Hazardous Materials Worker Health and Safety Training (U45), Cooperative Agreement

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Program Summary/Abstract This is a proposal for a regional health and safety training program to be implemented by The New England Consortium-Civil Service Employees Association (TNEC-CSEA), a partnership between the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML), four New England coalitions for occupational safety and health (COSH groups) in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, and CSEA, Local 1000 AFSCME, in New York. Since 1987, TNEC-CSEA has trained 52,477 workers in 3,294 courses, for a total of 597,068 contact hours with NIEHS grant support. TNEC-CSEA will train workers exposed to hazardous materials; responding to disasters and post-event cleanups; at risk for workplace injuries and the misuse of opioids; and workers from underserved populations through high quality training based on evidence-based science and best practices in worker health and safety (H&S) and adult education. It draws on its strength as a consortium of a university, non-profit worker advocacy organizations, and a large union of public sector workers to network and build relationships with a multitude of government, university, business and non-profit stakeholders. TNEC-CSEA uses proven adult education methods that are hands-on, small-group, learner-centered, and worker empowerment oriented to maximize its impact on workplace H&S. TNEC-CSEA will train 4,066 workers annually over five years in the HWWTP and HDPTP projects in New York and the six New England states. Its target populations are: 200,000 workers in manufacturing, health care, hazardous materials response and remediation, environmental, construction, and utilities; and 300,000 workers in the public sector, in transportation, public safety, public works, health care, and environmental jobs, including federal, state, county, and municipal employees with focuses on underserved immigrant workers, job training, worker centers and tribal entities in New England. TNEC-CSEA seeks to expand and strengthen its program through new innovations in blended learning, infectious disease, disaster preparedness, climate change and chemical safety, and with a focus of training vulnerable/underserved populations and those most at risk for injury and opioid use disorder. TNEC-CSEA training will continue to prevent injuries, illnesses and fatalities in thousands of workplaces by linking the best available science for worker protection with stakeholders in its network of union, safety and governmental professionals, public health and environmental justice organizations, worker and job training centers, and tribal entities. It will use its advisory boards and highly skilled staff, experienced in adult education and worker H&S, to translate knowledge about a broad range of H&S problems – from hazardous materials to opioids to climate change and disasters – and protective and preventive interventions in the workplace into practice. The Consortium will do this through direct training of workers and trainers, supporting the worker H&S movement, and linking stakeholders together in creative and fundamental ways.