News Releases from Region 03

EPA Awards Environmental Job Training Grant in Baltimore

Funding will Create Career Opportunities in Reducing Pollution

PHILADELPHIA (June 8, 2016) –Today, at the graduation ceremony for Civic Work’s Summer 2016 Environmental Training Program, EPA awarded Civic Works its seventh Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training program grant.  Civic Works will use the $200,000 grant to train 72 additional Baltimore residents from communities impacted by pollution, for environmental careers.

“EPA is committed to ensuring that the benefits of brownfields redevelopment go to people that live in those communities,” said EPA Regional Administrator Shawn M. Garvin. “Accomplishing that goal requires educating a workforce in the skill sets needed for the jobs being created, which means working with local partners like Civic Works to recruit, train, and place residents in good paying, green jobs in environmental fields.”

Including today’s announcement, EPA has awarded a total of $1.5 million to Civic Works to invest in the futures of the program’s graduates.  To date, Civic Works has trained 423 graduates with 369 working in full-time environmental jobs.

The graduates earn state and federal certifications for successfully completing work in brownfields assessment and cleanup, waste treatment and stormwater management, lead abatement, chemical safety, and asbestos removal.

For 2016, EPA awarded $3.5 million nationally, with Civic Works being one of the 18 grantees.    Since the program’s beginning in 1998, EPA has awarded 256 grants totaling $54 million.  At this time, more than 14,700 individuals have been trained and more than 10,600 have full-time jobs starting at an average of $14.30 an hour.  This program advances environmental justice by providing opportunities for residents living in areas impacted by contaminated land. 

Information on all of the 2016 environmental workforce development and job training grants:

/newsreleases/epa-awards-18-grants-environmental-workforce-development-and-job-training

For more information on the EWDJT program, please visit:

/brownfields/types-brownfields-grant-funding

See also EPA Assistant Administrator Mathy Stanislaus’ blog about EWDJT at:
https://blog.epa.gov/blog/2016/05/developing-green-job-opportunities-in-brownfields-impacted-communities/

For more information on EPA’s Brownfields Program http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/