Background
The approximately $12 million in funding available during this grant cycle comes from the $1.5 billion investment from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. As a result of this historic funding, the fiscal year 2023 Brownfields Job Training Grant competition resulted in more than triple the funding compared to fiscal year 2022. This budget boost provides communities, states, and Tribes the opportunity to apply for larger grants to build and enhance the environmental curriculum in job training programs to support job creation and community revitalization at brownfield sites.
The EPA’s Brownfields Job Training (JT) grant program is a unique employment and training program. The grants allow nonprofit and other eligible organizations to recruit, train, and retain a local, skilled workforce by prioritizing unemployed and under-employed, including low-income individuals living in areas impacted by solid and hazardous waste in environmental jobs. Students learn the skills and credentials needed to secure full-time, sustainable employment in the environmental field, including brownfields assessment and cleanup. These jobs reduce environmental contamination and build more sustainable futures for communities. Communities have the flexibility to deliver eligible training that meets the local labor market demands of the environmental sector in their communities.
Since 1998, EPA has awarded 400 job training grants. With these grants, more than 20,600 individuals have completed training and over 15,300 individuals have been placed in careers related to land remediation and environmental health and safety. |