The job, Perez said, "makes me feel like I'm part of something and I'm improving myself every day." Perez could be the poster child of a movement started in the East Bay and then advocated in presidential campaign speeches and tucked into federal energy legislation: Train at-risk youths and people stuck in low-end jobs or joblessness to work in the millions of manual labor "green economy" jobs that are emerging as this country tries to reduce global warming.

"We call it green pathways out of poverty — connect the people who most need the work with the work that most needs to be done," said Van Jones, the Oakland social justice worker who started the Oakland Green Jobs Corps as well as the national Green for All campaign gaining cross-country attention.

The aim is to offer these training programs in the inner city and in forgotten rural and once-industrial towns where idleness and crime have replaced factory work.