By Juliette Jardim
September 14, 2009

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay announced the launch of St. Louis’ St. Patrick Center’s Project Go! Green Training Initiative at a news conference held August 25 in the Catholic Charities Conference Center in downtown St. Louis. This program is an expansion of the city’s City Seeds Urban Farm program that was made possible by a $550,000 grant from The United States Conference of Mayors’ Green Jobs Training Initiative. St. Louis was one of six cities nationwide to receive a Grant for Green Jobs Training programs funded by the Wal-Mart Foundation.

“We need innovative ideas and bold directions for business development. Project Go! Green is a pro-active plan for re-training and re-tooling our workforce, so the St. Louis region will be ready to respond to the next economic surge,” said Slay.

The grant will fund Project Go! Green’s two-part program. The first part consists of a partnership with Gateway Greening to enhance the City Seeds Urban Farm program. The program trains 60 homeless clients from the St. Patrick Center in green horticulture. Trainees become qualified to work in garden retailers, nurseries, landscaping and similar green-care jobs. For more information, visit Gateway Greening’s website at www.gatewaygreening.org.

The second part of the program is comprised of a partnership with the National Corn to Ethanol Research Center at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville to support the Go! Network, which trains 50 professional members of the network and ten clients of the St. Patrick Center in biofuels production and related fields. The network serves professionals who have been laid off by the current economic crisis. For more information, visit their website at www.ethanolresearch.com.

“Green industries will be one of the leading employment sectors to take us out of this recession. St. Patrick Center is excited to be part of this merging field of programs, upstarts and companies that will improve our environment, protect our natural resources and provide employment opportunities for our displaced neighbors,” said St. Patrick Center CEO Dan Buck.

The news conference was attended by several members of the Go! Network and St. Patrick Center clients. The conference included remarks by SLATE Missouri Career Center Executive Director and U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Workforce Development Council Board Member Michael Holmes, Gateway Greening Executive Director Gwenne Hayes'stewart and National Corn to Ethanol Research Center Director John Caupert.

Other recipients of The U.S. Conference of Mayors Wal-Mart Foundation Green Jobs Training Initiative Grants Program are Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley in partnership with the Greencorps Chicago, Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster in partnership with the Conservation Corps of Long Beach, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in partnership with the Milwaukee Conservation Leadership Corps, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in partnership with the SF Works/CityBuild Academy and Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline in partnership with the Apeiron Institute for Sustainable Living. For more information, visit the website usmayors.org.

The Wal-Mart Foundation supports organizations creating opportunities in workforce development, environmental sustainability, economic opportunity, education and health and wellness. For more information, visit the website www.walmartfoundation.org.

The Saint Patrick Center provides services to homeless persons, and those at risk of being homeless, to help them find employment, financial stability, affordable housing and mental health by providing opportunities for dignity and self'sufficiency, allowing them to effect positive and permanent change in their lives. For more information, visit the website http://www.stpatrickcenter.org.