Asheville GO: Training Our Youth for Green Jobs

Asheville GO members learned natural building techniques while helping to build a cob structure at the Vance Elementary Community Garden. Top row from left: Demetrius Wallace, Waylon Smith, Darius Edgerton, Tzshanna Shelembe, Tony Beurskins, J.C. Brew. (Bottom Row) Joan Murray-Freeman, Nicole Brow, Dan Leroy, De’Angelo Franklin, DeWayne Barton and Delario Cato.

The Asheville Green Opportunity Corps (Asheville GO) is an innovative program that began this September, with five young men and three young women; six are from public housing. Asheville GO is a paid training and leadership program designed to prepare under-served young adults for living-wage jobs in the rapidly growing green economy.

This fall, the youth are taking part in community service projects, life skills training, college coursework, and mentoring; they participate two days a week and receive a stipend.

Starting in January, they will be placed in full-time, paid
apprenticeships in jobs such as green construction, energy-efficient
retrofitting, solar energy, ecological landscaping and restoration, and
sustainable agriculture.

After graduation, Asheville GO members are expected to go on to
“green collar jobs.” Asheville GO will help our region respond to
climate change by implementing tangible, highly visible projects that
reduce CO2 emissions and influence the public.

For more information, please contact DeWayne Barton, (828)
275-5305, or Dan Leroy, (828) 318-9916. Their website is:
www.greenopportunities.org.