Oakland Apollo Alliance

Working on the national, state and local level, the Apollo Alliance promotes the advancement of renewable energy and energy efficiency to drive investments into modern energy technologies, create high-quality jobs, revitalize underserved communities, and reduce dependence on foreign oil.

The Oakland Apollo Alliance is a coalition of labor unions, environmentalists, community-based organizations and green businesses, working together to create quality jobs in the new energy economy. The Oakland Apollo Alliance is anchored by the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW Local 595). 

The Oakland Apollo Alliance believes that Oakland can become a shining national example of a blue-collar town transformed into a green-collar powerhouse. Oakland can be a model sustainable city that creates high quality jobs for its residents while cleaning up the environment, improving public health and helping America achieve energy independence. 

At its heart, the Oakland Apollo Alliance is a "movement building" project -- a forum for groups with widely different backgrounds to come together to explore mutual interests, work through challenges, and advance a common agenda.

Our goals are to:

1. Win policies at the city level that stimulate the development and growth of the green construction and retrofit industry in Oakland.
2. Create jobs in the green economy for Oakland residents — including the unemployed and underemployed, formerly incarcerated people, women, and at-risk youth — that lead to careers in the trades or other living wage vocations.
3. Mitigate environmental degradation and improve public health by reducing overall energy use, building waste, and toxic emissions in the city.
4. Build a strong alliance of labor unions, environmental groups, community organizations, businesses, workforce development service providers, and higher education institutions to make Oakland a model of green economic development and job creation.

Oakland Green Jobs Crops

The Oakland Green Jobs Corps proudly launched in October 2008,after more than two years of hard work by the Oakland Apollo Alliance and a rich network of supporters and partners. The program officially launched at a press conference on October 25 that featured elected officials, employers, labor union leaders, community members, and for the first time, students of the training program.

“This is a very elegant idea, elegant in its simplicity,” said Mayor Ronald Dellums of Oakland. “The idea is to fight pollution and fight poverty simultaneously.” (for more OGJC info. Link Here) 

What's In The Works

We are working on two exciting new policies.  Each would be a huge step forward for Oakland.

• Green Partnership Academies at the High School Level. The Oakland Green Jobs Corps is leading the country in creating  pathways out of poverty and into the green economy. The Oakland Apollo Alliance is working on expanding this essential green-collar job training to Oakland's youth at the high school level. Too often, disadvantaged youth in Oakland are faced with dropping out, violence and incarceration.  By offering green-collar job education and training in high school, students can instead, begin a lifetime of green education and career training in high school.

• Oakland Energy and Climate Action Plan for All. The city of Oakland is starting something exciting and transformative.  Over the next year, the city will decide how to cut Oakland's greenhouse gas emissions and shift toward a more energy efficient, clean energy economy. As the city charts a path toward a greener future, the Oakland Apollo Alliance is making sure that opportunities for underserved communities are a central part of the plan.

• Vulnerable and disadvantaged communities in Oakland are more likely to suffer the economic, environmental, health-related, and natural disaster-related perils of climate change and rising energy costs. They are also less likely to have access to the benefits of energy- and climate-related solutions. Not this time. The Oakland Apollo Alliance and Ella Baker Center will be there to represent the diversity of voices in Oakland. Oakland must ensure that low-income residents, people of color, immigrant communities, youth and others with barriers to participation in a planning process like this are among the first who are protected from peril AND among the first to benefit from solutions. It is time for our Oakland community to define what it means for to be a "model city".
• As Oakland looks at how it can reduce green house gas emissions and lower energy use,  the Oakland Apollo Alliance is looking at how we can use the Energy and Climate Action Plan to create a large number of quality green-collar jobs for Oakland's young adults.
  
• Over the next year, the Oakland Apollo Alliance will show Oakland that there is a united voice for an Action Plan that is economically sound, environmentally sustainable, and socially just.

If you would like to join/learn more in the Oakland Apollo Alliance, contact Emily Kirsch or 510.285.8228.