news-record.com

GREENSBORO — Two community organizations — one established in the city’s black community and a new group of young, socially conscious adults — will partner to educate the public about green job opportunities.

Beloved Community Center and Face to Face Greensboro will sponsor an event called “Green Jobs Plus Low-Income Families: A Community Investment” on Monday in the East White Oak neighborhood. Participants will hear about the work being done in the city to provide job training in the areas of weatherization, renewable energy and sustainability.

“The ultimate goal is to get people to work,” said Ashley Watkins , a founding member of the 8-month-old Face to Face.

Green jobs have become a ticket to meaningful employment for many people since the U.S. entered a recession in late 2007. An advisory group has recommended that the city of Greensboro spend some of its stimulus money from the U.S. Department of Energy on green jobs training. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded the city about $511,000 this summer for green projects.

Beloved Community Center received $23,000 of that money to train three people in historic preservation and to repair windows in its homeless hospitality house. The center also trains people to grow food in its vegetable garden and has developed a network of local contractors, agencies, community organizers and educators working to create green jobs, particularly in the low-income neighborhoods of east Greensboro.

Joseph Frierson , a staff coordinator at Beloved, said the center wants the government money to have a lasting effect in the city.

“It’s our thinking that if these (stimulus) dollars are used the way they’ve been used, they won’t help low-income communities build wealth or create sustainable jobs,” he said. “We want these communities to live past the stimulus jobs.”

Contact Morgan Josey Glover at 373-7078 or morgan.josey@news-record.com