$500,000.00
EPA has selected the PathStone Corporation for a Brownfields Job Training Grant. The PathStone Corporation plans to train 110 students and place 80 in environmental jobs. The training program includes 617 hours of instructional training, as detailed in the chart below. Students who complete the training will earn up to 13 state and three federal certifications. The PathStone Corporation is targeting unemployed and underemployed low income, high need individuals including veterans, dislocated workers, and justice-involved persons, from Barceloneta, Manati, Vega Baja, Vega Alta, Toa Alta, and Naranjito. Key partners include Centro para la Reconstruccion de Habitat, Office of Federal Programs for the Municipality of Naranjito, Conexion Laboral Bayamon-Comerio, RH Media and Consulting Group, Igleisa Metodista San Juan Apostol II, Technical Demolition & Recycling Services of PR Inc., Central Industrial Services, LLC, and Vanguard Caribe, Inc.
| Certificates & Technical Curriculum Supported by EPA |
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| Other Curriculum |
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EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, Tribal Nations, 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, Tribal Nations, 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 Brownfields Job Training Grants. Additionally, funding support is provided to state and tribal response programs through a separate mechanism.
Brownfields Job Training Grant funds are provided to nonprofit organizations and other eligible entities to recruit and train unemployed and underemployed residents from communities affected by environmental pollution, economic disinvestment, and brownfields and place them in environmental jobs. Since the program was created in 1998, EPA has awarded 456 job training grants totaling over $119.8 million through Brownfield Job Training Programs. To date, excluding pilot program years, approximately 22,400 individuals completed training, and over 16,600 individuals have been placed in careers related to land remediation and environmental health and safety. This equates to a cumulative placement rate of 74 percent. The average starting wage for these jobs over the last five years is approximately $23 an hour.