CSC in place to respond to green job skills

Published in the Spring Issue of THE PROMISE Magazine, Community Action Partnership, the National Association of Community Action Agencies

By Janet Hessel, Editor /Communications Coordinator and Sharee Cooper, Program Manager, Workforce & Education Program, Community Services Consortium, Corvallis, OR


Participants from CSC's Weatherization Training Program perform Weatherization work on a mobile home.

Community Services Consortium (CSC) is in the forefront of Oregon’s response to the increasing demand for green jobs skills. The CSC Weatherization Training Program has seen a constant stream of older youth, adults, and dislocated workers from Linn, Benton and Lincoln counties since last summer when the program began with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ( ARRA) Workforce stimulus funds.

A 3,000 square foot Weatherization Training Center in Corvallis is the site where the action begins. Weatherization, energy efficiency, conservation, and safety methods are taught in the multimedia-equipped instruction area. The Weatherization Training Center contains a learning lab that allows trainees to practice and demonstrate all weatherization techniques that are utilized in the field. The weatherization diagnostics and energy conservation lab allows for multiple training and testing events. Models in the center represent a single-wide mobile home, a site built attic, interior and exterior walls, under-floors, and more. By the time a trainee goes to the field there will be no surprises.

The CSC Weatherization Training Program is a unique collaboration between the Workforce & Education and the Weatherization departments. CSC operates a Weatherization Assistance Program that is free to moderate and low-income families. This program has in the past weatherized about 200 houses per year but recent ARRA stimulus funding has doubled its capacity and increased the need for trained workers. CSC’s Weatherization Training Program provides a unique opportunity for trainees to get real hands-on experience side-by-side on actual weatherization projects.

In addition to providing training opportunities for unemployed workers, customized training options are available to contractors, businesses, Weatherization Assistance Programs, and other educational institutions. In total, 132 individuals have received training since the program’s inception and another 80 are already registered for upcoming spring trainings. The program has recently been awarded an additional $450,000 through the Linn, Benton, Lincoln Workforce Investment Board to serve 175 people over the next 2 years.

Weatherization Trainers Jerry McGuire and Dennis Feeney are in constant motion in the classroom, or with trainees at job sites. Their busy Spring Schedule includes hosting nationally recognized certification workshops in such areas as lead safety for construction workers, energy efficiency and building science training for contractors, energy auditing and even pre-apprenticeship for high school students.

“We are not only teaching people weatherization job skills but also to understand energy efficiency and conservation to evaluate their own energy uses and apply the techniques they learn at their own homes,” said McGuire.