Job Training and Development
Thrive provides training and supportive services to dismantle barriers and develop new systems for accessing opportunities in green infrastructure and forestry industry. Thrive Works Green, their workforce training program, trains BIPOC individuals for careers and connects them to living-wage jobs. Their eight-week paid cohort model provides individuals with technical skills. hands-on training, and apprenticeships for long-term success in the field, and includes a living-wage stipend. In 2022, Thrive Works Green graduated 99 participants, and placed 59 into living-wage jobs. Thrive Green Business Academy trains BIPOC entrepreneurs through an intensive, 12-week program in green infrastructure, including installation of bioswales, rain gardens, cisterns, native plants, permeable pavement, and more. In 2022, Thrive graduated 34 entrepreneurs from the Academy. Graduates from the Academy have started approximately 20 businesses which have procured over $13 million in commercial and government contracts.
LA Green Corps was founded in 2008 to provide green job skills training and service-learning opportunities to disadvantaged workers in New Orleans. Over 15 years, LAGC has worked with more than 1,200 job seekers through their Construction and Conservation Corps, which provides job seekers with paid training and certification to secure quality employment in the construction, conservation, and water management industries. LAGC places 91% of graduates into employment or post-secondary education. Over 15 years, more than 70% of graduates have remained employed six months after graduation.
GroundWork New Orleans implements projects that mitigate storm water threats while improving quality of life, restoring ecosystems, and contributing to a healthier watershed. These projects include installing rain gardens and bioswales, community beautification, and improving urban drainage infrastructure. The Green Team program employs youth ages 14-18, the Ground CREW (Creating a Resilient Environmental Workforce) program employs young adults 19-25, in environmental improvement and community development projects which focus on green infrastructure and help improve the quality of life in New Orleans.
The AdvancingCities New Orleans grant program includes robust workforce training that prepares high school youth, opportunity youth, and adults who are people of color and people with low incomes for high-wage jobs in the city’s growing water management sector. It will also include support for small businesses, with a goal of enabling local firms, particularly those owned by people of color, to benefit from procurement opportunities in the water management sector and beyond.