The Association for Energy Affordability Inc. (AEA), held an event on May 21, 2010 at their Bronx, NY training center to recognize the $800,000 grant award from the NCAF/ExxonMobil Weatherization Training Partnership.
ExxonMobil’s Senior Director for Federal Relations, Lonnie Anderson, was present and stressed ExxonMobil's commitment to improve livelihoods through measures of efficiency. He also pointed out that at the heart of the idea of the Partnership, was the intention of providing individuals with training using various forms of technology to put them on a career path for success and also to develop training models that were replicable so that national capacity building would be assured. These thoughts were echoed by AEA’s Executive Director, David Hepinstall, who said that the project helps to promote AEA's national vision of engaging community based organizations who are partners on workforce development and maximizing opportunities to replicate weatherization training in a sustainable way.
AEA will use the grant funds to develop new weatherization training curricula (usable in many regions and meet proposed national standards) to retrofit large multi-family buildings. A video feed from the event enabled a simulcast to the CEDA group from Chicago and AEA’s midtown NY offices. It was a true demonstration of how interactive distance learning will be made possible through connectivity. AEA has used this medium to successfully test training approaches with Denver, Ohio and Seattle based organizations.