Targets those at risk for gun violence

By Matthew Fischetti

mfischetti@queensledger.com

Green jobs are getting the green. 

The city is investing $54 million into a program called the precision employment initiative, which helps connect at-risk individuals for gun violence get jobs in the green business sector, Mayor Adams announced at a press conference in Bed-Stuy on Thursday Oct. 20.

The new dollars are an expansion of the de Blasio era program which targeted nabes seeing 50% of the citywide crime rate, which included Brownsville, Mott Haven, and South Jamaica. The new financial investment doubles the size of the program, which can now help provide an additional 1500 jobs, and expands the territory’s scope to East New York, Flatbush and East Flatbush in Brooklyn, as well as Far Rockaway in Queens.

The initiative works with Brooklyn-based Bloc Power, a venture-capital backed company that electrifies buildings. Through its Civilian Climate Corps program, in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice,  the CCC helps provides paid job training opportunities.

“The real challenge is by using real on the ground information. This is a great program for those who are involved in the criminal justice system,” Hizzoner said. “If you’ve got to tell someone to move away from doing something wrong, you got to give them something to do good.”

Participants in the program are enrolled in job training in fields such as HVAC, heat pump installations, solar power and other green related fields. According to the mayor nearly 30 percent have been placed in full time jobs. Members of the program will also have case managers to assist them throughout the process.

In Brownsville and Motthaven, shootings declined by 21 percent and 35 percent respectively, the mayor said. 

“We are creating jobs, bringing down gun violence and bringing new labor into the green sector. Public safety is not just a police job, it is about giving people a job,” Adams said.