Fortune Society Will Provide Green Job Training Through EPA Brownfields Grant (NY)
(New York, N.Y.) The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency has awarded the Fortune Society of New York a
$300,000 workforce development and job training grant to help fund
the organization’s program to recruit, train and place
formerly incarcerated people in green jobs assessing and cleaning
up brownfields and other contaminated sites. Brownfields are
properties at which moderate contamination can interfere with
redevelopment. EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck joined
Fortune’s President JoAnne Paige to announce the grant and
tour Fortune’s training facility in Long Island City. Former
students demonstrated the jobs skills acquired through a similar
job training program.
“EPA’s green jobs program is helping
people acquire in-demand job skills,” said Regional
Administrator A. Enck. “In addition to creating a better
trained green workforce, this grant will help create cleaner,
healthier communities. The training that the Fortune Society is
providing will lead to living wage jobs and a better
environment.”
The Fortune Society will train 60 formerly
incarcerated people, place at least 42 graduates in environmental
jobs, and track graduates for one year. The training program will
consist of three 280-hour, eight-week training cycles, and will
include courses in leaking underground storage tank prevention,
innovative treatment technology, and EPA’s lead renovation,
repair, and painting rule. The Fortune Society will work with
private companies and local government agencies to place graduates
in environmental jobs.
The Fortune Society is a nonprofit social
service and advocacy organization, founded in 1967, whose mission
is to support successful reentry from prison and promote
alternatives to incarceration. Fortune serves approximately 3,000
men and women annually via three primary New York City-area
locations: a service center in Long Island City, and both the
Fortune Academy (a.k.a. “the Castle”) and Castle
Gardens in West Harlem. The organization’s program models are
frequently recognized, both nationally and internationally, for
their quality and innovation.
The Small Business Liability Relief and
Brownfields Revitalization Act was passed in 2002, establishing a
Brownfields Program that provides funding for brownfields
assessments, cleanups, revolving loans and green job training. The
program encourages redevelopment of America’s estimated
450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites and promotes job
creation.
Additional information on EPA Region 2
Brownfields activities is available at https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/epa-region-2
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