Oakland Green Jobs Corps Launch

The long-awaited Oakland Green Jobs Corps was officially launched October 20, 2008 at a press conference in West Oakland. After more than two years of hard work by many, many people, we are proud to see this program take off!

Check out some pictures from the event:

The event brought together the Oakland Green Jobs Corps partners with elected officials, employers, labor union leaders, community members, and, of course, the students of the training program. Elected officials from all levels of government showed up to celebrate the occasion, including Oakland Mayor Ronald Dellums, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, City Councilmembers Nancy Nadel and Jane Brunner, state legislators Loni Hancock and Sandre Swanson, Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, and and Peralta Community College Chancellor and former Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris.

The launch was truly a shining moment for the Green-Collar Jobs Campaign and our movement as a whole. THANK YOU to all of you who have attended rallies, sent letters of support to City Councilmembers, volunteered your time and expertise, and believed in this exciting project! We also extend our gratitude to Mayor Dellums and Councilmember Nadel for their support, to Professor Raquel Pinderhughes for her guidance and expertise throughout, and to everyone involved in the Oakland Apollo Alliance.

Mayor Dellums opened this historic event saying, "This is a very elegant idea - elegant in its simplicity, to fight pollution and fight poverty simultaneously." Assemblywoman (and State Senator-elect) Loni Hancock and Assembly Labor Committee Chairman Sandre Swanson spoke passionately about the Oakland Green Jobs Corps serving as a model for the country. Barry Luboviski, Secretary-Treasurer of the Alameda County Building Trades Council, said "This is really our future. The construction industry relies and will need literally thousands of workers going into this next 20-30 years of construction." Congresswoman Barbara Lee vowed to push through Congress a bill to expand the Green Jobs Corps nationwide, saying "We want the federal government to buy into what is happening in Oakland."

Mayor Dellums then symbolically awarded a giant $250,000 check from the City of Oakland to the three organizations that were selected to run the Oakland Green Jobs Corps: Cypress Mandela Training Center, Laney College, and Growth Sector.

We concluded with a hands-on solar installation training and demonstration featuring Oakland Green Jobs Corps trainees installing solar panels on a mock house built inside the Cypress Mandela facility. With solar panels, an inverter and screwdrivers in hand, trainees enthusiastically showcased the skills they are learning as the inaugural class of the Oakland Green Jobs Corps.

The future of Oakland and our country lays in the hands and tool belts of people like the Oakland Green Jobs Corps trainees, who are learning what it takes to create a sustainable infrastructure for a just and healthy planet. We all took a step in the right direction to fight poverty and pollution at the same time.