Most of the local organizations that deliver the services of the federal Weatherization Assistance Program for low- and moderate-income households are Community Action Agencies and other local non-profits represented by NCAF. From 1977 to 2008, the program weatherized more than 6.2 million homes and, on average, reduces energy bills by 23% every year after the upgrades are made. In 2008, this meant families living in the weatherized homes saved $413, and created lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Beginning in late 2009, the program expanded to accomodate $5 billion in Recovery Act Funding by 2012. Nearly half a million homes were weatherized in the first 15 months of the program and a vastly expanded work force was trained to use the demand diagnostic procedures and advanced installation techniques required by the strict Weatherization program standards.
Building a Weatherization Workforce
In the face of the opportunity, ExxonMobil has teamed up with the National Community Action Foundation, the organization that represents the 900 agencies from around the country that are involved in weatherization, to enhance community-based weatherization training programs.
Weatherization workers:
- Measure the systems that heat, ventilate and cool the whole home.
- Pressurize the house to identify leaks in a building’s shell using blower doors and infrared imaging.
- Check for blocked air movement or conflicting pressures, health hazards, poor heating system performance including water heating, cooling equipment, and lighting fixtures.
You can see what is involved in their work and how they are trained at the innovative television channel funded by the ExxonMobil/NCAF partnership, WX-TV.
Weatherization skills are ‘green collar’ job skills, and the experience of the Weatherization Program workforce training is a base from which federal agencies, industry groups and Public-Private partnerships are building standards and training requirements for the entire home energy services industry.
The eight demonstration projects funded by contributions from ExxonMobil are offering a variety of training tools to share with the industry along with valuable lessons learned about partnerships that can offer workers a pathway to good jobs and a road along a continuum of skill training that leads to an expanding set of career opportunities.
Click HERE to read about the results of the demonstrations and more tools that can be used by workers and trainers everywhere.