Training graduates Ruby Jones and David Bridges applaud the call for jobs weatherizing SE Seattle homes.
Got Green, with the stimulus money it received, has trained 27 low-income individuals in South Seattle in two of its weatherization training programs – a program in partnership with LiUNA (Laborers’ International Union of North America. The last group of trainees – 14 diverse low-income residents of South Seattle – graduated on March 18.
As the 27 South Seattle residents graduated from a targeted qualified training program, they are in the pool of eligible hires and should be first in line for contractors participating in the City of Seattle’s Community Power Works project. The $20 million stimulus project to weatherize 2,000 homes in South Seattle is set to kick off on April 19.
Got Green’s graduates have high expectations that they will be employed in the City’s energy retrofit project making their own communities more energy efficient and save utility costs.
A former Got Green weatherization graduate, Yirim Seck, is featured in Real Change News. Seck has been employed with EcoFab to do home insulation and is now a journeyman insulator making $23 an hour. Will the City of Seattle make good on its promise of ensuring family-wage green jobs back to the community and success stories like Seck?
Read Seck’s story in Real Change: Got Green Makes Stimulus money