The Regional Green Jobs Summit is a collaborative effort working to create awareness, set a platform for ‘Green Deal’ partnerships and develop an agenda with national implications for communities most in need throughout the San Joaquin Valley. There are three fundamental reasons why the inaugural Green Jobs Regional Summit will be held in Fresno:

• Most importantly to build awareness of the severity on the need to make the projects for clean energy and green jobs that pays livable wages in the region.
• Create awareness on clean energy opportunities that will help stem global warming and help to alleviate rural/urban poverty.
• Expose the models and opportunities for community based organizations, municipalities and agencies, and business leaders and private organizations/groups take the lead in the growing of green business and jobs.
• Create a regional leadership vehicle to leverage human and financial resources, advance appropriate legislation and sustain regional equity throughout the San Joaquin Valley.

All of these are integral to the economic advancement of the region known as the “Appalachia’s of the West”; a region with the highest rates of pollution, asthma, dropouts and poverty.

Targets & Purpose:
This summit is intended to engage the different partners that could ideally work together to unfold a new economy, protect the environment and create local sustainable systems. The Summit format will allow for active participation between keynote speakers, workshop presenters, local community experts/residents and small city and county representatives as engaged participants. Informational booths with representatives sharing existing models for sustainable living, energy and economies will also be available to attendees. The main targets are policy makers, industry, community and four year colleges as well as local community elected, appointed and grassroots leaders. This is the formula for a strong Valley with the summit serving as a catalyst at a critical time in our planetary history and regional reality.

Valley Stakeholders:
Currently, green & clean industries, entrepreneurs’, government, educational institutions and nonprofits are revving up with the implementation of green jobs trainings, popular education, employment or technology deployment. Both Federal and State elected officials are advancing various Green Job bills and other legislative proposals that can prove to boast green jobs further. Resulting affirmative outcomes will prove profitable for green industries such as solar, wind, bio-fuels as well as local community economic development efforts. The ideal model will be one that consists of clean tech industry, economic development entities, rural farm worker cities, educational institutions and workforce. A beneficial symbiotic partnership can train local residents, provide good jobs, generate clean energy, enhance the local economy and not pollute the air.

Regional Green Jobs Planning Task Force Member organizations: The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Latino Environmental Advancement and Policy Project-Valley LEAP, PolicyLink, UC Davis – Center for Regional Change, Fresno Housing Alliance, Fresno West Coalition for Economic Development, The Greenlining Institute, California EDGE Campaign, Center on Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies, The Verde Group, Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, Grid Alternatives and the SJV Clean Energy Organization.

RSVP: WWW.VALLEYLEAP.ORG