News Bulletin July


SF Works Bulletin \| July 6, 2010
Headlines Where Are the Green Jobs? A New Chapter for SF Works Volunteer with SF Works! Donate your time and help make a difference in the lives of hardworking San Francisco people and their families! This Summer and Fall we are recruiting volunteers and interns with skills in the areas of: -Research -Outreach & Sales -Social Media & Marketing -Web Design -Community Organizing and more! Gain valuable community service and put your expertise to work. For more information please email Ferron at fsalniker@sfworks.org.	Where Are the Green Jobs? Green jobs are coming, and they will be created by small businesses installing solar panels on people's roofs and making homes more energy efficient.That is the finding of a recent survey of Bay Area employers conducted by SF Works. However, our survey results also tell us that businesses face many challenges in making these jobs appear. The biggest is getting customers. They will be relying on large rebates and generous financing for home owners to get people to sign up for services, and these publicly funded incentive programs are delayed in being launched. Next, businesses told us they will need access to working capital in this tight market, so they can carry the costs of labor and materials while they are waiting to be paid. Businesses also told us that they know there are hiring tax credits, wage subsidies, and training programs available to help, but that they find these programs cumbersome to access. An additional emerging challenge that businesses report is having to navigate new local hiring ordinances and still to be defined wage requirements. SF Works is using the results from this survey to design an employer assistance program to help these small businesses make sense of all this, so they can grow and create quality jobs. We are building our program off of our success in marketing hiring tax credits and collecting best practices on how to work with contractors. If you have suggestions for our program design please let us know. We know there is much anticipation about green jobs and we will keep you updated on our work. A New Chapter for SF Works in Supporting our Community SF Works is now its own independent nonprofit! In January, we separated from the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, which for many years has been our supportive host, along with the United Way of the Bay Area, and soon after we received charitable designation from the IRS. Our new organization builds on our mission to improve the lives of people working in lower-wage jobs in San Francisco in collaboration with business and community partners. During these tough times, the need for our services is only growing. People who are fortunate to have jobs are often working fewer hours and making less as their costs of living are going up. This is really squeezing people who were already struggling. Last week the California Budget Project reported that a family of four in San Francisco needs to earn $84,000 just to get by, that’s the equivalent of two wage earners making $20 an hour working full-time. For single parents it’s even harder, they need to make $76,000 or $35 an hour. These are incomes that are presently out of reach for tens of thousands of working families. “I was concerned about my financial situation. After meeting with a SF Works advisor, I was able to apply for a low-cost vision program, learned how to save $30 each month on my Muni costs, and was connected to free financial counseling. I got some great advice from the financial counseling session that helped me start saving for my future.” - Cole Hardware employee We encourage you, our partners and supporters, to stay involved, and we look forward to launching a new SF Works with you.
www.sfworks.org SF Works bring opportunities to save money, build assets, and gain new skills to San Francisco workers. We do this in collaboration with the local business community.