Greenlight Project

Greenlight Project helps low income people find green collar jobs

Green jobs forum in White Center offers training opportunities

12 November 2010 - A packed house hoping to get a foot in the door in the green industry gathered at the YWCA Learning Center in White Center on Nov. 12 to hear about recruitment and training options presented by Got Green at their second annual Community Green Jobs Forum.

“Our mission is to make sure low income communities, particularly communities of color, will benefit from this new clean, green economy,” said Michael Woo, a founding member of Got Green, created in 2008 as project of the White Center Community Development Association.

“It (Got Green) grew out of the community asking questions, ‘Where are the jobs at?’ Everybody, particularly in the political arena, was talking about green jobs but the conversation stayed at the environmental level or the organized labor level, but it wasn’t being brought down to communities who need those jobs the most,” Woo said.

“A lot of people in low income areas didn’t have drivers licenses, they didn’t have four years of algebra and everything else so (we asked) how could we make a pathway for opportunity for them to be a part of (the green economy)?” said Khepra Ptah, another founding member of Got Green. {read rest}