San Antonio Business Journal
The U.S. Department of Labor released more than $9 million in funding Tuesday to provide job training to veterans. Raymond Jefferson assistant secretary of the Labor
Departments Veterans Employment and Training Service said Tuesday that the grants will give an estimated 4000 veterans who have served our country the opportunity to receive training on and participate in the growing renewable energy economy."
In all 22 organizations received green job training grants including a $500000 grant to the American GI Forum National Veterans Outreach Program in San Antonio.
Veterans will receive skills assessments individual counseling labor market information classroom and on-the-job training in green jobs. They will also receive placement assistance and follow-up services.
Labor Department officials say projects that support President Barack Obamas green energy jobs" initiative received priority consideration for these grants.
Veterans group expanding reach with assist from federal grants
An organization that works with homeless veterans providing job training and assistance has doubled its workspace downtown through a grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The economic development grant recently allowed the American GI Forum - National Veterans Outreach Program Inc. to finish out the basement of a building it owns downtown at 519 N. Medina which has 35000 square feet of space plus a basement with the same size footprint.
Carlos Martinez president and CEO of the National Veterans Outreach Program says the $1.3 million grant allowed the group to put in an elevator and remodel the space in the basement that has not been used in decades.
We are putting in a work center that will allow us to do a variety of things including making solar screens for our weatherization work" Martinez says.
In addition the group has received several program grants from the U.S. Department of Labor to help get veterans back into the workforce including a $300000 grant for the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program and a $500000 grant for the Veterans Workforce Investment Program.
The latter grant is designed to help current veterans returning from deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan find work in the green jobs" sector.
For the past 20 years the National Veterans Outreach Program in San Antonio has been providing employment training to homeless veterans through a box manufacturing business which operates out of a building at 219 Tampico St. and a weatherization installation program which is based at the Medina Street building. Both operations are self-sustaining Martinez says.
The primary customer for the box manufacturing work is the U.S. Postal Service while the weatherization work is through the Alamo Area Council of Governments (AACOG). The box manufacturing contracts generally range from $1 million to $1.5 million annually while the weatherization work brings in about $500000 annually for the organization.
The National Veterans Outreach Program was founded in 1972 as a nonprofit charitable arm of the American GI Forum.
Weatherization work
Rose Jackson housing director for AACOG says the council has been utilizing the homeless veterans for its weatherization program for the past 20 years.
They have always done a pretty good job for us" Jackson says. They are specially trained for this type of work and they have been very good at it."
Typically AACOGs Weatherization Assistance Program does about $2 million worth of work per year in Bexar and the surrounding 11 counties. But this year and next they will have more than $20 million to work with in the program due to federal stimulus funds.
This has greatly increased the number of projects we can work on" Jackson says and that has forced us to bring in more contractors."
In the past the homeless veterans have handled about 50 percent of the weatherization work through the program Jackson says noting that they must compete for the work through a bid process. Now with the increased volume of work the organization is handling about 25 percent to 30 percent of the work.
The weatherization program was created during the presidential administration of Jimmy Carter and is designed to help low-income people overcome the high cost of energy. To qualify a homeowner or renter must have gross income of no more than 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines which for a family of four would be about $44100 annually.
Once an individual or a family qualifies AACOG sends in someone to evaluate the home and determine what needs to be done to make it more energy efficient. This usually involves adding insulation and doing other work such as weather stripping and caulking around doors and windows. It can also involve replacing appliances with newer more energy efficient models. AACOG typically spends about $6500 on each home it works on through the weatherization program.
Transitional housing
In addition to providing work opportunities and job training the National Veterans Outreach Program offers a limited amount of transitional housing space for veterans including 80 transitional beds and 60 single-room occupancy apartments.
We offer three types of assistance" Martinez says. The first is emergency shelter where someone can crash for the night and get out of the weather.
The second is transitional housing of up to two years while they work toward self sufficiency and the third is permanent housing."
All of the organizations rooms had been full until this past Veterans Day Nov. 11 when the group opened a complex with 30 new single-occupancy apartments adjacent to its existing Medina Street facility which is located near the nonprofit Haven for Hope campus now under construction.
The new veterans apartments were built with $2.7 million in funds provided by USAA the Haven for Hope and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas.
Martinez a Vietnam era veteran says about half of the homeless veterans date back to the Vietnam War while the rest are from more recent periods including some from the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Recently Martinez says his organization put in a bid to provide manufacturing service for the electronic connectors on the buoy lights used by the U.S. Coast Guard.
These projects give our veterans the training they need to be productive and self-sufficient in the workforce" he says. And it allows us to pay them and give them financial management lessons."
Homeless veterans receive donation for computer lab
The Wal-Mart Foundation is donating $25000 to develop a computer lab at the American GI Forum in San Antonio.
The American GI Forum is supported by Haven for Hope a non-profit organization dedicated to ending homelessness in San Antonio. There are an estimated 16000 homeless veterans in Texas the largest concentration of that group in the United States according to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.
The computer lab will provide area veterans easier access to job searches and placement.
Lexmark International Inc. a maker of imaging and printing products is donating several printers to be used in the new computer lab. The lab will be located at the American GI Forum headquarters at 611 N. Flores St. Suite 200 San Antonio 78205.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and its foundation gave $296 million to communities across the U.S. in 2007 to support initiatives to enhance opportunities in education job skills training sustainability and health and human services. The retailer is based in Bentonville Ark.
