Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis announced Wednesday grants to 17 different organizations totaling $7.5 million. The grants will provide nearly 3,000 veterans with "green jobs" training.
A variety of organizations including local workforce investment boards, local public agencies and nonprofit organizations, and faith-based and community organizations received the grant. The grants were generally awarded to local organizations because they are more aware of the specific needs of their community than larger organizations whose scope is broader.
"No one pays a higher price for our freedom than our veterans, and I am committed to providing them the job training and re-employment assistance they need and deserve,"
said Secretary Solis. "These grants will provide our veterans with tools and skills that will ensure they are prepared for the green jobs of today and tomorrow."
The grants are focused on providing training to military veterans who are interested in "green jobs." These jobs can be in areas such as energy efficiency and renewable energy, modern electric-power development and clean vehicles.
According to the Department of Labor,
The VWIP grants will help veterans from targeted groups overcome employment barriers and ease their transition into unsubsidized jobs. Through this program, veterans receive skills assessments; individual job counseling; labor-market information; classroom or on-the-job training; skills upgrading and retraining; and placement assistance and follow-up services.
Organizations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Texas received grants ranging from $270,000 to $500,000.
George McCormack, Long Beach director of United States Veterans' Initiative, received one of the $500,000 grants from the Department of Labor. "We are seeing more and more veterans who have been out of work and have become recently homeless due to market problems and layoffs,"
McCormack said. "Each year at our site we helped 150 veterans get back to work for the last eight years. But this year we are helping 100 veterans get back to work."
The grants were given under the Department of Labor's Veterans' Workforce Investment Program (VWIP). Veterans receiving training from the VWIP may also be eligible for services through other Workfroce Investment Act programs for economically disadvantaged or dislocated workers.
