35 graduates of all ages and colors came on stage to pick up their green hard hats and diplomas last Monday from Laney Community College's 7-month Green Job Corps program in Oakland, CA. Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums was on hand to congratulate the graduates and to remind them of the historic significance of their achievement: "You are the new astronauts, going where others have not gone before: fighting poverty and pollution."

The Green Job Corps was an idea hatched back in 2007 by Van Jones and his colleagues at the Ella Baker Center. I had spoken with Ian Kim, the EBC Green Collar Jobs Program Manager and Raquel Pinderhughes before this idea received $250k in seed funding from the Oakland Public Works Dept. Read those 2007 interviews here:

The inaugural issue of The Chronicle of Social Enterprise, published by the Carnegie Mellon University Heinz College Institute for Social Innovation, is now available as a free PDF download at http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/download.aspx?id=767.

This issue profiles 20 affirmative businesses, plus stories about affirmative business incubators, the role of the federal government and the rise of the movement internationally. Affirmative businesses are social enterprises that provide jobs, competitive wages and career tracks to people who are physically, mentally, economically or educationally disadvantaged.

Now is the time for social entrepreneurs to come forward with new ideas for green jobs. With the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act stimulus, energy and green job bills, there is a perfect storm of opportunity that we may not see again. Nonprofits are well positioned to take advantage of local, state and federal connections when competing for grant awards and contracts to develop green job training programs.

Having spent the majority of my career in the private sector, I have seen many conferences, but nothing quite like The Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. The annual event at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School is an explosive cloud of inspired innovators bouncing against each other in a highly charged environment. While the inspiring program of speakers and panels creates an innovative buzz, the breakout sessions that fill every gap in the agenda throw delegates together and create a storm of ideas and collaborative action of epic scale.

Growing Home combines the best of social enterprise and green jobs. Using federally donated lands outside Chicago, Growing Home helps formerly homeless and drug addicted clients reconnect with the land by growing organic vegetables and selling them in the city. Growing Home was featured in one of SER's first issues, and my interview with the founder and ED Harry Rhodes is still online at
http://sereporter.com/?q=node/88.

The EmpowerNet California Collaborative is working on the development of an online toolkit that will build capacity statewide to (1) launch successful, sustainable community technology centers; (2) develop and operate IT workforce training programs; and, (3) create IT-related social enterprises.

I was one of two keynote speakers at the launch meeting of the ENC, the other being Karen Chapple, Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley and Director of UCB's Center for Community Innovation. Prof. Chapple spoke about her research on IT workforce development, outlined in a policy brief, Moving Beyond the Divide, available at http://www.policylink.org/pdfs/Moving_Beyond_the_Divide.pdf.

Green jobs are sprouting in New York City, with the help of nonprofit social enterprises.The Doe Fund has hired or is training 15 formerly homeless or incarcerated people to collect used cooking oil from restaurants to be made into biodiesel. The Doe Fund's RWA Resource Recovery workers expect to be collecting oil from 700 restaurants in the city.

Here's the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/nyregion/29ink.html

Van Jones has authored a new book that you should read: The Green Collar Economy. It delivers real solutions that rescue our economy and save the environment. To see a Video Q & A with the Author, go to http://www.vanjones.net/page.php?pageid=2

The City of Newark has partnered with the Apollo Alliance, and other national organizations, to bring together local community, business, and government leaders around creating a sustainability roadmap. The "Newark's Green Future" roadmap outlined the strategies, priorities and city-community collaboration necessary to realizing a sustainable economy - one that creates "green jobs" for residents, positively impacts community health, enhances public infrastructure, and increases opportunities for future generations.