EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield site is real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. The Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act of 2002, as amended by the Brownfields Utilization, Investment and Local Development Act of 2018, was passed to help states and communities around the country clean up and revitalize brownfield sites. Under this law, EPA provides financial assistance to eligible applicants through five competitive grant programs: Multipurpose Grants, Assessment Grants, Revolving Loan Fund Grants, Cleanup Grants, and Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training Grants. Additionally, funding support is provided to state and tribal response programs through a separate mechanism.
Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training Grant funds are provided to nonprofit organizations and other eligible entities to recruit and train unemployed and underemployed residents from solid and hazardous waste-impacted communities and place them in environmental jobs. To date, EPA has funded 305 job training grants totaling over $63 million through the Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training program. As of October 2019, more than 18,300 individuals have completed training, and of those, almost 13,700 have obtained employment in the environmental field, an average starting wage of over $14 an hour. This equates to a cumulative placement rate of approximately 75% since the program was created in 1998.
$200,000.00
EPA has selected Civic Works Inc. for an Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training grant. Civic Works plans to train 80 students and place at least 61 graduates in environmental jobs. The core training program includes 146 hours of instruction in 40-hour HAZWOPER, introduction to ecology and brownfields, stormwater management, environmental site assessment, EPA AHERA supervisor, lead abatement worker, OSHA hazardous site worker protection and emergency response, OSHA confined space operations, OSHA bloodborne pathogens, fall protection, and basic first aid and adult CPR. Civic Works has long-standing recruitment relationships with Baltimore organizations serving the target population, and each training session will close with a career fair for program graduates. Participants who complete the training will earn one state and six federal certifications. Civic Works is targeting unemployed and underemployed residents of the City of Baltimore with substantial barriers to employment. Key partners include A&I Inc., Adisa Enterprises LLC, the Baltimore Development Corporation, the Baltimore Office of Sustainability, Lifeline Environmental LLC, the Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service, Matos Builders, the City of Baltimore Mayor's Office of Employment Development, Professional Restorations, and Urban Green Environmental LLC.