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EPA Develops Workforce in Camden, Arkansas

Release Date: 05/12/2014
Contact Information: Jennah Durant or Joe Hubbard at [email protected] or 214 665-2200

DALLAS – (May 12, 2014) Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) selected the City of Camden, Ark. for an Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training (EWDJT) grant of $200,000. The grant will support local work to recruit, train, and place individuals in jobs that address environmental challenges in the Camden area. The grant is part of $3.6 million awarded to 17 other grantees across the U.S.

“Green jobs are fundamental to making our cities more sustainable,” said EPA Regional Administrator Ron Curry. “Investing in training enables residents who live near many of these sites to develop skills and secure jobs in their community."

The city plans to train 45 students and place 36 graduates in environmental jobs. The city is targeting unemployed and underemployed residents of Camden and surrounding counties in southern Arkansas. Key partners include the Arkansas Workforce Center, Southwest Arkansas Workforce Investment Board, Southwest Arkansas Planning and Development, SAU Tech/Arkansas Environmental Academy, Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, Camden Port Authority, and a number of community-based organizations and environmental employers.

EPA’s Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training program, which provides environmental and health and safety training, helps graduates develop a broader set of skills that improves their ability to secure short-term work, as well as full-time employment, in the environmental field. Program graduates acquire training and certifications in a variety of areas, such as environmental health and safety, lead and asbestos abatement, landfill management, wastewater treatment, brownfields assessment and cleanup, Superfund cleanup, leaking underground storage tank removal, recycling and emergency response.

Since the EWDJT program’s inception in 1998, EPA has funded 239 job training grants totaling more than $50 million. More than 12,800 individuals have completed training, and of those, more than 9,100 have secured employment in the environmental field.

More information on environmental workforce development and job training grants: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/pilot_grants.htm

More information on EPA’s brownfields Program https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/

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