News Room » East Bay Green Jobs Corps: A Look Inside

photos by Juan Gomez

The East Bay Green Jobs Corps (EBGJC), a collaboration between Solar Richmond, Rising Sun Energy Center and Berkeley City College, provides underprepared young adults ages 18 to 24 with soft and hard skills training, GED preparation and/or community college courses, and community service internships designed to move them into jobs and education aligned to high job growth green job sectors.

Originally an eight-week program, EBGJC recently received funding from the U.S. Department of Labor to expand to 16-weeks. Solar Richmond's portion of the program, Brighter Futures, has received generous funding from the Thomas J. Long Foundation and the Common Sense Fund, the latter which will allow Solar Richmond to work with the Mind Body Awareness Project to develop curriculum to address the trauma our participants have experienced.

It is September 6, 2011: the kick-off of this fall's East Bay Green Jobs Corps.

Approximately 25 young adults are gathered in a circle, their focus on George Kopf, Training & Employment Manager for Rising Sun Energy Center, as he describes the rules to a game called "Tank and Driver."

Pairs are selected, blindfolds affixed, the game begins

Merriment and mayhem ensue.

Pairs then switch roles and play again, and afterwards circle up once more. Their leader queries, "Which did you prefer, being Tank or Driver?" The vote for Driver is unanimous.

"But think about what it would be like if you had no tank. What would you be driving? Our society values leaders. But do you see how important it is to work as a team?

"Here in the East Bay Green Jobs Corps everybody has to play their part. I am not just responsible for myself. If I see someone else start slipping, whose job is it to bring them back?

"The market is hard - I won't lie to you. And I can't guarantee you work. But I can give you an edge, to make sure you are the best possible candidate.

"Each one of you will get out of the program everything you put in to it."

The program is now in its second week as students begin to enroll in community college courses.