The recipient of a $4 million federal grant is promising that 300 unemployed residents of Hunts Point, Longwood, Mott Haven, Melrose and Port Morris will find jobs under a new training program for “green” jobs.
The Consortium for Worker Education will use the money to establish a Center for Environmental Workforce Training to teach both job skills and offer general education.
The organization will partner with several non-profit organizations, including Mott Haven-based SoBro and Greenworker Cooperatives to train residents to build or retrofit energy-efficient buildings.
Most of the participants will “learn how to work with their hands—being able to fix things,” said Rebecca Lurie, director of development at the consortium.
Jobs will include window installation and building repair, installing insulation and repairing or installing boilers, she said Some participants in the program will also learn to conduct energy audits and market energy upgrades to building owners,
Lurie said the consortium hoped to launch the program, which will last for two years, within a month.
Sustainable South Bronx and The Point CDCthe Osborne Association, the Association for Energy Affordability, the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp. and Bronx Community College’s Project Hire will also serve as partners in the program, which was hailed by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. as “a big step toward becoming the ‘greenest’ borough in New York City.”
All told, the program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, aims to provide training and education services for 425 participants, while placing 297 of those who receive a degree or certificate in jobs.
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[…] by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz. You can read coverage in the Daily News or the Mott Haven Herald. Green Worker Cooperatives is an incubator for worker-owned cooperative businesses with a […]