The West End Neighborhood House is getting a federal grant to boost environmental workforce training in Delaware.
The $500,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is funded by the bipartisan infrastructure law.
The West End Neighborhood House will train 128 students and place at least 100 of them in environmental jobs.
They will target students in Wilmington, specifically underemployed or unemployed individuals, veterans, and residents with justice-system involvement.
Wilmington has several brownfields, and brownfield remediation is a large undertaking according to Wes Davis, the Director of Development with the West End Neighborhood House.
He says a lot of that work will take place through the training programs.
"We will be training our workers to be qualified for the sort of job projects to tackle those types of projects. It's a combination of a lot of different sorts of activities from mold and asbestos remediation to lead abatement to general environmental cleanup of a contaminated site," said Davis.
Davis notes there will be five weeks of training which will begin sometime in 2023, and the grant will provide a stipend for trainees.
And once they transition to the jobs, Davis says they will be well-paid.
"They all pay livable wages. They're full-time, and they range from around $50,000 a year, we even have a few that are going to be making more than $100,000 a year," said Davis.
While the main target is low income students within Wilmington, the five-year grant period will allow the program to expand into Kent and Sussex counties.
It will also cover the cost of acquiring a van to offer transportation to central and southern Delaware residents to come train in Wilmington.
