Green Industry Funded Training Program (GIFT)
Program’s goal is to link two targeted groups: The first group is small, primarily minority-owned businesses who are engaged in green practices. The second group is low-income underemployed or unemployed, disadvantaged youth, young adults and adults who lack the necessary skills to be placed in an entry level position. It is estimated that 60% of job creation occurs in small businesses. This program will seek to stimulate growth in the aforementioned small businesses by adding capacity to their workforce, but may not be able to initially afford it while seeking to increase permanent job opportunities for the members of the disadvantaged communities by teaching them the skills which are required by teaching them the skills which are required by the employers in the “green industry”.
About You
About You
First Name
Marsha
Last Name
Morris
N/A
Facebook Profile
N/A
About Your Organization
Organization Name
Green Beginnings Institute
Organization Website
Organization Country
United States
Country where this project is creating social impact
United States
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
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Innovation
Entry Form title
Green Industry Funded Training Program (GIFT)
What change do you want to bring to the world?
Program’s goal is to link two targeted groups: The first group is small, primarily minority-owned businesses who are engaged in green practices. The second group is low-income underemployed or unemployed, disadvantaged youth, young adults and adults who lack the necessary skills to be placed in an entry level position. It is estimated that 60% of job creation occurs in small businesses. This program will seek to stimulate growth in the aforementioned small businesses by adding capacity to their workforce, but may not be able to initially afford it while seeking to increase permanent job opportunities for the members of the disadvantaged communities by teaching them the skills which are required by teaching them the skills which are required by the employers in the “green industry”.
What are the primary activities of your project?
Data Collection: A web page is designed for both the potential employers. An on-line survey for the partner employers will be developed to identify the type of skills they require for the entry level positions in their businesses. Common skills employers require will be identified and training for these skills will be integrated into the program.
Interviews will be conducted with the potential employees for skill assessment purposes. This information will be used to decide what kind of skills the employee needs to obtain in order to match the employer’s skill criteria.
Training: After the set of skills the employers need is determined, participants (potential employees) will be taught these skills using GBI’s mobile unit: Green practices hands-on training lab. GBI’s “Green Bean” Clean Energy Mobile Machine, is an environmental justice project that is designed to increase awareness and education of “green practices” in urban Boston neighborhoods and also reducing the carbon footprint of the underserved communities living in Boston neighborhoods while also promoting involvement of community members in energy efficiency activities.
Linkage: Performance of each participant during the training will be tracked. Partner employers will be invited on-site to meet with potential recruits and contribute to the training sessions. Upon completion of the training, information regarding the taught skills and each participant’s performance will be communicated to partner employers.
Placement tracking: Upon completion of the program, participants will be contacted bi-quarterly in order to keep track of career retention, career improvement and participant satisfaction.
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
Green Industry is an expanding field that is full of career opportunities for people with the right skill set. Even though, different green construction practices require different skill sets these skill sets possess commonalities.
Our goal is to identify the aforementioned commonalities in the skill sets that green industry employers require and develop a hands-on training program for eligible students so that they are able to acquire the necessary skills and find permanent job placement in the green industry.
The idea here is to be able to respond to what the employers in the green industry need quickly by being able to provide a flexible training program that can be tailored to the changing needs of the employers. To do this, we utilize GBI’s mobile unit “Green Beans”.
The Mobile Unit is a recycled cargo container which currently is transforming into a mockup of a small house. With the availability of the mobile unit, students are able to develop their skills by going through various training modules such as window, door, and roof vent installation training, as well as RRP lead training, weatherization training, and introduction to energy auditing. The mobile unit enables us to design and implement flexible and adaptive training programs with a focus on skills development.
This initiative benefits both the employers and the employees:(i)Employers are able to expand their businesses by having an access to a workforce that is trained for their specific needs;(ii)Potential recruits are presented with a range of full-time job opportunities.
What stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
On the potential employee side, we target low income, under- or unemployed, youth, young adult and adult workers between the ages of 18-30, who are primarily Boston residents. Our target population includes (i) out-of-school youth; (ii) men between the ages of 18-30, particularly young men of color; (iii) court-involved youth; (iv) youth residing in Boston Housing Authority (BHA)
On the employer side, we will target small, primarily minority-owned businesses located to the North of Boston and surrounding areas who are engaged in weatherization, green construction, deconstruction, and renewable energy practices.
GBI began its work in 2009, implementing training primarily in the field of weatherization. In its first year, GBI served 35 individuals with weatherization training, an older youth crew program and the Green Beginnings Youth Corps. GBI’s initial weatherization training program served 18 individuals aged 18 to 55+. The largest percentage (33%) were from Dorchester; 11% were from Roxbury; 11% were from Mattapan; and the remaining 45% were from other Boston neighborhoods. 55% were African American; 5% Hispanic; 17% White; and 17% Other. GBI’s Older Youth Crew Program served 10 individuals between ages 18-24. 50% were African American; 40% were Hispanic; 10% were White; and 10% were Other race. 40% were from Roxbury; 20% were from Dorchester; and 40% were from other neighborhoods.
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
Marsha Morris is the founder and CEO of GBI and will collaborate to provide oversight of the project. She is an Organizational Development Consultant, Executive Coach and Researcher with over 15 years of experience doing facilitation and training for corporations and nonprofits. Ms. Morris brings a wealth of knowledge in adult skills-based training, organizational development, and research and a proven commitment to building success. Her time is an in-kind contribution.
When GBI first began, we targeted high-risk youth, veterans and older workers. Since then, GBI has learned that green industries are quite well-studied to young people. The work is very physical and a newer industry. Seeing the energy and success of young people in these jobs, GBI decided to build its capacity by focusing more on youth and strengthening partnership that will help support growth.
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
List of impacts;
o increased capacity to take on work (partner employer)
o number of productive worker trained specifically to employer need (potential employee)
o number of permanent job placements (potential employee)
The primary business impact to be experienced by employers participating is an increase in profitability. This increase will occur over time as the employer is able to take on more business as a result of having increased trained workforce capacity that has been made available at a reduced cost.
The impact to be experienced by potential recruits is to increased chances of finding full-time jobs, career improvement opportunities in the green industry, and self satisfaction.
GBI collected data on a cadre of 7 young people, who all became successfully employed or are in school pursuing a professional trade or attending college. The average wage for this group is $13.00 per hour, which is approximate to the living wage in Boston. Several young people obtained stable jobs, something that they had not experienced before participating in GBI. For example, Stephanie was a 21 year old homeless parenting teen when she came to GBI. Today, Stephanie has her own apartment and she worked in her first office job at Green Beginnings, Inc (GBInc.), until she moved to Fall River.
How many people have been impacted by your project?
101-1,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
1,001-10,000
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
We intend to further GBIs outreach effort to bring in new partner employers who can contribute to the project. As our initial partner employers expand (both in terms of profit and process capacity) they will also keep contributing to the project by providing additional entry level job opportunities. Naturally, success of these businesses will draw other small “green” businesses to the project.
We also intend to further develop the mobile unit “Green Beans” by integrating additional skill development training material. This will enable us to introduce training programs which will be more flexible and which will enable the students to acquire a wider range of skills. Hence, we will be able to reduce the number of times we will need to design new training programs.
Sustainability
What barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
The workforce needs of participating employers span a range of occupations within the green industry. The commonality is that they are all small businesses who may not have previously benefited from federal stimulus funding for a variety of reasons, but need a boost in workforce capacity to enable them to grow and take on more business. Employers may not be able to currently meet these needs because they lack the resources to bring on additional capacity. Also, small employers may not have the resources needed to pay for needed staff training. We have applied to Green Industry Funded Training (GIFT) program through Massachusetts Clean Energy Center-Workforce Development to acquire funding to cover the training expenses.
