Richmond BUILD & Solar Richmond

1. Richmond Build
450 Civic Center Plaza Richmond, CA 94804
Ph. 510.307.8034
www.ci.richmond.ca.us/index.aspx?nid=1243

2. Solar Richmond
360 South 27th Street Richmond, CA 94804
Ph. 510.621.1719
info@SolarRichmond.org
www.solarrichmond.org

Located in Richmond, California, Richmond BUILD and Solar Richmond are partner organizations in job training and placement.

Richmond BUILD was founded in 1997 as a job-training program of the City of Richmond’s Employment and Training Department. Solar Richmond was founded in 2006 as a non-profit organization that provides the solar training module of the Richmond BUILD curriculum. In addition to providing its 4-week solar module, Solar Richmond offers transitional employment and placement services to its clients as well. Richmond BUILD and Solar Richmond are separate organizations that collaborate closely and we present them here in one case study to highlight how they are interconnected.

Program Overview and Training Methodology

  • Both Richmond BUILD and Solar Richmond have crafted their programs to meet the particular job training and support needs of Richmond residents, 40% of whom live in public housing and 30-40% of whom have a history with the criminal justice system.
  • Richmond BUILD provides a variety of wrap- around training and counseling services in their courses, which average about 10 weeks in length. For example, in addition to construction skills, Richmond BUILD provides basic math and reading skills, resume. Job searching skills, and basic computer skills. To give its participants a strong foundation in the green economy, Richmond BUILD has added an environmental literacy component (the ROOTS of Success Environmental Literacy Curriculum developed by Dr. Raquel Pinderhughes) to its program. Richmond BUILD reinforces a wrap-around service approach and focuses on teaching students a strong work ethic by emphasizing skills and characteristics like discipline, a positive attitude and punctuality.
  • Outside of its training classes, Solar Richmond provides as-needed counseling and support services. During its 4-week solar training program, Solar Richmond also employs its own case manager who helps program participants evaluate their success in solar training, brainstorms with them about next career steps, and helps them find advanced job training and support services such as childcare. Solar Richmond continues to add resources, such as a nutrition and financial literacy class, to help its participants be better prepared to focus on training and work.

    Richmond BUILD was developed in response to the city’s high crime rate, and aims to provide job skills for 17–35 year olds facing barriers to employment. Through its Pre-Apprenticeship Construction Skills and Green Jobs Training Academy, Richmond Build conducts several different tracks of up to 15-week intensive construction skills training programs for Richmond residents.

    Solar Richmond’s training program is a 4-week solar component in the Richmond BUILD program, which includes classroom training and two hands-on installations of solar panels on low-income homes in the community.

Partnerships and Funding

In addition to Solar Richmond, Richmond BUILD relies on a variety of other local non-profit and city government partners/subcontractors to provide many components of its training, including environmental literacy education and math training.

Richmond BUILD directly employs its construction instructors and job counselors. The program is currently funded primarily by federal funds (largely, stimulus package dollars), which account for about $2 million of a $2.5 million budget. The program also receives funding from private sources, state sources, and city funds. The program costs between $5,000 and $6,000 per student, or about $400,000 per 15- week cycle.
Richmond BUILD, as a municipal program, focuses on leveraging municipal resources and advantageous policies, such as:

1.    JOINT PROMOTION OF SOLAR PANEL INSTALLATIONS AND GREEN JOB TRAINING.
The City of Richmond provides several financial incentives for the installation of solar panels that promote both solar panel installation and the hiring of Richmond BUILD participants. For example, one city program offers rebates for solar installations when recipients employ a Richmond BUILD/Solar Richmond graduate. The City of Richmond’s deferred loan program offers loans to fund eight solar installations on low- income households per year. The program allows low-income households to defer payments until and unless they refinance or sell their home. Richmond BUILD/Solar Richmond participants complete their live solar-panel installation training on households that are beneficiaries of this program.

2.    LEVERAGE CITY RESOURCES.
Richmond BUILD has leveraged resources from the city’s Redevelopment Agency, Housing Department, and Housing Authority to pay for facilities and training. The city’s Public Works Department has committed to hire graduates into 6-month Public Works job assignments. Local non-profits and public institutions, such as the local community college, provide a variety of instructors. In addition, the city’s literacy program provides academic support as needed.

