ACTS-CNY

Julio Urrutia, Sr., Chair

Community Benefits Agreement for Joint-School Construction Project

In June of this year ACTS, along with the Syracuse Alliance for a New Economy, signed a Community Benefits Agreement with the Syracuse School District that will allow high school students to shadow construction workers renovating city school-as part of the one billion dollar school renovation project. Juniors and seniors from various Syracuse City schools will shadow construction workers and observe what it takes to get a large project done while exposing the students to potential career paths. The first group of students has been selected and will commence training before the end of the year.

A Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) is a legally binding contract between a community coalition and a developer, and it lays out how a development project will benefit the local community. A CBA can provide, among other benefits, hiring of local workers as well as a living wage. A CBA can also ensure that women and minority owned businesses are subcontracted with during a project. When a developer claims a development project cannot be undertaken unless public benefits and/or funds are provided, a CBA makes sure that the community participates in the decision-making process and that the community sees the tangible benefits.

Transparency, Accountability and Community Participation for Stimulus

The first wave of funds from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) began to reach Syracuse and Onondaga County in the spring of 2009. Almost $400 million in weatherization stimulus funds have been allocated to New York State. This money goes to fund job training programs in weatherization as well as to pay for homes and buildings to be weatherized-made more energy-efficient in other words.

Historically, the Weatherization Assistance Program has been underfunded compared to the demand for service, resulting in 2-3 year waiting lists locally for weatherization of homes. Weatherization funds are channeled through Weatherization Assistance Providers (WAP). Throughout the state WAPs like P.E.A.C.E., Inc. may hire workers, fund the training of potential workers and/or subcontract out to other organizations or businesses to conduct weatherization of homes and buildings.

We have been engaging federal, state and local officials, as well as agency and business executives to ensure three goals relative to the utilization of the weatherization stimulus funds: Transparency, Accountability and Community Participation.

The stimulus package presents an opportunity for our city and region to maximize this investment by ensuring that a true cross section of our community benefits from workforce development, job creation, business opportunities and the economic development that will be spurred by stimulus-funded projects.

We are tired of watching low income and minority communities continue to be excluded from economic development and employment opportunities. This is a new day in which low-income and minority communities will be included in the decision-making-not as tokens at the end of the process-but from the very beginning.