A job training apprenticeship program developed by the not-for-profit North East Community Action Corporation (NECAC) for its newly hired home weatherization employees has attracted the attention of two national organizations.

NECAC Deputy Director for Housing Development Programs Carla Potts has been asked to share the development of the program with the National Association of State Community Service Programs and the National Community Action Partnership. Both organizations are headquartered in Washington, D.C.

With a national increase in funding to the home weatherization program due to the $1.2 trillion bi-partisan infrastructure bill approved by Congress last November, Community Action Agencies and other non-profit weatherization agencies across lthe county will be gearing up and adding thousands of new employees.

Missouri expects to receive $73 to $80 million of those additional funds with NECAC’s projected contracted share with the state at $4.5 million. NECAC is projecting they will add an additional 30 employees to do work at an estimated 500 additional homes in the agency’s 12 Missouri counties starting in July.

The newly designed job training apprentice program developed and coordinated by Potts is in partnership with the U.S. Department of Labor, Missouri Department of Labor, the Northeast Missouri Workforce Development Board, and Pike-Lincoln Technical Center.

The goal is to provide newly hired weatherization employees with skills that will allow them to work in a variety of construction and energy job fields. It also is a way to reassure other non-profit weatherization agencies that they’re developing top qualified employees in this new challenging labor market.
More information is available by calling NECAC at 573-324-6622.