EPA job training grants, Racine group gets $200K
North Beach in Racine, Lake Michigan
MILWAUKEE - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday announced the selection of a Wisconsin organization to receive a $200,000 grant for job training programs.
Great Lakes Community Conservation Corps, based in Racine, is one of 19 organizations nationwide to receive a grant, the awards totaling more than $3.7 million.
Job training and workforce development are part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to advance economic opportunities while delivering environmental justice to underserved communities, an EPA news release said.
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"(This) presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a better America and that means new, good-paying jobs," said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. "This program will directly impact people’s lives, boosting the environmental workforce while helping to transform communities that need it the most."
Funded through the EPA's Brownfields Job Training Program, the grants provide funding to organizations that are working to create a skilled workforce in communities where assessment, cleanup and preparation of brownfield sites for reuse activities are taking place.
Grant recipients were also located in Chicago as well as in Alaska, California, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Rather than filling local jobs with contractors from distant cities, the organizations that received grants provide training and 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.
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