Elements of Curriculum

Richmond BUILD offers six specialty tracks:

  • Track 1 (Main Track):
    Seven weeks of Construction Skills (morning) and Electrical (afternoon); Four weeks of Energy Efficiency (Rising Sun Energy Center); and four weeks of Solar PV/Solar Thermal Installation (Solar Richmond)
  • Track 2:
    14 weeks of Environmental Protection Agency related Environmental Careers Course
  • Track 3:
    7 weeks of Green Plumbing
  • Track 4:
    14 weeks of Electrical, Welding, Scaffolding, Concrete Forms, HAZMAT, and Lead Abatement training
  • Track 5:
    Three weeks of Environmental Literacy (ROOTS of Success); seven weeks of Clean Energy Leadership Program (East Bay Academy of Young Scientists); and three weeks of CA Youth Energy Services training (Rising Sun Energy Center)
  • Track 6:
    Nine-month YouthBuild Pre- Apprenticeship program, which includes Pre- Phase: Mental Toughness; Phase I: Construction Skills; Phase II: Green Careers Training; Phase III: Construction Skills Training

Instructors

Richmond BUILD employs its own instructors for the construction training component, and 3-4 general staff members who provide a variety of counseling and case management services to participants. In addition to Solar Richmond, Richmond BUILD partners with a number of other partners, including a local charter school with a focus on vocational education, which provides the academic and GED portions of the program, along with teachers of the YouthBuild program; a local public science museum, providing science classes for the Clean Energy track; and the local community college, providing math instructors.

Solar Richmond hires industry experts with field experience who prepare trainees to enter the competitive Bay Area solar industry upon graduation from the program.

Target Participants & Recruitment

Richmond BUILD/Solar Richmond’s target age is 17–35 years. Its main track is for participants over the age of 18, and the average age is 26. The YouthBuild track is for 17-24 year olds. Recruitment is word- of-mouth. As of summer 2009, the program had a waiting list in the hundreds.

Eligibility Requirements & Admissions

Participants in the main track program, which includes Solar Richmond, must live in Richmond, have a high school diploma or GED, valid California Driver’s License and a minimum 8th-grade math and reading level. The YouthBuild program requires a 5th- or 6th-grade reading level. The Clean Energy program requires an 8th-grade reading level.

Length and Frequency of Training

ll of the programs are on average, 25 hours per week, running daily from 8am to 1pm. Richmond BUILD and Solar Richmond offer three training cycles of the main track per year.

On-the Job Training or Paid Internships

The construction component of Richmond BUILD’s main track is a pre-apprenticeship program. About 25% of the program’s placements have been into formal building trades apprenticeship programs. Furthermore, after the completion of the 15-week training program, Richmond BUILD partners with employers to provide on-the-job training, funding half of graduates’ wages for a probationary period of 12 weeks.

Solar Richmond seeks to “move the job interview from the desktop to the rooftop,” providing transitional work opportunities that enable program graduates to work side-by-side with professional solar installers and prove their skills on the job. For this reason Solar Richmond created a Solar Staffing Agency that allows its graduates to work with solar companies on a temporary basis, making the hiring less risky for solar employers. Companies pay the full wages, while Solar Richmond covers workers compensation, insurance and taxes, creating an added incentive to hire its graduates. Solar Richmond finds that graduates perform well in these transitional jobs and often move onto permanent positions as a result.

More recently, Solar Richmond has organized these transitional work opportunities into a pilot Solar Internship Program, (piloted fall of 2009). By completing 10 weeks of paid work with a solar company, interns obtain a solar work history, reinforce their sense of ability on the roof and learn the culture of the solar industry. To this experience, Solar Richmond adds forty hours of robust professional development and case management support services, including job search and computer skills, interview prep and industry leader presentations. To make the full transition to permanent employment, Solar Richmond also works to generate demand for its graduates by marketing solar directly to consumers and developing deeper relationships with solar installers. (More on this in the Future Plans and Goals section , pg. 34).

Wrap-around support services

During the 15-week trainings, Richmond BUILD provides a variety of informal and formal wrap- around services. Richmond BUILD expects its onsite instructors to play a number of support roles as needed, including transportation providers, counselors, and resume-reviewers. For one year after alumni graduate, Richmond BUILD conducts monthly outreach and assists out-of-work graduates to find jobs.

Solar Richmond reinforces this approach. During its 4-week training program, Solar Richmond focuses on teaching students a strong work ethic by emphasizing skills and characteristics like discipline, a positive attitude, and timeliness. Solar Richmond also employs its own counselor, who helps program participants evaluate their success in solar training, brainstorms with them about next career steps, and, when necessary, helps them contact other organizations for additional job training help or support services like childcare.

Measures of Success and Evaluation

Richmond BUILD collects evaluation forms from students and tracks data to determine whether the program is serving its target audience and successfully placing its participants in jobs. As of summer 2009, the program’s placement rate was about 80% and the average starting wage for graduates was $16-$18 per hour.

The program has an attrition rate of 17 percent which is low compared to comparable training programs in the area. Richmond BUILD attributes this low rate to its wrap-around support services, the relatively short length of its training programs, and its ability to find part-time jobs for participants through the city’s redevelopment agency.

