EPA Deputy Administrator Tours RecycleForce in Indianapolis to Highlight Brownfields Job Training Grant
CHICAGO (Feb. 11, 2022) – Today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe toured RecycleForce in Indianapolis joined by Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett and Indiana Finance Authority Director of Environmental Programs Jim McGoff to highlight EPA’s Brownfields job training grants, which offer residents of overburdened communities an opportunity to gain the skills and certifications needed to secure environmental work in their communities.
“Organizations like RecycleForce provide an opportunity for the community, for the environment, and the economy,” said EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe. “EPA’s job training grants help these organizations to improve people’s lives and their communities. These are exactly the kinds of benefits that President Biden’s efforts to build a better America will provide to communities across the country, including right here in Indianapolis.”
“This EPA funding helps empower a critical community partner like RecycleForce to extend opportunities to residents seeking better skills and a better path,” said Mayor Joe Hogsett. “Combining the benefits of effective re-entry with improving the environment represents a true win-win for Indianapolis.”
"RecycleForce is truly a force for good in our community, and I'm honored to have supported this great organization in the past, and at this exciting time when Congress has approved new resources to strengthen and expand its critical work,” said Rep. André Carson. “Gregg Keesling and the staff here are incredibly deserving of this EPA grant, which will help create good jobs and a new start for many Hoosiers, as well as clean up our environment. I also commend Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe, a fellow Hoosier, for visiting Indianapolis to celebrate this progress. Under her leadership, the EPA has truly lived up to its mission to be a good steward of our environment and to serve Americans of all backgrounds. It's clear the agency's efforts have been greatly strengthened by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which I was honored to vote for in Congress. Let's keep up this amazing momentum."
“These job training grants make it possible for companies like RecycleForce to invest in our communities while improving our environment,” said IDEM Commissioner Brian Rockensuess. “Not only is RecycleForce making Indiana’s economy stronger, they are helping Hoosiers get back on their feet through environmental jobs.”
“Finding ways to advance restorative justice activities is a big part of the RecycleForce model,” said RecycleForce President Gregg Keesling. “For many who we serve coming home from a past mistake – there is no better way to make amends than helping restore their communities. The EPA grant allows us to provide HAZWOPER 40 training so those we serve have a competitive chance to not only make right their own personal journeys – but to also help mitigate our society’s past environmental mistakes.”
EPA recently selected Workforce, Inc., doing business as RecycleForce, for a $200,000 Brownfields Job Training grant. RecycleForce is a nonprofit organization committed to reducing crime through employment and job training, while improving the environment through electronics recycling. RecycleForce plans to graduate 38 people and place at least 29 of them in environmental jobs with this grant. The training program includes over 300 hours of instruction in handling hazardous waste, personal protective equipment, basic first aid and more. RecycleForce targets unemployed people experiencing homelessness or people with current or recent criminal justice involvement for its job training program. EPA has provided RecycleForce with $400,000 of similar grants previously. Historically, more than 80 percent of the people RecycleForce trains secure employment within the first quarter of graduating the program.
Funded through EPA’s Brownfields Job Training Program, grants like the one going to RecycleForce 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. Individuals completing a job training program funded by EPA often overcome a variety of barriers to employment. Many of these individuals are from historically underserved neighborhoods and reside in the areas affected by environmental justice issues.
Nationwide, EPA selected 19 organizations this year to receive a total of $3,797,102 in grants for job training programs across the country. Job training and workforce development are an important part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to advance economic opportunities and deliver environmental justice to underserved communities to build a better America.
President Biden’s leadership and bipartisan congressional action have delivered the single-largest investment in national brownfields infrastructure ever. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) invests more than $1.5 billion through EPA’s brownfields program. Of that investment, $30 million will be invested into future Brownfields Job Training grants. During the next five years, communities, states, and tribes will have the opportunity to apply for larger grants to include and enhance the environmental curriculum in existing job training programs.
For more information on the selected Brownfields Job Training grant recipients, including past grantees, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/applicants-selected-fy22-brownfields-job-training-grants
For more information on this, and other types of Brownfields grants, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/brownfields-job-training-jt-grants
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