Brownfields

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The goal of the Brownfields Minority Worker Training Program of Newark, NJ and Glen Cove, NY (BMWT program) is to prepare and place people of color in the expanding areas of employment associated with the assessment, reclamation, remediation, and construction of environmentally contaminated lands and buildings. This program will be cooperatively conducted by a unique consortium of organizations that combines technical, outreach, educational, and community advocacy skills and links minority-led environmental and community-based organizations with union and academic training programs. Over the past five years, the program has successfully enrolled 132 students, graduated 109 and has made 87 job placements, or 80%. This figure includes only those placed between program completion (May) and the end of the grant cycle, which is August 31; some students are placed after the end of the funding cycle. Over the past nine years, the performance in this program has steadily grown, placing increasingly more graduates in well-paying unionized positions. At the conclusion of the 2003-2004 program year, 81 % of the job placements were in unionized positions, which provide higher wages, as well as full medical benefits, vacations, and retirement plans - in other words, precisely the package that allows an individual to move from poverty into a lifetime of middle class security. For example, those that entered the New York City Carpenters last year began as first year apprentices earning $15.71/hour, with all the benefits above. This proposal requests funding for the delivery of a 19-week pre-apprenticeship training program targeted for individuals of color age 18 and above and who come from disadvantaged households in communities characterized as economically in distress. The targeted communities include the cities of Newark, NJ and Glen Cove, NY as well as Essex, Hudson, and Bergen Counties in New Jersey. BMWT program proposes to administer a curriculum very similar to that which has been offered over the past two funding cycles, with some proposed program enhancements. Over the course of the 19 weeks, BMWT program will offer courses in environmental remediation and worker health and safety that lead to certifications and/or licenses, introductory skills in the building trades, as well as industry-related mathematics, writing, and life skills/career guidance, which prepares students not just to work, but to successfully compete in the "world of work." BMWT program will work with community-based organizations that provide outreach and recruitment, program promotion, ongoing support services, and assistance with job placement, particularly jobs linked with local economic development. The program will also continue its close collaboration with the apprenticeship program of the District Council of Carpenters as well as other lucrative organized building trades. Finally, the program will continue its relationships with firms primarily engaged in environmental remediation of brownfield properties and other contaminated lands or buildings. BMWT program will operate under general contract of the UMDNJ-School of Public Health and will be administered by the New York City District Council of Carpenters Labor Technical College (LTC). The LTC proposes to continue its partnerships with community-based organizations, Glen Cove Youth Board on Long Island, New York and St. James AME Church/St. James Social Services Corporation of Newark, New Jersey.