ITHACA, N.Y. –– Finger Lakes ReUse celebrated the opening of its ReUse Caboose and Training Center earlier this month during a ribbon-cutting ceremony with officials from the City of Ithaca and the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce.
The dedication, which took place Wednesday, Dec. 16 at the new location (700 W. Buffalo Street in GreenStar’s former “The Space”) kicked off the pilot program that ReUse is using the Caboose for –– a new Warehouse and Training Center offering combined virtual and hands-on instruction for job skills training, in partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension and led by Dr. Aloja Airewele.
With this Training Center, and the partnership with CCE’s Energy Warriors program and Dr. Airewele, ReUse is looking to provide skills and career pathways for green energy employment on top of the experience employees gain in retail.
“Cooperative Extension is excited to be working with Finger Lakes ReUse on our new partnership effort in green jobs training. Diane Cohen and her team at Finger Lakes ReUse are an inspiring and exciting example of how creativity, hard work and perseverance can literally turn one person’s waste into another person’s treasure and, through the process, generate a huge amount of public good,” said Kenneth Schlather, executive director of CCE.
Employment and training experiences at ReUse locations, now including the pilot ReUse Warehouse and Training Center, have been geared toward creating customized, supportive spaces since ReUse’s “ReSet” training program was established in March 2013 –– a program that helps unemployed people, folks with disabilities and community members with criminal records get the training needed to obtain jobs in the community.
“Reuse and material management have powerful mitigating impacts on climate change, from avoided extraction, transport and production, to extending the embodied energy in the life-cycle of any given product,” Finger Lakes ReUse Executive Director Diane Cohen said. “But locally the opportunities for skill-building, gaining confidence, and engaging meaningfully with purpose through reuse can offer self-empowered transformation and healing.”
The Caboose’s curriculum adds to ReUse’s current ReSET Job Training program modules such as “Raising Your Personal Value” and “Mental Toughness Bootcamp.”
The ReUse Caboose is open everyday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., again at 700 W. Buffalo Street in Greenstar’s former “The Space.”