Implementing the Regenerative Jobs Program
For the past several months, our team has been hard at work to implement The Regenerative Jobs Program, a Catalyst Grant REAP was awarded by the Bay Area Jobs First Collaborative earlier this year. The $539,000 grant enables us to develop curricula and use them to train underserved communities for quality jobs in each of four critical areas: biochar, compost technologies, vermiculture, and fungi-based bioremediation.
As we enter the curriculum development phase, we are seeking to engage with key stakeholders in each of these emergent industries.
In particular, we are looking to give businesses, trade organizations, unions, educators, and employers a voice in the process. This engagement will ensure that the trainings we design provide real value to the industry, and may lead to the formation of deeper partnerships.
There are several reasons why industry stakeholders may want to participate:
Solve for workforce needs and growing pains
Influence curricula that train people in your industry
Shape industry best practices
Catalyze industry growth by supporting business development
Improve opportunities for underserved communities to support and benefit from your growing industry
Program Goals and Methods
The goal of The Regenerative Jobs Program is to provide underserved groups with access to environmental education and workforce training. It also intends to deliver economic value to our region by supporting the development of critical nature-positive businesses, demonstrating that equity and climate change mitigation yield economic value. By supporting jobs with positive community and environmental impacts, we are empowering communities to grow Earth-Conscious Industries.
We know that cultivating a durable workforce is a challenge for any emergent industry. By providing certifications and trainings designed to meet industries’ specific needs, we hope to not only accelerate these industries but also set individuals from underrepresented communities on trajectories toward quality careers. The more people we can train to work on behalf of communities, economies, and ecosystems, the better. But we have to be certain that we are giving people industry-valued skills for jobs that actually exist.
At the end of the day, success for this program is job placement, employee retention, and employee and employer satisfaction. Engaging with industry stakeholders is a crucial means of achieving that, but it’s also only one part of our process.
Prior to any outreach, we have conducted in-depth research on the state of each industry, culminating in detailed reports. We are excited to share those reports when they are ready as a service to anyone interested in these incredible, innovative spaces. In conjunction with those reports, the outreach to stakeholders may validate or redirect our decision-making in the curriculum development process.
All of this builds towards the main event: the training itself, when we bring people to our immersive 4.26-acre campus in Alameda to learn and connect. We anticipate these trainings will begin a few months into next year. After that, we hope to start rolling out modules of these industry-level curricula as publicly accessible workshops, and continue to transform our campus into a space for exploring regenerative systems, from play and discovery through to certifications and job placement.
The work we are doing to engage with industry stakeholders will define the success of these programs, trainings, and more. For our workforce programs, quality means conferring real, applicable, and desirable skills. If you are interested in getting involved through an informational interview, survey, or otherwise, please fill out this form.
