The Greater Washington Green Jobs Corps trains individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds to help meet the demand for skilled workers to provide services in the green economy. Participants of the program are trained to weatherize homes, businesses and federal buildings, install solar panels and perform energy audits. These sustainable services will save millions of dollars in energy costs for the Washington Metropolitan area. Like cities across the nation, the greater Washington area faces a shortage of programs providing "green-collar" workforce development. This shortage will worsen as the green economy grows.

The Greater Washington Green Jobs Corps creates partnerships between job training programs and green employers. It also provides key links to educational institutions, labor unions, and community-based organizations. The program is centered on must-have life skills sessions before transitioning into the technical training portion of the green job training classes.

The green job training program has a special focus on providing "green pathways out of poverty" by recruiting and training people with barriers to employment (e.g., lack of job skills, lack of education, language/cultural barriers, or history in juvenile/criminal justice system).

The Greater Washington Green Jobs Corps addresses two critical issues (environment and poverty) with the training it provides.Global warming is showing everyone that we must make our society more energy efficient and environmentally sustainable. We must retrofit our buildings, remake our transportation systems, retool our manufacturing processes, and rethink our patterns of consumption.

Greater Washington Green Jobs Corps helps engage and connect young adults to new green job opportunities, providing a shining national example of using the green economy to change lives through new green opportunities.

As a part of this administration's commitment to a clean energy future, President Obama has pledged to make 75% of federal buildings more energy efficient. Experts say the investment could create up to 130,000 jobs, save the government more than $1 billion in annual energy costs and improve worker productivity.

• Retrain blue collar workers: Transition current blue-collar workers in Greater Washington into green-collar careers to support businesses with a focus on providing high-quality green jobs.
  
  
• Provide green career ladders for youth: Provide pathways out of poverty for youth with barriers to employment by providing green job training for jobs in the clean energy economy.
  

• Reduce CO2 emissions: Supply the trained workforce that can make Greater Washington less polluting, more energy efficient, and more environmentally sustainable.
  
  
• Support the Green Economic Leadership: Promote Greater Washington's position as a leading region in green economic development through highly-skilled green job workforce.

Green DMV also provides outreach to Greater Washington communities to leverage a strong local network of community-based organizations, labor unions, educational institutions, and local leaders. Green DMV collaborates in the outreach and recruitment of young adults and current blue-collar workers from distressed communites for inclusive in the Greater Washington Green Jobs Corps program.