Green Jobs Program Expands to 800 Students
WASHINGTON, DC - Mayor Adrian M. Fenty today kicked off the Green Summer Job Corps, a summer-long green jobs program for District residents between the ages of 14 and 21. Joining the Mayor at the kickoff and orientation were Van Jones, Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and George Hawkins, Director of the District Department of the Environment (DDOE). DDOE began the Job Corps last summer, and has doubled its size - to 800 participants - for 2009.
"My Green Summer Job Corps will lead to a cleaner, greener nation's capital," said Mayor Fenty. "All summer, the young people in this program will also do meaningful work and learn skills they can use for the rest of their lives."
Green Summer employees will concentrate their work in one of four areas: Energy, Watersheds, Parks and Trees. Teams from each area will take part in projects in all eight wards of the District, and will attend two-day educational seminars focused on their work. Along with the 4,500 participants in its sister program, the Mayor's Conservation Corps, Green Summer makes up the largest green-collar jobs training program in the United States.
"The Green Summer Job Corps provides a foundation for hundreds of youth in the District of Columbia to get the skills they need to excel in the clean and green industries of tomorrow," said Van Jones, Special Advisor for Green Jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. "The entire community will benefit from the work they do this summer."
The Green Summer Job Corps is a collaboration among DDOE, six nonprofit grant partners, and various District Government agencies including the Department of Transportation's Urban Forestry Administration and the Department of Parks and Recreation.
"We've designed this program so the District's young people stay busy, but they also learn and grow in an expanding field," said DDOE Director Hawkins. "Already, we've had a good number of last year's Corps members come back to work with us or take on supervisor positions. I fully expect the District's next generation of environmental leaders to come from the ranks of Green Summer."