Job Training Grants to Invest in Your Community
Find out how workforce development funding can work for you
Land recycling takes people power. From assessing to cleaning to rebuilding, brownfield projects require a lot of skilled labor. EPA Brownfield Job Training Grants ensure community members benefit from employment opportunities created by brownfield reuse. These grants provide funding to nonprofits, local governments and other eligible organizations to develop curriculum and train local tradespeople in skills relevant to redevelopment.
“EPA’s Brownfields Job Training Program provides technical assistance to help nonprofits, local governments, and other eligible organizations build local workforces to perform assessment, cleanup, or preparation of contaminated sites (including brownfields) for reuse.”
In FY25, EPA awarded 16 Job Training Grants for a total of $7.7 million. Awards are typically up to $500,000 and last up to five years. CCLR anticipates the FY26 application will open in Spring and close early Summer.
What are the benefits of job training grants?
- Locals acquire specialized skills and are competitive in the job market
- Locals are employable on brownfield projects
- Economic benefits stay local and community members benefit from reuse
- With a well developed project team, the job gets done!
What Activities Can Be Funded Under the Brownfields Job Training Program?
“Training programs funded by Brownfields Job Training Grants enable program graduates to obtain skills to secure full-time, sustainable employment in various aspects of hazardous substances, pollutants, contaminants, and petroleum products within the larger environmental field, including sustainable cleanup and reuse, and chemical safety. Training programs prioritize unemployed and under-employed residents of communities impacted by a variety of waste facilities, blighted properties, and contaminated sites.”
“All eligible training must have a direct connection to facilitating the inventory of brownfield sites, site assessments, remediation of brownfield sites, community involvement, or site preparation.”
This could include:
- Brownfield hazardous waste training
- “Green Remediation” technologies
- Green infrastructure and stormwater management
- Emergency planning, preparedness, and response training for emergencies leading to contamination on brownfield sites (including post wildfire cleanup)
- Enhanced environmental health and safety related to site remediation
- Energy efficiency and alternative energy technologies
- Training in assessment, inventory, analysis, and remediation of brownfield sites
- Use of techniques and methods for cleanup of hazardous substances
- Awareness training in Environmental Stewardship and Environmental Justice
- Training in climate change mitigation and adaptation
Review EPA’s complete list of eligible and ineligible job training courses here.
If you’re considering applying for a brownfields job training grant ask yourself these questions:
- Why do you need this funding? What will it specifically fund?
- The most successful applicants have a good understanding of the labor market in their target area and a clear vision on how to meet identified needs/fill gaps.
- Who are you targeting and why?
- Successful applicants clearly define who will benefit from these trainings and prioritize high-need populations such as unemployed or severely underemployed individuals, dislocated workers, formerly incarcerated persons, veterans, individuals with little to no advanced education past high school level, single custodial parents, and Tribal Nations.
- Is your organization ready to take the lead? Or should you play another role?
- Ask yourself if you have the capacity, experience, and systems to manage a federal grant and deliver a workforce development program. Partnering with or forming a coalition with another organization can be an effective way of sharing the responsibility of managing a BJT grant.
- What approvals or buy-in do you need in order to apply and accept funding? What connections do you need to make?
- Developing partnerships with a variety of community stakeholders is key to success in developing and managing a BJT program. Partners often include local community groups and leaders, Workforce Development Boards, academic institutions, and of course employers.
- Who is going to champion your grant application and your program?
- Applying for and managing a BJT grant can be a lot of work. Identifying a core champion is critical to success!
Ready to discuss further? As your Technical Assistance to Brownfields (TAB) provider, CCLR offers free technical assistance to help you through the process. This includes grant application review!
Successful grant examples
FY2025: NYE Communities Coalition, Nevada
Funding Amount: $500,000
From the application: NyECC intends to train 100 participants across its service areas, which include Tribal communities and have unemployment rates ranging from 1.9-3.9%. NyECC plans to “increase the skilled workforce to identify hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants […] clean up the hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants” to reuse brownfield properties and improve public health. Course work includes Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) Certification, CPR/Blood Pathogen/First Aid training, occupational health and safety foundations, and supplemental coursework for trainings such as asbestos abatement, hazardous waste removal, lead paint abatement and workplace violence awareness.
FY2025: Tribal Solid Waste Advisory Network
Funding Amount: $500,000
From EPA’s Fact Sheet: The Tribal Solid Waste Advisory Network “is targeting members of the Tribal Nations of Warm Springs in Oregon and Coeur D’Alene in Idaho, and the Confederated Tribes of Colville and Yakama and the Snoqualmie Tribes in Washington, with a focus on recent high school graduates who may not be college-bound but are seeking careers in technical fields and tribal members with justice-system involvement who are looking for additional skills as they reintegrate into society.” Trainings include HAZWOPER, Chemical Safety Awareness, DOT Hazardous Materials Shipping and RCRA Hazardous Waste Management, Disaster Site and Spill Response Worker, and asbestos abatement.
FY2025: City of Pocatello, Idaho
Funding Amount: $498,750
From EPA’s Fact Sheet: The City of Pocatello plans to train 72 students and place at least 65 in environmental jobs. Trainees will be able to access 40-Hour HAZWOPER, Asbestos Abatement Worker, Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting, and Lead Abatement Worker training. The City is focusing on engaging “populations that suffer from higher poverty rates and much lower median income as compared to the state and national averages.”
FY2025: Iowa Western Community College Green Environmental Training (GET) Certified Program
Funding Amount: $500,000 over 5 years
From the application: “The proposed curriculum will deliver online, and in-person, industry-standard, OSHA-designed and approved coursework to a total of 96 students over twelve (12) training sessions spanning four (4) years, followed by one (1) year of additional tracking, evaluation, and job placement support for program graduates from IWCC. The curriculum includes both environmental job training as well as general job readiness and workforce training.”
FY2024: Kern County Builders Exchange, California
Funding Amount: $200,000
From the application: “The immediate goal of the EWDJT grant, by preparing 60 trainees for careers in environmental remediation of petroleum brownfields through 240 hours of quality education. The long-term goal of using the curriculum developed and delivered by KCBEX as a blueprint for other non-profit vocational education programs to adopt for trainees entering the industry.” Courses include Blueprint reading, confined space entry, welding, excavation, and sampling, monitoring and reporting.
FY2024: Groundwork Ohio River Valley in Cincinnati, Ohio
Funding Amount: $500,000
From EPA’s Press Release: “Groundwork Ohio River Valley will use the funding to train 40 students and place at least 30 in environmental jobs. Students will also participate in a Green Corps practicum, which will give them hands-on training in areas including invasive species, job readiness, financial literacy, environmental justice, and citizen science, and a Green Corps field experience, where trainees will gain real-world experience working with partner organizations on contracted work.”
Resources
- KSU Webinar: Tips on Writing a Competitive EPA Job Training Proposal
- EPA’s Webpage on Brownfield Job Training Grants
- EPA’s List of Eligible and Ineligible Brownfield Job Training Courses
- List of FY2025 Applicants, their funding statuses and amounts requested
- List of FY2024 Applicants, their funding statuses and amounts requested
- EPA FY2025 (last year’s) BJT Request For Application (RFA)
