Hello all,
The White House is holding several listening sessions to hear ideas on how to shape the new American Climate Corps initiative. However, they also are accepting written comments at ACC@americorps.gov through January 31, 2024.
In September, President Biden announced the launch of the American Climate Corps, a groundbreaking workforce training and service initiative that will prepare tens of thousands of young people for good-paying jobs in the clean economy. In the time since, nearly 50,000 Americans have expressed interest in joining the American Climate Corps. In launching this new initiative, President Biden fulfilled a key promise to mobilize a new, diverse generation of Americans – putting them to work conserving and restoring our lands and waters, bolstering community resilience, deploying clean energy, implementing energy efficient technologies, advancing environmental justice, and more.
Beginning in January, senior Biden-Harris Administration officials will convene a series of virtual listening sessions to hear directly from prospective American Climate Corps applicants and implementing partners, including conservation and service corps partners, labor unions, educational institutions, employer partners, and state, local, and Tribal governments about their priorities for the American Climate Corps. Each listening session will last roughly 90 minutes and will provide participants with the opportunity to engage directly with Administration officials who are overseeing the initiative, as the Administration works to establish the first cohort of American Climate Corps members by next summer. More information about the virtual listening sessions can be found here.
In addition, EPA is leveraging historic funding from President Biden's Investing in America agenda to increase pathways for young people into environmental justice careers through the American Climate Corps. EPA's $2 billion Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grant Program announced in November includes an option for community-based organizations to propose their own Climate Corps program for youth in disadvantaged communities to pursue careers in greenhouse gas and air pollution reduction, along with other strategies to take climate action, reduce pollution, and increase community resilience.
Today, seven federal agencies – the Departments of Commerce, the Interior, Agriculture, Labor and Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and AmeriCorps – are entering into a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will serve as a blueprint for the multiagency initiative.
For more information, please see the White House press release here, the DOI press release here, and the USDA press release here.
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Luz Toro Intl. Assoc. AIA. CPNAA
Sr. Manager, Resilience
The American Institute of Architects
Washington, DC
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