Here’s how 25 Black, Latino youth in Sacramento can gain an edge in the green tech sector
The future is green, local nonprofit leaders and U.S. Rep. Doris Matsui said at a news conference Thursday, and they are inviting Black and Latino youths to apply for a job training program that will expose them to the clean technology industry.
As the training program gets under way, the participants will get a front-row seat to see what it takes to plan and construct a new electric vehicle charging station.
Sacramento nonprofit Green Tech plans to open a second Net Zero EV Mobility Hub — this one at South Sacramento Christian Center, 7710 Stockton Blvd. — in 2025, and it will combine with My Brother’s Keeper Sacramento to teach 25 Latino and Black youth how to take advantage of opportunities in the clean technology sector.
The Center at Sierra Health Foundation and the United Way California Capital Region is overseeing this new Green Ambitions partnership, paid for with $500,000 in federal funds secured by Matsui and a $400,000 grant from the NBA Foundation.
“In south Sacramento and other previously overlooked and under-resourced communities across the region, we see that the effects of climate change and air pollution are not equitably experienced,” Matsui said.
Applications to Green Ambitions must be submitted no later than 5 p.m. on Sept. 19, and candidates must be ages 16-24 and reside or attend school within the city of Sacramento.
Positioning youth to lead on climate change
Chet Hewitt, CEO of The Center at Sierra Health Foundation, said he began batting around the idea for this training program more than a year ago with Simeon Gant, the founder of Green Technical Education and Employment, or Green Tech for short.
Residents of south Sacramento and other neighborhoods like it are more likely to feel the effects of smog and extreme urban heat, Hewitt said, because of their proximity to so many major roadways and so few trees. So, he said, the rates of asthma and other diseases are higher there.
By placing more charging stations in these neighborhoods, Hewitt said, you make the purchase of an EV a more viable choice. And, starting in 2035, the state’s rules will require that all new cars sold in California be EVs.
“There is $5 trillion in federal spending nationally, over $200 billion coming to California to actually invest in infrastructure to make communities and businesses cleaner and greener,” Hewitt said. “Part of that legislation is (tied to the Justice40 Initiative), and this says that 40% of those dollars have to be spent or should be spent in communities that have historically been left behind.”
While millions of Blacks took advantage of the explosion of manufacturing jobs between 1915 and 1970, migrating from the South to take better-paying jobs in factories, slaughterhouses and foundries in the midwestern, eastern and western United States, but they largely missed out on job opportunities in the nation’s booming high-tech revolution, Hewitt said.
Green Ambitions is about ensuring that the same thing doesn’t happen in the green tech sector, he said: Blacks and Latinos should be part of leading the work to reduce global emissions of carbon dioxide to net zero, completely eliminating the impact of greenhouse gases produced by human activity.
Training Black, Latino youth to combat obstacles
Green Tech regularly educates young people in under-resourced Sacramento neighborhoods about careers in the field, but the Green Ambitions program tapped Sierra Health’s My Brother’s Keeper program to work closely with the 25 participants on mentoring, financial literacy, resume development, interview preparation and managing what Hewitt described as “poisonous” interpersonal relationships on the job.
People of color can end up being hazed for their race or ethnicity, the way they speak English or the religion they practice, Hewitt said, so you have to provide some education on how to manage that. In his youth, he recalled, he and other young African Americans would go together to construction sites to seek work, and they would ask the foreman to hire at least two or three of them.
“If he put one of us in there, that one was not going to last,” Hewitt said. The white workers “knew they could run us off with the hatred, the racism, and then they would blame us … for the conditions they created and our lack of success, and hold that lack of success up as if it was a failure for everyone we represent.”
Terry Jackson, who currently takes classes with Green Tech, said he’s considering applying for the United Way’s Green Ambitions program. The 21-year-old Sacramento resident has most enjoyed learning about EV charging stations and how all the equipment works.
The most intriguing thing he’s learned so far, he said, is that owners of EV charging stations receive a share of each sale.
“I’m into the entrepreneurial stuff,” he said “Each one of those chargers, it’s basically like a vending machine. The electricity that’s coming out of it is the product. I’m super interested in that. If I were to stick around, it would be for that reason.”
That’s just the sort of revelations that Dawnté Early, the chief executive officer for the local United Way, hopes Green Ambitions will spark in the participants. She described the program as a bold step to ensure the future is both equitable and sustainable.
“We can make California a model for addressing not only environmental challenges, but economic challenges as well, by building vibrant communities that can thrive in green economies,” Early said. “As we embark on this partnership, I’m filled with hope. I’m filled with optimism that we can accomplish all of this together.”
This story was originally published September 7, 2024 at 7:00 AM.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to clarify Chet Hewitt’s title as CEO of The Center at Sierra Health Foundation and to include the United Way and The Center at Sierra Health Foundation as partners on the program.
