[StBernard] Governor Blanco marks Hurricane Rita anniversary, focusing on training Louisiana's workforce to meet

[Westley Annis]

Governor Blanco marks Hurricane Rita anniversary, focusing on training Louisiana's workforce to meet recovery needs 

WESTLAKE AND NEW IBERIA - Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco today joined members of the Louisiana Recovery Authority and the Louisiana Workforce Commission to mark the second anniversary of Hurricane Rita by launching programs in Calcasieu and Iberia Parishes aimed at boosting hurricane recovery by training Louisiana's workforce. 

Gov. Blanco, the LRA and LWC first visited the Sasol North America's Lake Charles Chemical Plant, where they launched the Louisiana Oil and Gas Industry Alliance (LOGIC) Workforce Training Project, a program aimed at recruiting, assessing, and training workers for jobs in Louisiana's oil and gas industry.

"This is the wisest type of investment, because we're investing in people," Gov. Blanco said. "In this instance, we're preparing workers for the oil and gas industry, which is particularly important in Southwest Louisiana, considering the high concentration of petrochemical and natural gas facilities here."

LOGIC Workforce Training Project, funded through a $1.5 million grant to Acadiana Regional Development District and southwest Louisiana Alliance partners, is one of several programs operating to address worker shortages in key recovery areas. The $38 million Recovery Workforce Training Program (RWTP), developed by the LRA in cooperation with the Office of Community Development and implemented through the Louisiana workforce Commission, is designed to address the need for trained workers and to support recovery and rebuilding in the areas impacted by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, as well as the long-term recovery of the state's overall economy. Funded by federal Community Development Block Grants, the RWTP program is funding training in the oil and gas, healthcare, construction, advanced manufacturing, cultural economy and transportation sectors. 

The Governor visited the site of another such project, a construction workforce training program building cottages for homeowners displaced by Hurricane Rita. Future workers in the construction field raised the walls of a cottage for a Delcambre resident affected by Hurricane Rita, using skills they are learning through RWTP. 

"After enduring the third most expensive hurricane in this nation's history, southwest Louisiana now faces its own rebuilding challenges in replacing lost homes and damaged infrastructure. It is crucial to our state's future that we have skilled workers ready to meet these challenges head on," Gov. Blanco said Monday afternoon at the Teche Area Campus of the Louisiana Technical College in New Iberia. "In Louisiana we have been blessed with so many examples of non-profit and faith-based groups finding innovative ways to help those affected by this storm and this home is an example of that spirit that is thriving across the state." 

As part of this training program, students learning carpentry, air conditioning, electrical and plumbing skills will build hurricane Cottages for residents affected by Hurricane Rita at the Teche Area Campus of the Louisiana Technical College before delivering them to residents in need. The cottages are supplied through a grant from the Community Foundation of Acadiana to the Louisiana Technical College Greater Acadiana Region Foundation, which administers the workforce training program, and the Catholic Diocese of Lafayette, which assists residents in Vermilion, St. Mary and Iberia parishes. They are not part of the state's $74 million Louisiana Cottages program.

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The Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation
Louisiana's Fund for Louisiana's People