News Releases from Region 03

EPA awards Civic Works $200,000 grant to support more environmental job training in Baltimore

Contact:  r3press@epa.gov

EPA awards Civic Works $200,000 grant

 to support more environmental job training in Baltimore

BALTIMORE (Oct. 24, 2019) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded a $200,000 Brownfields grant to the non-profit organization Civic Works in Baltimore.  It is
one of 26 organizations nationwide to receive a total of $5.1 million in grants for environmental job training programs.  Funded through the agency’s successful Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training Program, these grants help to create a skilled workforce in communities where EPA brownfields assessment and cleanup activities are taking place.

“EPA is proud to support Civic Works’ environmental job training program to recruit, train and place its graduates – formerly unemployed or underemployed - in full time jobs in Baltimore with good wages,” said Peter Wright, EPA Assistant Administrator for Land and Emergency Management. “Civic Works has a track record of success and has structured its Center for Sustainable Careers’ Brownfields training program to build their graduates’ employability to the highest level possible.”

EPA has previously awarded eight brownfields grants to Civic Works for a total of $1.7 million. Since 2001, with that support, Civic Works has placed 850 Job Training Program participants with employment in the environmental field.  With its ninth Job Training Grant, Civic Works plans to place at least 61 of 80 participants in environmental jobs.  In addition, Civic Works is still actively conducting job training under a previously awarded grant.

Civic Works has other community programs such as “Safe and Affordable Homes” which helps households with energy improvements, repairs, and weatherization while helping secure jobs for their Sustainable Careers program graduates. They also have Real Food Farm, improving food access in Northeast Baltimore and providing urban farming education.

Since EPA’s Job Training Program began in 1998, more than 288 grants have been awarded. More than 18,000 individuals have completed training, and of those, more than 13,679 individuals have been placed in full-time employment earning an average starting wage of over $14 an hour. Rather than filling local jobs with contractors from distant cities, EPA created its environmental job training program to offer residents of communities historically affected by environmental pollution, economic disinvestment, and brownfields an opportunity to gain the skills and certifications needed to secure local environmental work in their communities. 

All 26 selected programs awarded today plan to serve communities with census tracts designated as federal Opportunity Zones – an economically-distressed community where new investments, under certain conditions, may be eligible for preferential tax treatment.

For more information on all 26 job training grantees awarded today, please visit:

https://cfpub.epa.gov/bf_factsheets/index.cfm?grant_type_id=1003&grant_announcement_year=2018

Background 

EPA’s Job Training Program awards competitive grants to nonprofit organizations and other eligible entities to recruit, train, and place unemployed and underemployed individuals. Individuals completing these training programs have often overcome a variety of barriers to employment. Many are from low-income neighborhoods. The training programs also serves minorities, tribal members, transitioning veterans, dislocated workers who have lost their jobs as a result of manufacturing plant closures, and other individuals who may face barriers to employment.

For more information on this, and other types of Brownfields grants, please visit: https://19january2021snapshot.epa.gov/brownfields/types-brownfields-grant-funding