August 2008

"What’s the best way to give Americans of all socioeconomic backgrounds a tangible stake in fighting for issues like global warming? Easy. Make it their livelihood."
—Van Jones

Green for All (greenforall.org)
Van Jones, founder of the green jobs and environmental justice group Green for All, launched this nonprofit with the idea that the emerging green economy might lift people out of poverty. With money from the innovative Green Jobs Act of 2007 and website donations, Green for All trains "people who most need jobs — urban youth, returning veterans, struggling farmers, and displaced workers from our manufacturing sectors. These 'green-collar jobs' include retrofitting buildings with solar panels, weatherizing homes, building and maintaining wind-farms and much more.

"For tens of thousands of Americans who are falling behind in the global job market, these work opportunities create 'green pathways out of poverty' for people throughout the United States."

A national organization, Green for All grew out of Jones’ work creating a ‘Green Job Corp’ in Oakland, California, as part of a program at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, which Jones founded in 1996. The Center promotes alternatives to violence and incarceration, including its successful “Books Not Bars” campaign that has helped reduce California’s overall youth prison population by more than 30 percent.