Since late 2007 Solar Richmond has placed 22 trainees into temporary or transitional jobs in the local solar industry and another 22 have been placed in permanent solar industry jobs. Solar Richmond job placements include occupations such as solar installer, operations assistant, warehouse manager, and installation coordinator. Moving forward, Solar Richmond’s focus is job retention and career ladder growth. For example, over the course of a year, Solar Richmond helped one of its trainees to secure multiple temporary jobs ranging in length from several weeks to several months. He worked at both small and large solar companies, on both solar PV and solar thermal installations, including at Richmond BART. Over the course of the year he gained enough hands-on experience to land a full- time, permanent job at a reputable Bay Area solar company.

Relationship with Potential Employers

Richmond BUILD does not have formal job placement services or formal relationships with private employers. However, some private employers have signed letters of support stating that they will interview Richmond BUILD graduates when opportunities are available. Furthermore, as part of the city agency that monitors contract compliance, Richmond BUILD has a unique ability to understand the hiring needs associated with upcoming city projects. In addition, the city’s Public Works Department has committed to hire graduates to work on city beautification projects.

Solar Richmond provides a number of direct employment opportunities to its graduates. It connects its graduates to jobs through a staffing agency and its bid analysis services. Solar Richmond assists businesses and residences in evaluating bids for solar panel installations, and require – as part of its services – that its customers use Richmond BUILD graduates to install the solar panels. In addition, it hires a limited number of graduates as assistant trainers while they look for other employment.

Relationship with Organized Labor

Richmond BUILD considers its success in placing graduates into union jobs a key metric of success. The Carpenters Union has agreed to accept graduates of the main Richmond BUILD program directly into its apprenticeship program. Richmond BUILD graduates have also been placed into apprenticeship programs for the Laborers and the Operating Engineers. Due to the nature of the industry and current economic conditions, all of the Richmond BUILD graduates who have found green industry jobs have been employed by non-union employers.

Green Program Evolution

Solar Richmond has focused on solar panel installations since its founding in 2006. Richmond BUILD started in 1997 as a construction skills pre-apprenticeship training program, which has since evolved to include training in solar panel installation and other green-collar components. Of the program’s 180 graduates to-date, about 40 have been employed in energy efficiency, weatherization, and solar panel installation. The remainder of the graduates found work in more traditional jobs in the building trades.

Credentials

Richmond BUILD offers its own certification of completion. Solar Richmond offers trainees the opportunity and to take the nationally-recognized NABCEP solar certification test.

Key Relationships

Richmond BUILD has depended on relationships with a number of city agencies to provide funding, job placements, and other resources for program participants. For example, Richmond’s Redevelopment Agency has provided funding to improve Richmond BUILD’s training facility. In addition, as discussed above, a number of non-profit and other partners help provide various portions of the Richmond BUILD training curricula.

Challenges & Lessons Learned

Richmond BUILD has leveraged a number of local relationships but, as the program grows, coordination and management of partners will continue to be a challenge. Additionally, Richmond BUILD and Solar Richmond face a lag between the training they offer and the availability of jobs for their graduates. The green-collar job industry is still young, mostly non- union, and lacking in standard certification. In many cases, Richmond BUILD is finding that the green collar jobs for which they offer training for are simply not available yet in large numbers.

Future Plans & Goals

Richmond BUILD intends to take advantage of growing funding and partnership opportunities to expand the size and content of its programs. Currently, the program accepts 30-40 confirmed students per track per cycle (for a total of 90 students per cycle). With new federal stimulus funding, Richmond BUILD intends to double the size of its main track to 60 students per track. Furthermore, as the “green” construction field grows, Richmond BUILD would like to add additional training components focused on emerging areas, such as water conservation and water efficiency. Richmond BUILD would also like to continue adapting its program to the needs of its students.

Solar Richmond seeks to improve on its model, bringing the benefits of the new green economy to low-income communities in the form of stable energy costs, reduced pollution, and green-collar career opportunities. Without new financing options, clean energy solutions remain out of reach for nonprofits that cannot qualify for federal solar tax incentives or raise the capital needed to buy their own solar arrays. Moreover, while these schools,
fire stations, community centers, churches and affordable housing associations have a desire for solar, they do not have the expertise or interest to maintain such a system. Instead of buying a solar power plant, these nonprofits want clean power. Solar Richmond is combining the needs of the market with the needs of the community as a solar electricity provider that develops green pathways out of poverty into prosperous solar careers. Under this model, called a power purchase agreement (PPA), Solar Richmond installs solar on the nonprofit roof and handles ongoing system maintenance and monitoring for the solar electric systems. Nonprofit customers pay Solar Richmond for the electricity generated from the arrays.