difference by helping people in the re-purposing of their lives and advocating for opportunities for them to contribute to their families, communities and the environment. At the core of John’s work his commitment to developing good green local business and connecting those business owners to a solid, skilled workforce. For more information, please read our case study or visit the Osborne Association's website.

Rob Hope is the Director of Workforce and Economic Development at Rubicon Programs, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people to move out of poverty and improving the quality of their lives. Since 1973, Rubicon has built and operated affordable housing and provided employment, job training, mental health, and other supportive services to individuals who have disabilities, are homeless, or are otherwise economically disadvantaged. Rubicon's Transitional Employment Program provides transitional work opportunities that are aligned with their business enterprise, Rubicon Landscape. Clients receive twelve weeks of instruction and closely supervised employment in Landscaping or Commercial Property Maintenance.  This program provides 100 to 150 clients per year the opportunity to enhance both their hard and soft employment skills in a supportive environment so they can transition to higher paying unsubsidized employment.  For more information, please read our case study or visit Rubicon Programs, Inc.'s website.

Jodina Hicks is the Chief Program Officer of the Safer Foundation. Founded in 1972, Safer Foundation supports people with criminal records become employable and employed, which supports public safety through the reduction of recidivism. The Safer Foundation uses a various program models and interventions to maximize the likelihood of not only getting a job, but more importantly, maintaining employment through that particularly difficult first year after prison. In 2009, Safer served approximately 10,000 clients and supported 2,700 jobs starts.  For more information, please read our case study or visit Safer Foundation's website.

Dave Trovato is a senior project manager at the Seattle Jobs Initiative, a non-profit workforce intermediary with the mission of creating opportunities for people to support themselves and their families through living wage careers. The Seattle Jobs Initiative employs a sector-based model to workforce development with a policy team that analyzes the labor market for strategic opportunities, and a program team that works with local community agencies and college to remove clients’ barriers to success and link them with full-time jobs that pay, on average, $12-$13 with benefits. The Seattle Jobs Initiative has placed more than 6,000 clients in jobs that meet strict standards, with participants realizing an average wage gain of $6,000 - $10,000 per year. For more information, please read our case study or visit the Seattle Jobs Initiative's website.

Jayne Sheridan is Deputy Director of Vermont Works for Women, an organization that works to address the needs of women in Vermont to earn a livable wage and to succeed despite numerous personal, educational and economic barriers to employment.  Through summer camps, school-based activities and vocational training programs, VWW also works to educate women and girls about the wide array of career opportunities available to them, many of which may have never occurred to them to pursue. VWW programs have been honored with regional and national awards. Three of their programs, Rosie’s Girls, Modular Home Program (Building Homes, Building Lives) and Step Up for Women, have been replicated nationally. For more information, please read our case study or visit Vermont Works for Women's website.

Gregg Keesling is the President of Workforce, Inc., which operates as a social enterprise  – a business with a social mission. The mission is two-fold: 1) become the recycling hub of Marion County and 2) help those returning from prison have immediate, legitimate earnings combined with a broad array of social supports. Workforce provides transitional jobs for recently released offenders in the emerging electronic waste recycling industry. This program seeks to keep as much electronic waste as possible out of landfills and recover the waste in a way it can be re-used in industry. WFI was the first recycler in the state to complete the stringent registration process for e-waste recycling developed by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. Since 2006, the program has employed 287 people, paid near $1.75 million in wages and only 17% of participants have been returned to prison. For more information, please read our case study or visit Workforce Inc.'s website.