LACI Launches Resilient Rebuilding Training Course to Build Local Workforce Capacity and Support Fire-Impacted Communities in LA During Recovery from Palisades and Eaton Fires

Course to Reinforce LACI’s Startup-Focused Resilient Rebuilding Initiatives, which Aim to Uplift Game-Changing Startups as they Develop and Deploy Solutions to Help LA Communities Recover

Los Angeles, February 3, 2026 – The Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) is pleased to announce the launch of a new cohort in its Green Jobs Workforce Development Program specifically focused on resilient rebuilding and climate-resilient construction. The Resilient Rebuilding Training Course, which formally kicked off with a Career Exploration Day on January  23, will provide technical training focused on rebuilding energy-efficient homes and buildings, and supporting disaster-resilient infrastructure. 

The free eight-week course will help train 30 workforce participants from across the Greater Los Angeles region, including those personally affected by the Palisades and Eaton fires of January 2025. The course offers technical training, industry-recognized certifications, career coaching, and case management. As with other cohorts, LACI will place course graduates in paid internships with employers. In this cohort, the goal will be for interns to work with startups as well as builders, contractors, and other related firms. 

The launch of the Resilient Rebuilding Training Course marks LACI’s latest initiative to help communities stronger and more sustainably from the Palisades and Eaton fires. LACI’s additional resilient rebuilding efforts include: 

• A new resilient-rebuilding themed startup Incubation cohort, launched in November 2025. The new cohort includes 13 new portfolio companies that have been carefully selected for their unique solutions to support communities across the entire resilience spectrum, from disaster response and near-term rebuilding to long-term risk reduction and preparedness. LACI will work to help these startups deploy and pilot their solutions to reduce energy costs, increase affordability, and accelerate rebuilding. 
• The LA Resilient Rebuilding Cup (the Cup), an innovation competition that brought together innovators from across the country to galvanize entrepreneurs to create solutions to the difficult challenges faced by communities, businesses, and governments in the wake of the Palisades and Eaton fires. Launched 100 days after the Palisades and Eaton fires broke out, the Cup culminated with a startup pitch competition in July 2025. More than 120 startups participated, with innovations ranging from energy infrastructure solutions to permitting and construction innovation, to resilient home-building solutions, and more.

“The new Resilient Resilient Training Course will train and equip Angelenos–many of them who have been impacted by the fires themselves–to help be part of the rebuilding effort that is now underway in the Palisades and Altadena,” said Estelle Reyes, LACI Senior Vice President of Enhancing Community. “I am grateful to our workforce team and community partners for their diligence in reshaping our highly effective Green Jobs Workforce Development Program to meet the urgent rebuilding needs facing our communities.” 

The Resilient Rebuilding Training Course marks the latest course in LACI’s Green Jobs Workforce Development Program, which has trained more than 600 workforce participants from across the Greater Los Angeles region. 

“LACI was the program that I needed to shift my career. The team was supportive and I met other like minded people who care about sustainability,” said Hana Zoe Weinstein, a previous LACI Fellow and now Operations Associate at Green Water & Power. “I have launched a whole new career, first at a homebuilder and now at a renewable energy services infrastructure company, and the LACI team provided the support along with the technical skills to do so!”

In developing the Resilient Rebuilding Training Course, LACI staff members held more than 40 discovery conversations and focus groups with community partners, state and county agencies, funders, and technical experts. Key takeaways from these discussions and more information on the methodology informing the course will be made available in the forthcoming Resilient Rebuilding Workforce White Paper in February 2026. 

ABOUT LACI:
The Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) is unlocking innovation by scaling cleantech startups, transforming markets through catalytic partnerships with policymakers, innovators, and market leaders, and enhancing communities through workforce training, pilots and other programs. Founded as an economic development initiative by the City of Los Angeles and its Department of Water & Power (LADWP) in 2011, LACI has helped 506 portfolio companies raise over $1 billion in funding, generated $344 million in revenue, and created 2,626 jobs throughout the Los Angeles region, with a long term economic impact of more than $733 million.

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