Community Offshore Wind prepared Long Island students and teachers to start the school year by partnering with The Long Beach Martin Luther King Center and Island Park Public Schools to donate 300 school supply kits. Kits included a variety of back-to-school essentials, such as backpacks, notebooks, pencils, and binders. Community Offshore Wind worked with teachers at each school to identify their students’ and classrooms’ specific needs.

These donations were part of Community Offshore Wind’s broader back-to-school donation program, which also provided 300 school supply kits to students in Brooklyn and 400 to students in New Jersey. In total, the initiative provided 1,000 kits to schools in disadvantaged communities across the region.  

This donation is the latest effort by Community Offshore Wind to support schools and programs that increase access to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, and training programs that provide students from underrepresented communities with the knowledge and skills they will need for jobs in the offshore wind industry. The joint venture partnered with the Cradle of Aviation Museum to host a KidWind competition, inviting local students to attempt to design and build miniature wind turbines. They’ve also partnered multiple times with the Martin Luther King Center to support local STEM education, most recently funding field trips to get students out on the water to fish and learn about marine sciences.

“The clean energy transition is going to bring tens of thousands of good jobs to New York, including many in the offshore wind industry. The students who are in school now are going to be the workers building our clean energy future in the years to come,” said Doug Perkins, President and Project Director of Community Offshore Wind. “Community Offshore Wind is making sure New York students are ready by investing in programs that will spark a love of science and engineering. We’re committed to building strong, local partnerships that will continue to make a positive difference in the lives of New Yorkers and prepare them to pursue good-paying careers in offshore wind.”“When students are in school, they should be thinking about their homework, extracurriculars, and friends, not how they’re going to get the notebooks and pencils they need to do their work,” said Dr. Bruce Hoffman, Principal Lincoln Orens Middle School. “This generous donation from Community Offshore Wind will give our students and teachers the supplies they need so they can focus on learning the lessons that will set them up for long-term success.”

The offshore wind industry in New York is expected to create more than 10,000 jobs across the state, but there is currently a shortage of workers with the skills necessary to qualify for those positions. A recent NYSERDA report found that training individuals from disadvantaged communities will be crucial to filling these gaps in the offshore wind workforce while improving social equity. found that training individuals from disadvantaged communities will be crucial to filling these gaps in the offshore wind workforce while improving social equity.

Community Offshore Wind’s STEM education programs are addressing this skills gap by sparking a love of science among students from underrepresented communities and equipping them with the knowledge and skills they will need to succeed in offshore wind and other STEM-related jobs.

Since its launch in 2022, Community Offshore Wind has been an active and engaged neighbor to New York communities. The project has funded field trips for more than 140 New York students to local museums, donated 900 coats to families in need during the winter months, and provided 30,000 fresh seafood meals to food banks throughout the state.