Job Training for Redevelopment

The City of Winston-Salem, North Carolina received EPA brownfields job training funds, administered by the Northwest Piedmont Council of Governments (COG). The COG manages the marketing and recruitment for the class, including registering participants, case management and job placement.

The COG enrolls participants in the workforce development program and EPA funding pays for participants to attend the brownfields training sessions, held annually since 2002. The EPA grant allows the COG to pay for child care or transportation through the Workforce Investment Act, a program also administered by the COG.

The partnership involves Northwest Piedmont COG, Forsyth Tech Community College, the City of Winston- Salem and EPA. The partners have leveraged additional resources to ensure community buy-in, including $300,000 in community resources (from the COG, the city, the college and the environmental community) and $80,000 of staff in-kind services. The COG offers staff time and onthe- job training, while the college offers staff time and use of their classrooms rent-free for four years. Leveraged funds cover administrative costs. Careful management has allowed the initial grant to cover four years’ of courses, rather than two. The program received another two-year EPA Brownfields Job Training award in 2005.

The intent of the original grant was to teach up to 30 people over two years; 73 students have already gone through the program, and in early 2006, a new class started with 20 students. The goal is to recruit students from brownfields target areas and from populations of unemployed, dislocated and underemployed workers. This region has a high percentage of dislocated workers from furniture, textile and tobacco industries, and the unemployment rate is higher than the national average.

Courses include soil classification, reading and scaling maps, remediation technologies, groundwater regulatory programs, and conducting environmental assessments and All Appropriate Inquiry. The program hosts a job fair in which an employer is assigned to each student, and private companies, quasi-public agencies, consultants and contractors donate their time and expertise to the program.

After completing the courses, graduates receive a certificate in one of a variety of subjects, such as job site hazards, hazardous materials related to transportation, asbestos worker training, or lead and mold awareness. Students have access to five groundwater monitoring wells. In addition, they complete two days of job-shadowing to conduct field observations. Recycling, site reuse and cleanup are study concentration areas. Students can complete 16 hours of field time learning about alternative methods of cleanup such as phytoremediation, uses for methane gas at landfills, green cleaners and bioremediation.

The program costs $5,000 per student, which covers the training and equipment. Program outcomes have been positive, with average wages for graduates rising from $8.50/hour in 2002 to over $12/hour in 2005.