Peralta Community College District to Receive Jobs-Training Grant
For Immediate Release
June 29, 2010
Contact: Ricci Graham
(510) 763-0370
Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-09) announced today that the Peralta Community College District will be awarded $2.9 million in funding through the U.S. Department of Labor’s Community-based Job Training grants program. This grant is part of $13.7 million in job-training grants that Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is making available to the state of California.
The $2.9 million grant will support the district’s Peralta Achievement Collaborative: a job-training initiative that targets formerly incarcerated individuals, dislocated workers, the long-term unemployed, and limited English-proficiency students and trains them in the areas of green construction and energy management, transportation and logistics and allied healthcare and human services. The program will receive this funding over a three-year period.
“I am pleased that the Department of Labor is providing this important funding for the Peralta Achievement Collaborative,” said Congresswoman Lee. “Support of this program is in keeping with the Obama Administration’s commitment to preparing the American workforce for the next generation of employment opportunities. This funding will allow the Peralta Achievement Collaborative to enhance and expand its important programs designed to prepare people for the jobs of the future.”
Said Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, “The increasingly competitive Bay Area job market has a number of industries that are expected to thrive in the future. The program designed by the Peralta Achievement Collaborative utilizes proven best practices designed to help those who need to be retrained or have been disconnected from meaningful job training opportunities so they can access employment that will pay a livable wage well into the future.”
The Peralta Achievement Collaborative project expands the capacity of the existing Career Advancement Academy model to recruit, train, and place participants in jobs in four targeted industries through a cohort-based program. All students receive a comprehensive career and academic assessment, contextualized basic skills, intensive supportive services, and vocational skills training leading to employer-recognized certifications, internships, and jobs in green construction, transportation and logistics, allied health, and social/human services. At least 50 percent of the students enrolled in program are formerly incarcerated citizens.
Peralta Community College District Chancellor Elihu Harris praised Congresswoman Lee for her continued support of the Peralta Achievement Collaborative. “With so many people coming out of prison lacking the skills to find employment, we need the creative genius of Congresswoman Lee to use federal dollars as the glue to address this issue and find solutions,” said Chancellor Harris. “It is vital program, but one exemplary of the possibilities.”
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