On the employee end of the program, the individuals from the targeted population may have struggled previously in low skill jobs or who have been unemployed for long periods of time and have lost confidence. Initially, a small number of workers is being proposed to be served in this program. Therefore, it is intended that each will receive individualized attention and support to increase their chance for success.
Tell us about your partnerships
Employment Resources, Inc. – is a private, entrepreneurial, non-profit organization. Created in 1983, ERI’s mission is to provide workforce development services to individuals so they can realize their full economic and social potential and to strengthen and assist community partners who share this goal.
Green Beginnings, Inc. – is a full-service training and energy conservation service whose founders each have 10 to 30 years of experience in architecture, business planning, curriculum development, general construction, organizational development and the building trades.
Green Beginnings Institute – is the non-profit arm of Green Beginnings, Inc. that provides occupational training to the clean energy workforce
Career Source – is a Massachusetts One-Stop Career Center that is operated by Employment Resources, Inc. that provides workforce development services to thousands of job seekers annually
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
$250,001‐500,000
Explain your selections
To be determined
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
As GBI we applied for funds from various sources such as Massachusetts Clean Energy Center-Workforce Development to receive funds to cover the “green” training expenses and the General Motors Foundation (GMF) for the improvement of the mobile unit.
We intend to make a request for funding from the Boston Foundation (TBF) for further improve the operational and training capacity of the mobile unit.
We believe that, there are two critical cost factors in this project. The first one is the training expenses and the second one is the improvement and enhancement of the mobile unit. Compensation of training expenses will attract more small businesses who are engaged in green practices to the project and improving the mobile unit’s capabilities will improve the effectiveness of the training we provide.
Challenges
Which barriers to employment does your innovation address?
Please select up to three in order of relevancy to your project.
PRIMARY
Underemployment
SECONDARY
Lack of skills/training
TERTIARY
Lack of efficiency
Please describe how your innovation specifically tackles the barriers listed above.
Customized training program specifically designed to meet the needs of the small businesses in the “green industry” will enable low income, underemployed and unemployed workers to acquire the skills necessary for them to find permanent job placement while providing the skilled workforce for the aforementioned small business’s require to expand and become more profitable.
Are you trying to scale your organization or initiative?
If yes, please check up to three potential pathways in order of relevancy to you.
PRIMARY
Grown geographic reach: Within host country
SECONDARY
Repurposed your model for other sectors/development needs
TERTIARY
Influenced other organizations and institutions through the spread of best practices
Please describe which of your growth activities are current or planned for the immediate future.
The training and linkage model we propose to implement will provide a template which can be implemented by other organizations within other industries. Our initial local implementation will provide an example of how a training program can be tailored accordingly with the changes in the skill requirement of the local small businesses.
Our immediate goal is to implement this customized training program locally to verify the effectiveness of our idea based on the performance metrics discussed earlier.
Do you collaborate with any of the following: (Check all that apply)
NGOs/Nonprofits, For profit companies.
If yes, how have these collaborations helped your innovation to succeed?
Collaboration with non-profits enhanced and furthered our outreach efforts as well as services such as career coaching etc. GBI’s for-profit sister company GBInc. offered various positions for the participants of the training program along with on-site mentoring.
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| Mobile Training Lab | 599.46 KB |
| Mobile Training Lab | 599.46 KB |
| Mobile Training Lab | 599.46 KB |
| Mobile Training Lab | 599.46 KB |
 | 89 weeks ago Ravi Saxena said: Hi Marsha, I think your program is great and can really made a big dent in the issue of underemployment. I saw another program that ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 101 weeks ago Randall Kempner said: Hey Marsha, Congrats on your initiative and on submitting a proposal. I love the dual focus of your work, and as a former Bostonian ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 103 weeks ago Marsha Morris updated this Competition Entry. |
| 105 weeks ago Marsha Morris updated this Competition Entry. |
| 105 weeks ago Marsha Morris submitted this idea. |
