FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
A $200,000 grant to The Missouri Job Center will provide job opportunities in the city’s northwest quadrant. The grant funds from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will be used to recruit, train and place local unemployed and underemployed individuals in full-time, sustainable, green jobs in a range of environmental fields. The grant comes from EPA’s Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training (EWDJT) program.
The grant is one of only 18 made available nationwide, as part of a $3.5 million grant package. EPA’s grant is expected to provide funding to enroll at least 56 trainees in the program, with a goal of placing at least 35 graduates into the local job market in specialized green job positions, such as site cleanup, ecological restoration, and lead and asbestos abatement at brownfields remediation projects, earning meaningful hourly wages.
This EWDJT grant will prioritize the green job training services to eligible residents of 19 census tracts within the Springfield city limits, encompassing these specific neighborhoods: Bingham, Doling Park, Downtown, Fairfield Acres/Bissett, Fassnight, Grant Beach, Heart of the Westside, Midtown, Robberson, Rountree/Walnut, Tom Watkins, Weller, West Central, Westside, and Woodland Heights.
“We are pleased to receive this award and think it will help our Zone Blitz efforts to secure jobs for residents in our under-resourced areas of the community,” said Greg Burris, City Manager. Burris said the Departments of Workforce Development and Planning & Development worked together to secure the grant. The City has a history of positive partnerships with the EPA, including cooperation on a Brownfields Program that works to assess, clean up and facilitate the development of potentially contaminated properties known as “brownfields” within the city of Springfield.
Specific training offered through the new training program will include certifications in OSHA Hazwoper; OSHA 10; Environmental Sampling and Monitoring; Trenching and Excavation; Confined Space; Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP); Lead Abatement Worker; Asbestos Worker/Handler; Stormwater; Forklift Driver; First Aid/CPR; and Commercial Driver’s License (CDL).
“These training classes are the keys to full-time, green jobs that pay well because they are in demand,” EPA Regional Administrator Mark Hague said. “For communities like Springfield, this helps build a workforce that can reclaim and revitalize environmentally challenged properties to benefit the community.”
According to Mary Ann Rojas, City of Springfield Workforce Development Director, partners in the Missouri Job Center’s implementation of the grant include the Ozark Region Workforce Investment Board, Environmental Works, Gerken Environmental, Southwest Missouri Safety Company LLC, C1 Truck Driver Training, Bryan University, and Greenfield Environmental Trust Group Inc.
Additional support was provided by:
Zone 1 City Councilwoman Phyllis FergusonCity of Springfield Planning Department staff Olivia Hough, Sarah Kerner, Randall Whitman and Alyssa Ahner
City of Springfield Environmental Services DepartmentNeighborhood Advisory Council
The Drew Lewis FoundationSunbelt Environmental Services, Inc.
Keystone Building and DesignEuticals
Vocational RehabiliationK-State TAB program helped us review our proposal
OACAC Head StartCommunity Partnership of the Ozarks
Springfield Chamber of CommerceDepartment of Natural Resources
Preferred Family Healthcare
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Operated by the City of Springfield’s Department of Workforce Development, the Missouri Job Center is located at 2900 East Sunshine Street and serves Greene and six other surrounding Ozarks counties: Christian, Dallas, Polk, Stone, Taney and Webster.
Since EPA launched the EWDJT grant program in 1998, more than 256 grants have been awarded exceeding a total of $54 million. Approximately 14,700 individuals have completed training, and of those, more than 10,600 individuals have been placed in full-time employment with an average starting hourly wage of $14.34. This equates to a cumulative job placement rate of nearly 72 percent of graduates.
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For more information, please call Cora Scott at 417-864-1009 or 417-380-3352 or Isaac Weber at 417-887-4343 .