PA Region Administrator Al Armendariz announced that EPA is awarding $487,500 in environmental justice, job training and education grants to the Greater New Orleans Area. The projects will recruit and train people for environmental jobs and provide air quality sampling. Regional Administrator Armendariz was joined by Charles Allen, Director of Environmental Affairs for the City of New Orleans, at the press conference where they highlighted the impact the investment will have on the city post Katrina.
“EPA is committed to creating green jobs and reaching out to low-income and minority communities that often bear the brunt of environmental degradation,” said EPA Regional Administrator Al Armendariz. “This grant will help extend and enrich our effort to clean up all communities by adding more sustainable jobs to the Greater New Orleans area - a region Administrator Jackson is personally and professionally dedicated to revitalizing.”
Recipients and Awards:
Louisiana Green Corps: $300,000 environmental job training grant to train low-income residents over a two year period in three environmentally focused tracks: Energy Efficiency and Green Building; Solar and/or Solar Thermal Installation; and Materials Reuse, Deconstruction and Recycling.
Global Green USA: $100,000 Green Jobs Pilot Program grant providing job training for local youth and job placement with local, small construction contractors. With the support of the Department of Energy and the City of New Orleans, Global Green USA's NOLA Wise program stimulates the market for energy efficiency retrofits, providing contractors and apprentices with a steady stream of employment.
Lower Ninth Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development: $32,500 Pollution Control grant in partnership with Nurtured World which provide residents of the Lower Ninth Ward with training on energy efficiency in their community.
Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association: $30,000 Environmental Education grant providing local youth with training to monitor and measure air quality in New Orleans East neighborhood.
The Louisiana Bucket Brigade: $25,000 Environmental Justice grant providing air quality sampling in and around industrial areas of Southeast Louisiana.
Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training grant funds are provided to nonprofit organizations and other eligible entities to recruit, train and place predominantly low-income and minority unemployed and under-employed residents from solid and hazardous waste-impacted communities.
Trainees learn the skills needed to secure full-time, sustainable employment in the environmental field, including a focus on assessment and cleanup activities. These grants help to create green jobs that reduce environmental contamination and promote sustainability in communities throughout the nation.
EPA’s Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training Program helps train people for jobs in the assessment, cleanup and redevelopment of brownfields properties, including abandoned gas stations, old textile mills, closed smelters and other abandoned industrial and commercial properties. These investments target under-served and economically disadvantaged neighborhoods – places where environmental cleanups and new jobs are most needed. EPA awarded its first Job Training Grant through the Brownfields program in 1998.
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