Brownfields Job Training Grants
Expected Request For Applications Changes
About the Brownfields Job Training Program
Resources
Expected Request For Applications Changes
March 2024 -Notice on Expected Criteria for Fiscal Year FY 2025 Brownfields Job Training Grants
Note: The following expected criteria are being provided early so that Brownfields Job Training cooperative agreement recipients can plan accordingly. Additional details, definitions, and final criteria will be included in the FY25 Brownfields Job Training Request For Applications.
Brownfields Job Training Coalitions will be eligible
New Threshold Evaluation Criteria: Expenditure of Existing Brownfields Job Training Grant funds
Brownfields Job Training Coalition
Applicants may, but are not required to, propose forming a coalition to carry out their Brownfields Job Training program. Applying as a Job Training Coalition may be beneficial since it could allow the Job Training provider to recruit, train, and place students in environmental jobs, especially in rural areas where the geographic area is larger.
A Job Training Coalition is comprised of one “lead” eligible entity that partners with one or more non-lead eligible entities. The lead entity is the applicant that submits an application on behalf of the coalition members, who may receive subawards. The Job Training Coalition may request funding up to $500,000 to recruit, train, and place unemployed and under-employed residents of solid and hazardous waste-impacted communities with the skills needed to obtain full-time, sustainable employment. The non-lead coalition members may not be an agency or instrumentality of, or be affiliated with, the lead member (for example, a county and the redevelopment authority of the same county); except for coalitions in which the state is the lead and one of the members is a regional council or regional commission that is created by a state legislature through a charter or another official action.
A non-lead member of a coalition may not be an existing Job Training cooperative agreement recipient. Also, the coalition members must be separate legal entities. For example, the following may not be members of the same coalition:
- Different departments within the same unit of government;
- A unit of government and an affiliated nonprofit organization exempt from taxation under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code that the city controls; or
- Affiliated 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations (e.g., nonprofit organizations that have the same board of directors or staff). This does not preclude separately incorporated chapters of a national nonprofit organization from being non-lead members of coalitions in different geographic areas. For example, an organization is a national nonprofit with local chapters that are separately incorporated and have their own board of directors and staff. Local chapter “A” conducts programming in the state of “Y.” Local chapter “B” conducts programming in the state of “Z.” Both chapters may be non-lead members of different FY25 Job Training Grant applications.
If selected, the lead entity will be the point of contact for the other coalition members. The lead entity will be the grant recipient and must administer the grant and be accountable to EPA for effectively carrying out the scope of work and the proper financial management of the grant.
Coalition members may not be members of other FY2025 Job Training Coalition applications, nor may coalition members submit a Brownfields Job Training Grant application as an individual applicant. A coalition member wishing to apply as part of a different Brownfields Job Training Coalition or as an individual applicant must withdraw from the coalition.
Please note that once the lead entity submits the application, it becomes the applicant, and the coalition members may not substitute another eligible entity as the lead entity after the deadline for submitting applications has passed. Additionally, the non-lead coalition members may not be substituted after the deadline for submitting applications has passed. If the application is selected for funding, the lead member must partner with the other coalition members that were named in the application unless EPA approves a post-award change to these arrangements pursuant to 2 CFR § 200.308(c).
A Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) documenting the coalition’s process must be in place prior to the expenditure and draw down of any funds that are awarded. The coalition members should identify and establish relationships necessary to achieve the project’s goal. A process for successful execution of the project’s goal, including a description and role of each coalition member, should be established along with the MOA. The purpose of the MOA is for coalition members to agree internally on the distribution of funds and the mechanisms for implementing the Brownfields Job Training Program.
Expenditure of Existing Brownfields Job Training Grant Funds
Current EPA Brownfields Job Training Grant recipients must demonstrate that the recipient has received payment from EPA (also known as ‘drawn down’), and drawn down funds have been disbursed, for at least 50.00% of the funding for each Brownfields Job Training cooperative agreement by June 1, 2024, in order to apply for funding under this solicitation.
To demonstrate this, applicants must attach a copy of a financial record displaying the amount of cooperative agreement funds drawn down (e.g., a report from the Automated Standard Application for Payments ASAP or general ledger entries). If necessary, applicants may contact the assigned EPA Project Officer for the cooperative agreement or Matt Wosje (Wosje.Matthew@epa.gov) to obtain draw down information from EPA’s grant financial database (Compass Data Warehouse). Disbursements of drawn down funds must comply with requirements in EPA’s General Terms and Conditions for timely disbursement of EPA funds (i.e., recipients other than states must substantially disburse all of the funds within 5 business days of draw down).
Alternatively, the applicant must affirm it does not have an open EPA Brownfields Job Training Grant.
About the Brownfields Job Training Program
The Brownfields Job Training Grants allow nonprofits, local governments, and other organizations to recruit, train, and place unemployed and under-employed residents of areas affected by the presence of brownfield sites. Through the Brownfields Job Training Program, graduates develop the skills needed to secure full-time, sustainable employment in various aspects of hazardous substances, pollutants, contaminants, and petroleum products within the larger environmental field, including sustainable cleanup and reuse, and chemical safety. These green jobs reduce environmental contamination and build more sustainable futures for communities.
Job Training Grant Factsheet (pdf)
Example petroleum related Job Training Programs:
- Training in the assessment, inventory, analysis, and remediation of sites or facilities at which hazardous substances, pollutants, contaminants, and petroleum products are located, transported, or disposed, including training for jobs in environmental sampling, demolition, underground storage tank removal, groundwater extraction, site remediation, and equitable development associated with brownfields.
- Training in release detection methods, techniques, and practices at underground storage tank (UST) facilities where hazardous substances and/or petroleum products are or were located, in order to assess whether the tanks have leaked or may be leaking. This includes training for:
- Jobs that conduct activities such as tank or piping tightness testing
- Testing of spill prevention equipment and containment sumps
- Inspections of overfill prevention equipment
- Testing of release detection equipment; and
- Walkthrough inspections.
(Note: EPA funds may not be used for training in equipment repairs and similar leak prevention activities, but applicants may use funding from other sources in combination with EPA funding to develop a comprehensive training curricula.
EPA’s Brownfields Job Training Grant Program is refocusing the competition on training activities that support assessment, cleanup, and preparation of brownfield sites for reuse. As part of that change, the former Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training Program will now be called the Brownfields Job Training Program.
Starting in Fiscal Year 2022, funding will be available solely through EPA’s Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization and under the authorities of CERCLA §104(k)(7). Other funding sources from other EPA program offices will no longer be available to fund this program.
Brownfields Job Training Grant Recipient Resources
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Job Training Reporting Form (PDF)(4 pp, 362 K)
- Brownfields Grant Reporting/Assessment, Cleanup and Redevelopment Exchange System (ACRES)
General Resources
- JT Program Contacts
- Other Federal Grants
- Search on Grants.gov
- National Institutes for Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences - HAZMAT Safety & Training, Worker Training Program
- U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
- U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety & Health Administration
- U.S. Department of Labor Microenterprise Grants Program
- Other Resources
- Advanced Technology Environmental and Energy Center
- American Association of Community Colleges
- American Green Jobs
- Career Onestop
- Community Training and Response Center
- Green for All
- Home Builders Institute
- Interstate Renewable Energy Council
- National Association of Workforce Boards
- National Council for Work Experience
- National Council for Workforce Education
- National Environmental Health Association
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Online Curricula Database
- U.S. Department of Transportation Workforce Development
- U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education
- U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
- U.S. Department of Labor, Workforce Investment
- U.S. EPA, Office of Environmental Justice
- U.S. EPA, Energy and the Environment