The Center for Working Families Launches Green Works Program

The Cen­ter for Work­ing Fam­i­lies, Inc., recent­ly launched its Green Works pro­gram in Atlanta to pro­vide job seek­ers with mar­ketable skills in envi­ron­men­tal reme­di­a­tion and green indus­tri­al jobs. In this inten­sive four-week train­ing pro­gram, South­face, Geor­gia Pied­mont Tech­ni­cal Col­lege and oth­er train­ing part­ners pro­vide a com­bi­na­tion of text­book, immer­sion and expe­ri­en­tial train­ing to qual­i­fied appli­cants at no cost to the trainee.

In ear­ly Sep­tem­ber, the first cohort of 10 Green Works trainees com­plet­ed the pro­gram, and the Cen­ter now is recruit­ing area employ­ers who can access Work Oppor­tu­ni­ty Tax Cred­its, Empow­er­ment Zone Employ­ment Cred­its and oth­er incen­tives when they hire Green Works grad­u­ates. The U.S. Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency and Open Soci­ety Foun­da­tion pro­vide fund­ing to sup­port Green Works. With this fund­ing, 80 par­tic­i­pants will com­plete train­ing over the next two years.

The Cen­ter is a non­prof­it work­ing to ensure the eco­nom­ic suc­cess of Atlanta’s fam­i­lies and their chil­dren. Launched in 2005, it bun­dles a wide range of essen­tial ser­vices in one loca­tion, tar­get­ing many of its pro­grams to ben­e­fit the adults and fam­i­lies liv­ing in NPU‑V.