CASA Pennsylvania State Director Daniel Alvalle addresses Building Green Futures recruits during an information session at CASA’s Roosevelt Welcome Center.
Part three of our blog series on Building Green Futures – read part one here and read part two here.
CASA is a nationwide organization focused on building power and improving quality of life in working-class Black, Latino/a/e, Afro-descendent, Indigenous, and Immigrant communities. In York, PA, their nationwide mission intersects with local efforts to grow the clean energy workforce through the Building Green Futures program. While the Energy Efficiency Alliance provides technical assistance and the Clean Energy Center at Penn College provides classroom instruction, CASA is providing critical recruiting and wrap-around services to find and support participants in this clean energy training program.
Recruitment is an essential part of any workforce development program, both to ensure a pool of appropriate candidates and to make sure training and job opportunities equitably reach diverse communities across the Commonwealth. Wrap-around services, likewise, are essential: many ideal candidates need transportation, childcare, and other kinds of support to make training (and the opportunities that come afterward) accessible.
We sat down with Brooke Stough, Workforce and Development Coordinator for CASA, to talk about her experience recruiting for Building Green Futures:
Can you describe your role in the Building Green Futures program?
My role was to help recruit and do interviews with the CASA members that we currently have doing the program. As the program went on, my manager Monica and I made sure that the participants were where they needed to be, and made sure that their supportive service needs were met.
Could you talk about the kinds of supportive services that the cohort members are getting?
They receive stipends for childcare and transportation. They also get a small stipend for meals throughout the program.
And how did you guys approach recruiting for this program?
We did what we felt would be most effective for CASA members. So a lot of social media posts on our Facebook account. We have a really good organizing team here in Pennsylvania, and they have direct contact with a lot of our members out in the community. So they’d put information in group chats and speak to recruits face-to-face. I have a really awesome team of AmeriCorps, and they did a lot of phone call outreach and speaking with members, getting them excited about the program, helping them understand the program.
I would definitely say social media paid off as a recruitment strategy, and I would say my team of AmeriCorps paid off, too. They know how to really reach the community and connect with them in a meaningful way. It’s really important to have people in the community also on your team, and I feel like that’s what we have here at CASA.
Can you talk about the communities that you recruited from? Who is CASA’s clientele?
We serve immigrant, Hispanic, Latino working-class families, indigenous, black and brown, and LGBTQ. Our work is based in all of those communities. Geographically we serve here in York, Lancaster, Harrisburg, and Adams County.
We were looking for diversity in this program that reflects CASA’s background. We have women who are part of the communities we serve, we have immigrants, we have black and brown individuals, we have different ages. I think that was also important when looking at the program to get that type of diversity going.
What’s been the most rewarding part of participating in Building Green Futures?
Seeing the participants actually do the program. It feels like seeing the fruits of your labor. I think it’s awesome to see them get really excited about coming and exploring a new career pathway that they’ve never really seen before. For example, one of the participants, Maggie, it’s just been a joy to watch her for the past three or four weeks here. With the contractors that she’s been working with, each week she has a new story to share, and she’s just excited about learning. So it’s really awesome to see that.
That’s great. Did you guys encounter any challenges in recruiting for this program?
That’s a really good question. Not exactly. I think one of the challenges was that we had so many people that we couldn’t put in the program. We had all the spots filled up really fast, but there were a lot of good candidates that would’ve been great in the program as well. That was the challenge, having to say no to people. I guess that’s a good challenge to have, but it was a challenge.
That makes sense. And did you have any lessons learned for recruiting a future cohort of clean energy trainees?
We learned you should do a lot of interviews, and just make sure that people are really invested in the program. It’s important that people understand what they’re signing up for, both the commitment and the opportunities.
Do you have anything else that you want to share for the interview?
This has really been a great program, and I think that we’ve seen a lot of great feedback from the people that have taken part in it. It’s been a blessing to be a part of it and collaborate with the Clean Energy Center, EEA, and the Pennsylvania College Technology.
Thank you Brooke!
Thank you!
This project was made possible through a grant from the Met Ed/Penelec Sustainable Energy Fund.