Canal Alliance Secures New Funding to Advance Youth Apprenticeship Programming in Green Transit 

August 20, 2025 

Canal Alliance is expanding upon its seven-year partnership with College of Marin (COM) by engaging with Marin Transit and Workforce Alliance of the North Bay (WANB) to develop a Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) to train Latino and immigrant young people living in Marin County as technicians or drivers for diesel and electric busses. The agency has just announced receipt of $317,512 in new funding from the California Department of Industrial Relation’s California Opportunity Youth Apprenticeship (COYA) grant program in support of this new initiative.  

To date, Canal Alliance and College of Marin have developed and provided workforce training programming in the region, training 425 participants for careers in construction, transportation, healthcare, and banking. The most established program, construction, boasts a retention and program certification rate of 81% and shows an average one-year wage increase of over 49% after job placement. More recently, Canal Alliance and College of Marin also teamed up to increase access to English-as-a-Second-Language education for Marin’s Latino immigrant communities and residents of the Canal area of San Rafael. 

“As our partnership with Canal Alliance continues to deepen, so does our ability to deliver on our promise to be the community’s college. We are excited to support the development and success of this program, and of the students who choose to enroll,” said Dr. Jonathan Eldridge, College of Marin’s superintendent and president. 

Now, with Marin Transit embarking on the development of an electric bus operations and maintenance facility in the Canal neighborhood with $31.5M federal grant to support the endeavor, College of Marin, Canal Alliance, and Marin Transit will together develop apprenticeship programming for young people living in the Canal neighborhood. With a fleet of 79 buses and serving 3.1 million passengers each year, Marin Transit’s focus on electrification and green jobs in the coming years will inform curriculum offered to youth apprenticeship enrollees. 

“This partnership has come together at such an important moment for our agency,” said Marin Transit’s general manager Nancy Whelan. “With our commitment to green jobs, and to playing a positive role in the community in which we are located, this collaboration with Canal Alliance and College of Marin makes excellent sense for us.” 

Canal Alliance will lead student recruiting, training, and placement and job support, ensuring strong program retention and success for program enrollees and graduates though wraparound case management, behavioral health, mentoring, family support groups, supportive services, and two-years of follow-up support post job placement. Program graduates will gain 21^st century skills for the clean economy, earn while they learn, and gain access to career-path employment that pays family sustaining wages.     

“At Canal Alliance we are devoted to creating opportunity, and to creating access to living-wage jobs that offer opportunity for advancement. This new partnership will achieve both,” said Air Gallegos, Canal Alliance’s director of economic mobility. 

Bruce Wilson, Executive Director, Workforce Alliance of the North Bay, shared similar thoughts, “This partnership between the Workforce Alliance of the North Bay, Canal Alliance, College of Marin, and Marin Transit demonstrates the power of collaboration to build Registered Apprenticeship Programs that create real career pathways. Together we are opening doors for Marin County’s Latino and immigrant youth to access green transit jobs that provide family-sustaining wages and long-term opportunity.”