Job Opportunity: Community Trainers for Digital Literacy Outreach and Training

We are recruiting community trainers for the Foundation for California Community Colleges “California Connect” program. There are several part time positions (20-22 hours a week) paying $15.00 per hour in Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Fresno, Kings, Kern, Mariposa, Merced, Madera, Nevada, Placer, Tuolumne, Tulare, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Sutter and Yolo counties.  Community Trainers will be hired to conduct digital literacy training for Central Valley residents who currently do not have access to broadband technology.

Job Purpose: Digital Literacy Outreach and Training
Under the direction of the program director and staff at the Great Valley Center, support digital literacy outreach and training functions of the Foundation’s California Connects program, currently funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration for Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). The incumbent is accountable for supporting the execution of program implementation, documentation and practices; and communicating with program partners for the California Connects Program.

Download the full Job Description (PDF)

Filing deadline for this position is February 15, 2011

For more information contact:
Manuel Alvarado, Program Director
Great Valley Center
(209) 522-5103
manuel@greatvalley.org

About California Connects

California Connects is a new program that will increase digital literacy and expand broadband Internet access to underserved populations throughout the state. Funded by a $10.9 million Broadband Technology Opportunities Program grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, California Connects
provides intensive outreach and hands-on training to students, who will, in turn, educate 61,120 new broadband users and influence 9,168 new broadband adopters over three years.

For more information visit:
http://www.foundationccc.org/WhatWeDo/CaliforniaConnects/tabid/771/Default.aspx

Program offers cities a plan to address emissions, energy use

Patterson Irrigator
January 13, 2011
by Kendall Septon

The San Joaquin Valley has gained notoriety over the years as one of the worst air-pollution basins in the nation. Moving forward, though, a new sustainability outreach that ends later this month could help Patterson and other cities throughout Stanislaus County change that image.

The Green Communities Program, organized by the Great Valley Center and funded by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and the California Public Utilities Commission, will help cities, free of charge, to develop a detailed list of greenhouse gas emission sources and levels. In the end, with the help of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives’ Local Governments for Sustainability, paid university interns will work with city staff to recommend how each city can reduce the energy it uses each day.

“Hopefully, this will help the city make better decisions, in a cost-effective manner, about how we decide to operate in the future,” said Joel Andrews, interim community development director for the city of Patterson. “We are always looking for ways to do things better, become more efficient.”

Advocates say the effort could help cities reduce their greenhouse gas emissions as mandated by Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which is set to take effect in 2020. Cities must start this year to show how they will meet reduction measures by the 2020 target.

Read more: Patterson Irrigator - Program offers cities a plan to address emissions energy use

Valley Futures Forum: "A New Perspective on Ag Land in the San Joaquin Valley" on January 20

A New Perspective on Agricultural Land in the San Joaquin Valley with Ed Thompson, American Farmland Trust

American Farmland Trust has been working with the Information Center for the Environment at U.C. Davis to map physical characteristics of agricultural land in the San Joaquin Valley as they relate to its future economic viability and pressures from urban and rural development. This information can help guide planners and officials as they do a rural "greenprint" to complement the region's Blueprint for urban growth. This will be the first presentation of the maps and data from this project.

January 20, 2011
5:00 - 6:45 pm

Great Valley Center
Community Room
201 Needham St.
Modesto, CA

Fee for the Forum: $10 (payable at the door)

For more information, please visit our new website at www.valleyfuturesforum.org or email nuplanner@gmail.com

About Edward Thompson:
Since 2003, Edward Thompson, Jr., has been California Director of American Farmland Trust, a national conservation organization he has also served as general counsel, policy director and senior vice president. He is the author of several groundbreaking publications on California agriculture, including Alternatives for Future Urban Growth in California’s Central Valley: The Bottom Line for Agriculture and Taxpayers; Water Policy and Farmland Protection: A New Approach to Saving California’s Best Agricultural Lands (with Marc Reisner); and, most recently, California Agricultural Vision: Strategies for Sustainability. He earned his B.A. in government from Cornell and a J.D. from George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C.

About the Valley Futures Forum (VFF):
The VFF is a dynamic conversation on development issues in the San Joaquin Valley. The VFF is held on the third Thursday of each month at 5:00pm, from January through November.

The VFF is presented by:
American Planning Association, Central Section; Building Industry Association of Central California; Congress for the New Urbanism, NorCal Chapter; Great Valley Center; Local Government Commission; Modesto Chamber of Commerce.

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Valley has 6 of nation's 10 metro areas with worst rate for joblessness

Modesto Bee
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
By Marijke Rowland

The San Joaquin Valley continues to be at the heart of the nation's unemployment problem.

A report released this week by the U.S. Labor Department shows that the valley accounts for six of the 10 metropolitan areas with the worst unemployment rates in the country.

The valley cities stretch from Stockton to Visalia-Porterville and also include Modesto, Merced, Fresno and Hanford-Corcoran.

Two other California metro areas also made the bottom 10: No. 1 El Centro in Imperial County and No. 2 Yuba City in Sutter County.

"It's one of those perfect storm situations," said University of California at Merced economics Professor Shawn Kantor. "So it will take a very long time for this area to recover."

Read more: http://www.modbee.com/2011/01/05/1499504/valley-at-the-heart-of-the-problem.html#storylink=omni_popular#ixzz1AHaBV2cA

(Photo Credit: DEBBIE NODA/dnoda@modbee.com)

San Joaquin Valley utilities and firms work to meet green energy mandates

Modesto Bee
Monday, January 3, 2011
By John Holland

The sun performed as promised at Jim Jasper's business near Newman.

He installed about 4,000 panels that capture solar energy for use in processing almonds at Stewart & Jasper Orchards. 

Jasper said he expects to save as much as $250,000 on his Pacific Gas & Electric Co. bill each year. But he said something else that gets to the crux of the renewable energy debate: 

"It doesn't pencil out without the subsidies."

Solar, wind and other renewable sources may have finally come of age, after four decades of promise from their promoters. But the technologies still tend to cost more than conventional sources such as hydroelectric, natural gas and coal.

The extra cost is covered in part by utility rate increases, including the one that took effect Saturday in the Modesto Irrigation District.

And the federal government helps with up to 30 percent of the cost with income tax credits for homes and businesses. Those lost taxes add to the national debt.

Advocates say renewable sources are worth the cost because they reduce the need for fossil fuels, which pollute the planet and mire the nation in messy foreign affairs.

Read more: http://www.modbee.com/2011/01/02/1495066/green-energy-gets-real.html#ixzz1A67BL3CC