The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded Hartford nonprofit North Star Center for Human Development Inc. a $200,000 green jobs grant on Monday.
North Star will use the Brownfields Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training grant to recruit and train 60 students and place 54 unemployed and underemployed graduates in environmental jobs.
The program will offer courses in renewable energy, brownfields technology, wastewater and storm water treatment, and sustainable urban agriculture. North Star will target displaced workers, veterans, ex-offenders, and other disadvantaged residents from Hartford’s North End for the program.
The EPA job-training program aims to develop a green workforce in areas of high poverty and high unemployment. North Star was also the recipient of a grant in 2007.
EPA has awarded more than $42 million under the program since 1998.