On July 11, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it is providing over $20 million to 13 workforce development organizations across the nation under its Innovative Water Workforce Development Grant Program, which supports expanding career opportunities in the drinking water and wastewater utility sector.

This announcement comes as White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden and Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su travel to Philadelphia to host the inaugural convening of the city’s Investing in America Workforce Hub.

The Philadelphia Workforce Hub will support the workforce needed to deliver on the city’s water and transportation projects spurred by the President’s Investing in America agenda.

EPA selected 13 recipients at regional and national organizations to implement a broad range of programs under the Innovative Water Infrastructure Workforce Development Grant Program.

The grants include $4.9 million to the Energy Innovation Center Institute in Pittsburgh for training and development for workforce development programs that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollutants to benefit disadvantaged communities.

The Energy Innovation Center Institute is an independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to help solve the world's most intractable problems by transforming how humans learn, work, and power ourselves in more sustainable and resilient ways.

They are the program arm of the Energy Innovation Center and their charter places preeminence on helping those in the most vulnerable populations throughout the Appalachian Region.

The Institute hopes to break cycles of poverty by connecting the stranded talent in regional disadvantaged communities to the highroad jobs around them and to which they are often excluded.

Their goal is to advance the understanding, science, policy, and commercial application of technologies that will help rapidly move the U.S. toward a carbon neutral economy.

EPA said the grants will expand public awareness about job opportunities in the drinking water and wastewater utility sector and will address the workforce needs of drinking water and wastewater utilities.

Click Here for the complete announcement.

Visit EPA’s Innovative Water Workforce Development Grant Program webpage to learn more about this program.

[Posted: July 11, 2024]

7/15/2024