The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday July 13 that Civic Works, a non-profit AmeriCorps program based in Baltimore, will receive a $300,000 Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training Grant to help train low-income residents for environmental jobs.

Civic Works plans to use the funding to train 144 students for entry-level environmental jobs helping to clean up abandoned and contaminated properties in Baltimore. "EPA’s brownfields training grants demonstrate how creating jobs and protecting the environment can go hand-in-hand,” said Shawn M. Garvin, administrator for EPA’s mid-Atlantic region.

“This funding will help ensure that brownfields cleanup projects in Baltimore have the trained workforce needed to revitalize contaminated properties and provide new job opportunities for community members." This is the fifth EPA brownfields training grant awarded to Civic Works since 2000.  Four other grants for $200,000 each were used to train more than 200 people and place more than 150 graduates in jobs.