March 10, 2008
King County Jobs Initiative receives EPA training
Low-income workers can gain valuable environmental cleanup skills and employment opportunities and King County will be able to clear contaminated parcels of land, thanks to a Brownfields Job Training grant awarded to the county by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) late last week. The EPA selected the King County Jobs Initiative (KCJI) – a workforce development program created to serve low-income residents in King County –A to receive a Brownfields Job Training Grant. King County is one of 13 communities nationally to receive an award.
"The Brownfields grant is very important to this region, both for the jobs it creates and for the opportunity to reclaim damaged parcels of land and restore them to useful and productive purposes," said King County Executive Ron Sims. "King County is grateful for the EPA's continuing recognition of the success of our program, and we look forward to training new teams of workers and moving forward with efforts to clean up properties around the county."
The grant award of $200,000 will be targeted for training low-income participants to work as environmental technicians in industrially contaminated parcels of land in King County. The funds will provide 72 South King County residents with 238 hours in environmental clean up and construction readiness credential training. The training will allow the participant to help turn contaminated lands countywide into productive commercial or industrial properties whose eventual tenants will create additional jobs.
KCJI has received four previous awards of EPA Brownfields training funds since 1999 and has successfully trained over 200 low-income King County residents as environmental technicians. Of those trained, over 140 participants of the program have been placed in jobs with wages ranging from $12 to $35 per hour.
KCJI's Brownfields Training Program has been rated as one the best programs in the country by the EPA and has often assisted other pilot sites in curriculum development and consultation for beginning new programs. King County Executive Ron Sims created the KCJI in March 1998 as a pilot program. It was designed to address high rates of unemployment in South King County during a time when the economy in the Puget Sound region was booming. KCJI is part of the King County Work Training Program located in the Department of Community and Human Services. A new focus area for KCJI is an effort to address employment for King County residents exiting the criminal justice system.
The award to the King County Jobs Initiative is a perfect link to King County's Equity and Social Justice Green Jobs Initiative, which addresses strategies for safer and cleaner communities, as well as good paying jobs for disenfranchised persons. Additionally, the Brownfields Job Training Grant links to the county's broader Brownfields Program that provides financial and technical assistance to local businesses in assessing, cleaning up and redeveloping contaminated land in King County. The Brownfields Program offers free technical assistance through its Environmental Extension Service and has two low-cost loan programs – one for assessment and one for cleanup.
For more information regarding the King County Jobs Initiative, contact Carolyn Bledsoe at 206-296-3432 or go to www.metrokc.gov/dchs/csd/WorkTraining/kcji. For information regarding the King County Brownfields Program, contact Lucy Auster at 206-296-8476 or go to www.metrokc.gov/dnrp/swd/programs