$500,000.00
EPA has selected the Cypress Mandela Training Center for a Brownfields Job Training Grant. The Cypress Mandela Training Center plans to train 180 students and place 160 in environmental jobs. The training program includes 218 hours of instructional training, as detailed in the chart below. Students who complete the training will earn up to six state and four federal certifications. The Cypress Mandela Training Center is targeting unemployed, underemployed, low-income, minority residents of communities impacted by waste facilities, blighted properties, and contaminated sites within the cities of Oakland and Alameda County, California. Key partners include Eagle Environmental and Construction, Pacific Gas & Electric Company, McGuire & Hester, Swinerton Builders, and NAMC.
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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.