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The Greyston Foundation aims to increase job opportunities for Yonkers residents by teaming with two partners in a “green” work force training program this year.
Greyston President and CEO Steven Brown said the enterprising nonprofit group, which for 27 years has operated the for-profit Greyston Bakery in Yonkers to provide jobs and encourage self-sufficiency for low-income residents, has received a one-year grant from the federal Employment and Training Administration”™s Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development initiative, known as WIRED, to launch the new training and placement program.
Greyston has partnered in the grant program with Greater Bridgeport Community Enterprises Inc., a Connecticut nonprofit that has “a great weatherization program,” Brown said. That program will be expanded to train Yonkers residents while Greyston will assist the Bridgeport community group with its business expertise.
Brown said 30 hard-to-employ residents will be trained at the site of a third program partner, the Southern Westchester Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) in Rye Brook. Greyston will transport trainees to the school. BOCES and their Bridgeport partner will develop the eight-week curriculum in carpentry and weatherization and provide support and placement services. The first class is expected to start in June.
Brown said the green initiative will be good training for jobs with contractors and possibly for union apprenticeship programs.
“It”™s basically to develop skills and training for construction and as weatherization develops” in the emerging green economy, he said.
“This is a core thing of what we”™re about, bringing people into the work force and giving them the tools to do that,” the Greyston CEO said.
Brown said the program is open to Yonkers residents with a high school or general educational development diploma. “We”™re looking for people who are interested and we”™re very excited about getting people started as we hope this new economy develops, getting people prepared for it.”
“With this new initiative, Greyston is able to once again answer the call for more skills and jobs for a population that needs them,” Brown said.
For more information, contact Alice Meminger, project manager, at (914) 376-3900, ext. 341.
