Building CEJA from the ground up: Ambitious goals, robust funding, and complex challenges
Why CEJA isn’t just another clean energy workforce program, the challenges that come with it, and how CJC is tackling its implementation.
By: Esther Kim
Sweeping federal funding cuts across departments have underlined the importance of state-funded investments like the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) which invests $80 million a year towards clean energy workforce and contract programs for Illinoisans who face high barriers to good jobs; however, since its passing in 2021, there have been delays in its implementation.
CEJA is spotlighted in the midwest as the first-of-its-kind workforce and clean energy legislation, The Chicago Jobs Council (CJC) has closely monitored the passing and implementation of CEJA and understands how critical the first iterations of its workforce programs are to ensure continuous improvement and outcomes for its participants. Furthermore, CJC understands as a workforce intermediary that those doing work on-the-ground can best inform how CEJA can be best operationalized for years to come.
In October of 2024, CJC kicked off its first CEJA Chicagoland Grantees Convenings, referred to as the CEJA Table, to facilitate coordination, communication, and collaboration among grantees implementing the CEJA workforce programs in the Chicagoland area.
The table is composed of workforce development and community-based organizations who received grants for the Energy Transition Navigator, Clean Energy Workforce Hubs, and the Climate Works Pre-Apprenticeship programs. In addition to grantees, the table invites the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO), the department administering CEJA, to share insight into what program implementation looks like in day-to-day operations, including challenges, solutions, and progress.
Members of the CEJA table include Safer Foundation, 548 Foundation, CAPS Inc., North Lawndale Employment Network, The Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership, Revolution Workshop, OAI, Central States SER, Association House, Chicago Urban League, Hire360, Calumet Area Industrial Commission, and Greater West Town Community Development Project.
Throughout the last nine months, key takeaways have arisen from the CEJA table that are essential to understanding how the spirit of CEJA can be captured in its implementation.
What has become most clear is: While CEJA meets ambitious goals with robust funding, the implementation of new statewide programs has its growing pains for both grantees and state agencies.
The legislation aims for 100% clean energy in the state by 2050 through investments into renewable energy and workforce development.
Workforce hubs across Illinois offer career pathways into solar, energy auditing, weatherization, HVAC, electric/hybrid vehicle, and construction and trades industries to Illinoisans who meet the eligibility requirements.
The workforce programs contain equity measures that create tangible career opportunities for Illinoisans who were formerly incarcerated, graduated from the foster care system, reside in Environmental Justice communities, Renew, Reinvest, & Restore (R3) communities, and displaced energy workers. Stipends, supportive services, and barrier reduction funds are available to each participant which are more flexible than other workforce programs to set up participants for success.
A participant’s entry into a CEJA workforce program should be through a Navigator site and would then be referred by the Navigator to either a Clean Energy Workforce Hub or Climate Works Pre-Apprenticeship Hub, depending on the participant’s career goals, where they go through clean energy and career readiness training. Upon completion of training, the participant would then work towards job placement and retention with the assistance of the hubs.
The flow of participants from navigators to hubs to job placements is a seemingly intuitive process, but a challenge when implemented.
As a workforce intermediary, CJC has an ear to the ground about both workforce development policy and programs and relationships with workforce development organizations. CJC leveraged its expertise and relationships to table important discussions for CEJA led by the grantees themselves.
A key characteristic of the workforce programs is the collaboration, coordination, and communication required of the grantees, and the convenings allowed for physical, in-person interactions to do just that and envision a robust and smooth pipeline for participants. For many, the CEJA table was the first space where in-person discussions were happening specifically for their programs.
Throughout seven convenings over the last nine months, the table has identified common challenges such as:
Navigating a new online platform for the CEJA program reporting
Operationalizing CEJA policies into day-to-day services
Organizations are balancing the workload of CEJA among other grants
Matching organizations’ staffing capacity to meet the demands of implementing their CEJA programs
Barriers to employment and training for participants, such as transportation and job relocation
As the table continued to identify these challenges, collective strategies and approaches were used to address them, such as:
Hosting meetings with the DCEO to share on-the-ground experiences and gain clarity around certain policies
Utilize partner and workflow maps to visualize grantees by CEJA region, enhance collaboration, and outline the step-by-step process for participants from navigators to hubs
Identifying collective challenges and recommendations to the DCEO that would improve overall CEJA programming using the workflow maps and CEJA table discussions
Leveraging resources and knowledge-sharing about clean energy employment opportunities, trainings, and solutions in organizations’ respective CEJA programs
Exploring creative uses of barrier reduction funding for participants to attain employment
The table has kept the topic of employment at the center of each convening and shares in a concerted effort and goal to create a workforce program with strong pipelines to clean energy jobs. Future convenings will continue to be focused on the communication, collaboration, and coordination among grantees to tackle the next phases of implementation and operationalize CEJA.
Illinois sets a precedent for other states to secure an equitable clean energy future, and the standing up of a new state workforce program as robust as CEJA takes time. CEJA offers promising career paths to communities that have long awaited clean energy and workforce investments.
CJC is committed to working with our workforce development partners to ensure that Illinoisans outlined in CEJA’s legislation are at the forefront of the emerging clean energy sector, not further behind.
