The Fortune of Green Training

A few years before I started law school, I was a GED tutor volunteer at the Fortune Society, a non-profit organization that helps formerly incarcerated persons transition into society.?? Obtaining meaningful employment has been a strong indicator of reentry success.?? Fortune has created programs that equip clients with skills to be competitors in various sectors of the workforce to help prevent recidivism.

I was inspired when I discovered that Fortune offered training programs focusing on environmental remediation and energy efficiency.?? The Environmental Remediation Training (ERT) program provides studies in brownfield remediation and certification in OSHA Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response, Confined Space, and Leaking Underground Storage Tank removal.

The Green Building Operations and Maintenance (GBOM) program includes technical training in HVAC systems and energy efficiency, and comprehensive training on green building operations including recycling and green cleaning.?? The program also prepares clients to be certified as a U.S. Green Building Council???s Green Professional and as a Building Performance Institute???s Multifamily Building Operator.

Participants undergo an intensive curriculum in environmental regulations, zoning, sustainable building codes, with a stress on civic engagement and local sustainability initiatives.?? The program also equips clients with skills in carpentry, electrical, and plumbing construction, and furnishes energy-efficiency training that includes weatherization and energy auditing.

???Green graduates??? of the training programs gain hands-on work experience with part-time positions for three months in Fortune???s transitional work program.?? Some host employers include McKissack & McKissack, Build It Green, Solar One, Evirolutions, Castle Gardens, and Steven Winter Associates.

New York City aspires to be an ideal model of an urban green economy.?? Fortune???s contemporary environmental program furnishes its clients with a real chance to become contributors to the city???s goals, to become highly eligible contenders in the workforce, and to become positive members of society.

I absolutely commend the Fortune Society???s passion to help prevent recidivism as well as promote green practices in this concrete jungle.