Green Economy Task Force

Employment Services for the Homeless

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) administers services to aid the homeless in finding employment and receive self sustaining wages.  The primary focus for the DOL is on the homeless Americans that are ready to work and those who can become ready to work.  This link will lead to multiple resources to help the homeless attain green jobs and self sustaining wages.      

Innovation Strategies for a New System of Workforce Development and Lifelong Learning

The Innovation Network for Communities (INC) is a national non-profit organization whose main purpose is to distribute scalable innovations that change the perofance of community systems.  The Council for Adult and Experiential Leanring (CAEL) is a national non-profit organization that develops and manages effective learning strategies for working adults. 

“In 2007, INC asked CAEL to be a strategic partner in the development of a ‘sector innovation hub’ in workforce development. This hub would serve as the ‘applied R&D environment’ for the workforce development field. In the first stage of this partnership, CAEL has conducted a scan of innovations that currently exist in workforce development and lifelong learning. This report presents an overview of the scan, along with our reflections on key innovation families or subgroups, and initial focus areas for an innovation strategy for workforce development and lifelong learning.”

Abt Associates Evaluates Five-Year SkillWorks^SM Program for Workforce Development Outcomes

The Boston Foundation contracted with Abt Associates along with a subcontractor, Mt. Auburn Associates, to conduct an evaluation of the five-year SkillWorks^SM Initiative.  This initiative is a workforce development program based in Boston, Massachusetts and has established a framework for bringing long-term, large-scale, and sustainable workforce improvements to workers, employers and the community.

Workforce Development

All resources contained within this site are either published or funded by the The Annie E. Casey Foundation.  These resources focus on helping famililes to learn and develop the skills necessary to get good jobs and build careers. 

State Sector Strategies: Regional Solutions to Worker and Employer Needs

Governor’s in multiple states are implementing sector strategies as a vital element of their state workforce and economic development policies.  This report will briefly explain what sector strategies are and their benefits to employers and employees.  In addition, it will provide some examples of a few state run initiatives along with some suggested steps to start your own sector strategy. 

Tuning In to Local Labor Markets: Findings From the Sectoral Employment Impact Study

This study focuses sectoral employment, its creation of industry specific training programs and the effect it has had on the labor market within the last twenty years.  These training programs prepare unemployed and underskilled workers for skilled positions and connect them with employers who have needs for employees with those specific skills.  Public/Private Ventures (P/PV) performed a study that included three organizations and analyzed the performance and wages of employees that went through the training programs compared to those employees that did not.      

National Fund for Workforce Solutions – Sector Specific Strategies

The National Fund for Workforce Solutions aims to learn creative methods to teach and prepare individuals to become successful and how they can be implemented across the country.  The Sector Specific Strategies is a publication of the National Fund and its goal is to provide reports that that decsribe how training methods are developed and implemented for employers and employees within unique industries. 

Workforce Strategies Initiative

The Workforce Strategies Initiative (WSI) is a project of the Aspen Group which is based in Washington D.C.  The goal of WSI is to identify and advance methods that will help low-income Americans find better jobs in today’s labor market.  The purpose of WSI’s projects has been to evaluate and advance development approaches within specific industries in order to connect low-income workers to both employment and advancement opportunities within targeted industry sectors. 

The Clean Energy Economy: Repowering Jobs, Businesses and Investments Across America

The clean energy economy, still in its infancy, is emerging as a vital component of America’s new economic landscape. That’s the finding of The Clean Energy Economy: Repowering Jobs, Businesses and Investments Across America, a groundbreaking analysis by The Pew Charitable Trusts that sheds light on an increasingly important part of the nation’s economic recovery.  This report reflects the intersection of two of Pew’s lines of work. The Pew Center on the States identifies and advances effective approaches to improve states’ fiscal health and economic competitiveness, and the Pew Environment Group promotes practical, meaningful policy solutions to some of the world’s most pressing environmental problems. 

Pennsylvania Green Jobs Report

Pennsylvania is investing in industries and technologies that will create new jobs and transform old ones.  They are improving access to education and training in emerging industries and occupations for our workforce, and we are cultivating partnerships among employers in industries with green potential. By doing so, Pennsylvania is making progress toward accomplishing our three-fold goal of more green jobs, a stronger economy and a healthier planet. The Pennsylvania Green Jobs Report is part of the process. It looks at how we identify green jobs, how they categorize them and it delivers some projections of where employment in these careers – and the industries of which they’re part – is headed. This report also examines how government – state and federal – is working with the private sector to make good policy and wise investments to help speed economic recovery and position Pennsylvania as the green economic leader it should be.

Greener Skills: How Credentials Create Value in the Clean Energy Economy

This report is not an inventory. It does not attempt to catalogue the fast emerging and rapidly evolving field(s) of “green.” Even as it delineates prominent national credentials in selected clean energy sectors, its purpose is larger: to suggest a rational framework for human capital development in a greening economy, and to make the case for a national policy of portable, transparent, consistent, industry-specific credentials (and the state supported pathways up to them).

PWIB Infosheet on Green Job Sectors in SE PA

This infosheet from the Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board (PWIB) defines green job sectors and projected green job growth in Southeast Pennsylvania.

