Several players are involved in making Los Angeles emerge as a world leader in green technology.  The government sector, and in particular, the City of Los Angeles is working to foster the growth of green businesses locally and to develop a comprehensive workforce development plan that equips Angelenos with the right skills to tackle green tech jobs.  Area non-profit and academic organizations are similarly focusing efforts on skills development programs and helping place workers with green collar jobs.  At the same time, private business owners are looking to expand their companies and seek employees with skills that match their ever-changing needs.  Without synchronizing these three spheres of influence, Los Angeles will not be able to drive the growth of the green sector, which ultimately will result in missed opportunities to provide tangible economic and environmental benefits for the 21^st Century.

Hope Street Group is uniquely poised to coordinate efforts across the business, civic, and political sectors.  Our Phase I plan to further develop the green sector includes:

• 1) Contacting area businesses and non-profits through a coordinated phone survey. Hope Street Group volunteers are contacting various community, business, and political partners to gather data that can demonstrate the green collar sector's regional impact; track the effectiveness of existing workforce development programs; and identify industry/program best practices. Click here to take the survey. [1]
• 2) Identifying opportunities for development of the green sector and workforce programs. By speaking with our partners, we can ensure that skills training programs adequately serve green sector needs and present an opportunity for political players to increase access to these programs.
• 3) Convening a multi-sector discussion about green collar workforce development. The Los Angeles chapter is building a consortium of civic, business, and political leaders interested in developing green tech and the green collar workforce in Los Angeles. We hosted an "Opportunity Exchange" [2] on May 22, 2008, to build multi-sector relationships and engage participants to consider new opportunities for growth of the green sector.

See photos from the event [3]

Stay up-to-speed on Southern California Green Workforce organizations. [4]

Get more involved: lonny@hopestreetgroup.org [5]