EPA Announces Federal Grant for Memphis Bioworks and City of Memphis for Green Jobs

MEMPHIS, TN, July 14, 2011 – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced the awarding of more than $6.2 million in national environmental workforce development and job training grants to 21 grantees to recruit, train, and place unemployed, predominantly low-income residents in polluted areas.

The award to Memphis Bioworks Foundation is for the two-year Wolf River Brownfields Job Training Program. It will serve unemployed residents in inner city neighborhoods in the sector of the City of Memphis generally known as North Memphis, an area corresponding closely to the boundaries for ZIP codes 38108, 38107 and 38103, and part of a larger area that is the focus of the 2010 EPA Assessment Grant of $400,000 awarded to Shelby County Government in 2010. This assessment area has more than 350 brownfields according to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC). The population of the target area is approximately 52,000 with 75 percent minority representation. All target zip codes have significantly lower median incomes and a higher level of poverty relative to Shelby County, the state of Tennessee and the nation.

“These job training grants are not just helping to create good jobs, they’re helping create good, green jobs that protect the health of local families and residents and prepare communities for continued economic growth. We’re looking to the people and community organizations who know these areas best to find the places where green jobs and environmental protection are going to do the most good,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “Creating good green jobs proves that we don’t have to choose between cleaning up our air and our water or creating jobs in our communities. We’re showing that it’s possible to do both at the same time.”

“The Memphis Bioworks Foundation is a great institution that helps Memphis create green jobs and grow our economy through bioscience technology,” said Congressman Steve Cohen. “The EPA Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training Program, which I have been proud to strongly support, is a vital resource that has helped countless communities over the years, including Memphis. These new federal funds will give out of work Memphians the training and resources they need to better prepare them to secure quality green jobs that help our environment.”

Approximately 200 individuals will be recruited and assessed with an estimated 120 subsequently enrolled into various environmental training programs. The project will provide job training to all trainees in four core areas: 40-hour Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPPER); Underground Storage Tank Leak Prevention awareness training; Solid Waste Management/Cleanup related awareness training;; and innovative and alternative treatment technologies awareness-related training. Additional technical training and certifications will be provided in two optional areas of Construction / Healthy Homes, or Hazardous Materials Transport / Movers.

“The receipt of this grant is another example of the collaborative work being done throughout our community to prepare our workforce and create new jobs in the Clean Economy,” said Dr. Steve Bares, executive director of the Memphis Bioworks Foundation. “Resources like this and like the Energy Training Partnership Grant under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Green Jobs Training Program received in 2010 are allowing us to invest in real and meaningful job training, curriculum development and infrastructure that benefits the local workforce and establishes stronger employment opportunity.”

The project includes the cooperation of a variety of community, government and businesses entities in Shelby County. Community–based organization aligned with this project include multiple agencies that serve the North Memphis neighborhoods and have collaborated in brownfields projects including VECA Community Development Corporation, Douglass Bungalow Crump CDC, New Chicago CDC, North Memphis CDC, the YWCA, and the Memphis Leadership Foundation. The City of Memphis is providing support through its Division of Housing and Community Development, Workforce Investment Network, Division of Public Works, Division of Park Services, and Operation Second Chance along with the Memphis office of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. Key employers supporting the project include EnSafe, TetraTech, FCR Tennessee Inc., and Cargill.
“This is very good news for our community, and on behalf of the City of Memphis I want to thank the EPA for recognizing us as one of only 21 proposals from throughout the country to receive funding support,” said Robert Lipscomb, director of Housing and Community Development for the City of Memphis. “The partnership for this initiative between the City of Memphis and Memphis Bioworks Foundation, along with many other groups in our community, represents a wide variety of organizations dedicated to improving the quality of life through job opportunities for our citizens and improving the environment.”

Since 1998, EPA has awarded more than $35 million under the Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training Program. As of May 2011, more than 6,683 individuals have been trained through the program, and more than 4,400 have been placed in full-time employment in the environmental field with an average starting hourly wage of $14.65. The development of this green workforce will allow the trainees to develop skills that will make them competitive in the construction and redevelopment fields.

The agency’s Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training Program helps provide unemployed individuals with the necessary skills to secure full time, sustainable jobs that help to clean up toxic chemicals in communities, advance the country’s clean energy projects and support environmental initiatives. Trainees include hard-to-place residents that live in the disadvantaged communities that will benefit the most through these projects.

Twenty-one governmental entities and non-profit organizations in 20 states are receiving up to $300,000 each to train individuals in the cleanup of contaminated sites and in health and safety, while also providing training in other environmental skills, such as recycling center operator training, green building design, energy efficiency, weatherization, solar installation, construction and demolition debris recycling, emergency response, and native plant revegetation.

Memphis Bioworks Foundation will be the administrative entity and provide oversight for the Wolf River Brownfields Jobs Training Program for Memphis. The Memphis program will receive $292,772 from the EPA. A list of all recipients can be found at https://epa.gov/brownfields/grant_announce/fy11ewdjtgrantees.pdf.

More information on environmental workforce development and job training grants can be found at https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/job.htm.