KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Environmental Protection Agency Region 7 presented Cornerstones of Care with a check Thursday for $458,358 to provide environmental job training to under-resourced children and young adults in the Kansas City area.
The Brownfield Job Training Grant will provide training to 50 people between the ages of 16 and 23 — typically children who are coming out of foster care or young adults who are experiencing homelessness — and will place 25 of them in environment-related jobs.
"The Brownfields Job Training Program is a life-changing experience for students, providing the skills, certifications, and experience necessary to gain meaningful employment," EPA Region 7 Administrator Meg McCollister said in a statement. "This program is a win-win for the Kansas City area, as graduates will not only gain employment, but go to work cleaning up their own neighborhoods where they live, work and raise families."
Cornerstones of Care, a local organization that works with youth and adults to improve safety and health, will work with its Build Trybe training program to offer 180 hours of instruction — the course takes 10 to 12 weeks — to the chosen participants. After completion, students will earn two federal certifications that are in demand by local employers, according to the EPA.
The students will receive training in Hazardous Water Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER), forestry restoration, landscape restoration, environmental data analysis, conservation job readiness and general industry.
"Using this program will give them hands-on experience in the forest, prairies and watersheds of Kansas City," Cornerstones of Care Build Trybe Program Director Theo Bunch said. "They will learn and work to clean up abused and abandoned areas and restore our natural spaces. Their work will improve the biodiversity and health of this city and will increase our citizens access to safe outdoor wild spaces free of garbage and invasive damaging species."
The students will work to clean up and revitalize Brownfield sites — defined by the EPA as an area that may have the "presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant" — of Kansas City, Missouri, through partnerships with KCMO Parks and Recreation, the EPA, and the Missouri Department of Conservation, which has recently increased its support and funding of this initiative due to the EPA's involvement.
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"Central to the curriculum is the emphasis on installing and maintaining low-impact development, green infrastructure and other nature-based solutions, mainly restoring vacant lots and Brownfields to improve land in the Blue River watershed," McCollister said at the ceremonial check presentation.
Participants of EPA-funded job training programs often come from historically undeserved neighborhoods, including areas subjected to environmental justice issues, and upon completion, tend to overcome barriers to employment, according to the EPA.
About half of those that come out of foster care will be unemployed and will experience homelessness at some point in their life, and about 10% will attempt post-secondary education opportunities like college or trade options, according to Cornerstones of Care President and CEO Merideth Rose.
Graduates of this Build Trybe program will have the opportunity to attain long-term employment with governmental entities, public land managers, private companies and nonprofits.
"It also teaches pride in our spaces, it's teaching our youth that they can have a direct impact to make sure that their cities are healthy, that they're clean, that they're safe for its citizens," Bunch said. "And so when you focus on Brownfields and you focus on restoration, it is empowering those kids way in a much bigger way than just finding a career. It is having them become stewards of their city and the space around them, and to deal with some of the most tragic things environmentally in our past. It's empowering them to really be the warriors that can make a difference."
Lindsay Weiss, a conservation landscape instructor with Build Trybe, said she sees firsthand how working outdoors help under-resourced children and young adults.
"Actually last night, a student afterwards, we got to identify trees, and we were out in the prairie behind Ozanam Campus, which is beautiful, and they were climbing trees, and then afterwards, the kid just said, 'I really needed this today,'" she said. "It kind of helps them put away any stress, any trauma history that they've had, they really get to be present. And they get to focus on being outside fresh air, having a a goal."
The grant will also include stipends to incentivize program completion including funds for transportation and cost-of-living support.
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