Growing the Green Jobs Boom

Green For All teamed up with GOOD Magazine to show how Recovery dollars are being spent around the country to make buildings and communities more energy efficient.

New Mexico Green Jobs Cabinet Report (9/21/09)

New Mexico has released the Green Jobs Cabinet Report which identified five major goals necessary for maximizing the state’s green economy potential, including renewable energy, energy efficiency and green workforce education. The Governor also issued an executive order which directs state agencies to help meet these goals. For example, the Department of Workforce Solutions will be asked to convene a Green Industry Council to help establish curricula in the public education system, among other tasks. The governor has also announced the release of a Green Jobs Guidebook, which provides information on green careers, education requirements and opportunities as well as other resources for those seeking green economy jobs.

Green Jobs Guidebook: Employment Opportunities in the New Clean Economy

The Green Jobs Guidebook is a resource for job seekers, guidance counselors, career advisors, policy makers and anyone else interested in knowing about the tremendous potential of California’s existing and growing green jobs marketplace.  The Guidebook is an expansive listing of green jobs throughout the California economy that includes job descriptions, salary information, minimum education requirements, potential certifications, employer types, job market growth potential, and much more.

This document is the product of a two-day meeting, convened by Green For All, where workforce development practitioners began to identify the best practices and resources that make effective workforce development projects in green jobs. By the end of the two-day meeting, this working group had identified five keys to success for green workforce development. These keys, when combined with effective leadership and staff, help these programs serve the workers the programs train, the businesses and industry they support, and the environment they aim to protect.  This document is meant to guide and support anyone seeking to create pathways out of poverty through green job training.

Building a Green Economy: Green Collar Job Development Initiatives in the Delaware Valley

This report highlights existing green collar job initiatives in the Delaware Valley that can serve as examples and foundations for a comprehensive, regional strategy of developing a successful “green collar workforce.”  It is not intended to be a complete anthology of every project that is underway in the Philadelphia region. Rather, the goal was to start to collect the pieces of the puzzle and lay them side by side so that stakeholders can see what organizations are currently training green-collar workers, what companies are hiring them, what players have the capacity to support new initiatives and what new projects are on the horizon.

Green Recovery: A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy

This report outlines a green economic recovery program to strengthen the U.S. econ­omy over the next two years and leave it in a better position for sustainable prosperity. They detail how to expand job opportunities by stimulating eco­nomic growth, stabilizing the price of oil, and making significant strides toward fight­ing global warming and building a green, low-carbon economy. This green economic recovery program would be a down payment on a 10-year policy program recom­mended by the Center for American Progress in its 2007 “Progressive Growth” series, which lays out an economic strategy for the next administration and includes the report, “Capturing the Energy Opportunity: Creating a Low-Carbon Economy,” by John D. Podesta, Todd Stern, and Kit Batten. That report details how the transformation to a low-carbon economy would result in sustainable economic growth.

Green Pathways Out of Poverty: Workforce Development Initiatives

This document is the product of a two-day meeting, convened by Green For All, where workforce development practitioners began to identify the best practices and resources that make effective workforce development projects in green jobs. By the end of the two-day meeting, this working group had identified five keys to success for green workforce development. These keys, when combined with effective leadership and staff, help these programs serve the workers the programs train, the businesses and industry they support, and the environment they aim to protect.  This document is meant to guide and support anyone seeking to create pathways out of poverty through green job training.

Philadelphia Mayor’s Office on Sustainability Green Job FAQ Website

This link connects you to the Frequently Asked Questions page for the City of Philadelphia’s Greenworks website.  Answered questions range from the basics of the green economy, to how a contractor can work with the City on its green initiatives.

Inclusion in the Workforce: Positioning the Pittsburgh Region to Prosper and Compete

This report reviews hard numbers and compelling themes that show equity and inclusion are directly tied to a region’s economic health. The report analyzes racial disparities in employment in our region, reviews the critical role that a diverse workforce plays in improving economic competitiveness, and features numerous recommendations on how the Pittsburgh region can work to remove structural and attitudinal barriers to reduce its racial employment disparity. Recommendations revolve around three principle themes: (1.) Promoting job growth in a diversity of living-wage sectors; (2.) Helping African Americans overcome systemic barriers to employment; and (3.) Generating demand for diverse employees.

Greening of Registered Apprenticeship – Environmental Scan Report

This report is an environmental scan of the impact of recent policies and investments supporting “green jobs” on current and potential Registered Apprenticeship and other labor management training programs. The scan highlights the trends, activities, and changes that are underway in several key industries that will likely make up a significant portion of the emerging green economy.

Winning the Race: How America Can Lead the Global Clean Energy Economy (3/2010)

A Clean Energy Bargain: More Jobs, Less Global Warming Pollution,and Greater Security for Less Than the Cost of a Postage Stamp

 

www.sbnphiladelphia.org

“With the guidance of a group of expert advisors from academia, industry, labor, and nongovernmental organizations, NRDC has sponsored an independent analysis of the impacts of the ACES bill, using two well-known national energy models. This analysis confirms that ACES is a win-win for the economy and the environment. In addition to helping us avert the most catastrophic effects of climate change, ACES will encourage the use of emerging clean technologies, make us more energy efficient, reduce our reliance on foreign oil, and lessen our exposure to oil price shocks.”