eastside living LA

Homeboy Goes Green

Albert Ortega looks on during a tutoring session at Homeboy Industries / photo by Beige Luciano-Adams

A new training initiative gives ex-gang members a competitive edge in the green-collar market.

By Rocío Zamora Arzola

The job market is looking pretty grim these days, and the recent economic downturn has left many experienced professionals and college graduates feeling the strain of the recession. So how does someone like Albert Ortega, who never went to college and has a criminal record to boot, find work? Like a growing number of participants in photovoltaic technology training programs, Ortega went green.

Growing up in the mean streets of Wilmington, Ortega made a living selling drugs, a vocation that landed him in behind bars on three separate occasions, serving a total of 14 years in prison. 

“I knew selling drugs wasn’t working for me because I kept getting caught,” the 34-year-old says. “I had to figure something else out.”

So he turned to Fr. Greg Boyle, who founded Homeboy Industries in 1992 to help former gang members, many whom have served prison sentences, turn their lives around. The non-profit organization already employs several at-risk members of the community through its entrepreneurial outlets: Homeboy Bakery and Homegirl Café.

But Ortega was intrigued by Homeboy’s latest endeavor, which funds its members’ training in solar panel technology, or photovoltaic systems – a sector growing in response to the city’s ambitious renewable energy goals. Pairing up with the East Los Angeles Skills Center, Homeboy pays the center $131 per student for the ten-week We Build Green course and also pays each student $8 per hour to attend classes, six hours each day. 

“In actuality we hire them and their job is to go learn PV,” Curtis Merriweather, the Solar Panel Program coordinator, says. “That way, once they learn the trade, we can actually help them get a job.”

With around 200 people on the program’s waiting list, Ortega realized it wasn’t going to be easy getting his foot in the door. But he was persistent. For Ortega the program was more than just a chance to earn some cash. 

“People in my situation, you’ve got two options. Either you’re going to survive, or you’re not, you know what I’m saying?” Ortega says. “I was tired of going back to prison, so I was calling Fr. Greg everyday. Sometimes two times a day.”  Three weeks later he was in. 

But not everyone is as lucky. 

“I’ve been waiting to get in since June of last year,” quipped one of the 20 people taking the basic algebra prerequisite exam one Monday in March. Even with a 15 percent placement rate, people are still falling over themselves to enlist in the program.

That’s because the green energy boom promises to take off this year.

“I only see greater investment in renewable energy,” Veronica Soto, Director of Contractor Relations & Small Business for LAUSD, says. “We are investing in sustainability and conservation as much as possible not only because we should be good stewards of the environment, but because it’s good business sense for us to do so.”

Through the We Build Green Program LAUSD hopes to train enough people in PV technology to help with its solar makeover, planning to install 50 megawatts of photovoltaic systems throughout the district by 2012, both through union and private-sector contractors.

“When we’re done with our solar installations we’re going to be saving a million dollars in energy costs per year,” Soto says. “Which means we are going to re-invest those dollars back into other areas that are more necessary by the district.”

Though Homeboy’s Green graduates will certainly be offered many of the LAUSD jobs, they are free to work for private contractors as well. In fact, many breathed a sigh of relief when Measure B – which would have relegated installation jobs for the Department of Water and Power’s planned 400 megawatts worth of panels exclusively to the Department’s union workers – was shot down at the polls earlier this month.

“Since they didn’t pass Measure B, it’s looking more promising for [PV graduates], because it was basically guaranteeing the jobs to the electricians union, the IBEW,” Merriweather says. 

For now, the city’s future solar projects are open to workers in the private sector. But Homeboy’s Green graduates also have the option of joining a labor track by becoming a union apprentice with the electricians local.

Three graduates were recently placed with a company, which then requested 12 more. Currently, another 40 members have made it through the training, and are ready to go. 

“We have a whole work force,” says Ortega, adding that the We Build Green program will certainly broaden opportunities for this new class of skilled workers when it kicks into gear later in April. 

And that’s just the beginning. 

With Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s promise to have 20 percent of the city running on renewable energy by 2010, everyone is trying to get in on the solar panel bandwagon.

And the difference at Homeboy is that being a former felon actually might actually increase the chances of entry in the PV program—given that you are ready to leave the gang lifestyle behind.

“We want to offer an exit ramp for folks who have gotten involved in gangs and want to redirect their lives. Job creation is 85 percent of that,” Fr. Greg says. “So we have a lot of irons in the fire and we’re trying to find as many sources of employment as we can.”

Ortega, who finished the phase of the program in a record 6 weeks, is now a tutor at Homeboy three days a week for those currently enrolled. “It depends how bad they want it,” he says of his students. “I wanted it really bad.”

Now in a position to help others – some of whom are in transitional housing or still on parole – pull themselves through the intensive training, Ortega sees the potential in his fellow members. “We have a lot of guys here who are really smart,” he says. “I try to challenge them.”

After completing the first course in introduction to solar technology and installation, Ortega went on to become nationally certified in solar panel design.

“It changed my life. Before all this I didn’t have anything,” says the father of three. “I’ve got a career now.”

At the end of an afternoon tutoring session in March, the only woman in the class approaches Ortega, asking him for help getting into the program. 

“You have to call Fr. Greg,” he says. “Call him everyday, two times a day if you have to.”

Homeboy Industries 130 W. Bruno St. • Los Angeles, CA 90012 • Tel: 323-526-1254 • Fax: 323-536-1257 • www.homeboy-industries.org

Note: LAUSD’s “We Build Green” program is aimed at helping a variety of local residents train for careers in the green economy. For enrollment information, contact the East Los Angeles Skills Center, 3921 Selig Place, Los Angeles, CA 90032 at (323) 224-5970. Participants must reside within the district boundaries, possess a valid driver’s license, social security card, as well as mastery of ninth-grade level math.