Labor Department Secretary Hilda Solis announced on a conference call this morning that St. Petersburg based Boley Centers has been awarded $2.3 million federal grant to create a green jobs training program for young adults who are disadvantaged and unemployed who live in St. Pete.
Tampa Bay area Representative Kathy Castor said during the same call that the grant "is going to have a powerful impact for an area with a high unemployment rate, and it will put money back into the pockets of people who live in the area."
According to the press release issued out by the Boley Centers Wednesday morning:
This 24-month program will serve approximately 225 young adults, ages 18-27. Boley Centers will provide assessment, training, pre-apprenticeship, apprenticeship and on the job training required for high growth and emerging green industries, including energy efficiency and renewable energy. Each participant will be assigned a Green Employment Consultant who will help define an individual training, education and career path. The following areas will be emphasized – remedial education/GED through Pinellas County School system, skills training utilizing the National Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee (NJATC) Green Jobs Curriculum for the Electrical Industry, energy efficiency and entrepreneurship training. It is expected that 125 of the participants will be placed into unsubsidized employment.
In a brief interview, Miriam Williams, Vice President of Programs for the center, said everyone at the agency was thrilled to hear they had won the grant. She called the process to vie for the funding "a very competitive process."
Williams said that Boley Centers worked for months with many of the partners listed in their press release before submitting the Request for Proposal.
Boley Centers was established back in 1970, and works to serve people with emotional, psychiatric and behaveorial problems.
This article appears in Jan 13-19, 2010.