City of San José

SAN JOSÉ, CA -  Today, San José Mayor Sam Liccardo was joined by council colleagues and community partners to announce the proposal to create a new Resilience Corps.  High pandemic-induced unemployment rates disproportionately afflict high-poverty neighborhoods. The Resilience Corps will create more than 400 jobs primarily––but not exclusively––for young adults focusing on five critical tasks of community resilience: pandemic response, environmental resilience, overcoming the learning loss of struggling students, economic recovery, and disaster preparedness.  

“Among the many crises wrought by the events of the last year, an entire generation of young adults have grappled with dimming life prospects under the crushing weight of poverty and extended unemployment, at a rate double that of the rest of our workforce,” said Mayor Sam Liccardo. “These same young people have the energy and talent to help us tackle many of our greatest challenges--from the pandemic to climate change to widening gaps in educational and economic outcomes.  In the Resilience Corps, need meets opportunity.”    

The Resilience Corps seeks to support unemployed and underemployed young adults through living-wage employment and work experience opportunities. San Jose has many potential jobs doing critically important work to create a more climate-smart and resilient future for our city; allowing these youth to get paychecks into pockets while hugely benefitting our community at large. 

The Resilience Corps builds on San Jose’s role as a pilot city for Governor Newsom’s Climate Action Corps, working through a network of non-profits and city departments that can put primarily––but not exclusively––young adults to work immediately––at tasks requiring only modest training––to bolster the community’s resilience to two of our most urgent crises, climate change, and the pandemic. Members of the Resilience Corps would receive a living wage with health insurance, with employment-focused on San Jose residents living in high-poverty census tracts, regardless of immigration status or citizenship.

Mayor Liccardo also led a bipartisan coalition of nearly two dozen mayors from across the country to advocate for federal and state funding for Resilience Corps in every city.  San Jose will be the first city nationally to launch, and the coalitions of mayors urge that federal support will enable others to follow.   

At the local level, extensive input was collected from community organizations across a variety of sectors about potential employment opportunities through Resilience Corps, such as: Save the Bay, Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority, Guadalupe River Park Conservancy, Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful, Hunger At Home, Mexican Heritage Plaza, Gardner Health, Innovate Public Schools, and San Jose Conservation Corps. Speakers at today’s press conference included community partners Jessica Paz-Cedillos, Executive Director of the School of Arts and Culture at MHP, Reymundo Espinoza, CEO of Gardner Health, Patricia Medina, San Jose Parent, Innovate Public Schools, as well as Vice Mayor Chappie Jones (D-1), and Councilmembers Magdalena Carrasco (D-5), Matt Mahan (D-10). 

The Budget Message proposal will be considered by the City Council on March 16, 2021. Funding will include a FEMA 100% reimbursement for pandemic-related jobs, additionally,  it will utilize up to $20 million in federal relief dollars to create more than 400 job placements with community partners.

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