Within the heart of the City of Jacksonville, Florida lies a 

federally-designated Empowerment Zone, where neighborhoods 

are littered with abandoned and underused property and nearly 40 

percent of residents live below the poverty level. With more than 

12,000 acres of identified brownfields—more than any other city 

in Florida—Jacksonville has been working to return its idle sites 

to productive use; the city received EPA Brownfields Assessment 

grants in 1997 and 2003, and a Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund 

grant for site cleanup in 1999. Those grants enabled more than 

120 environmental assessments and leveraged over $2 million 

in cleanup and redevelopment funding, generating momentum 

for continued assessment, cleanup and site reuse. These efforts 

have created a higher-than-average demand for workers trained in 

environmental cleanup in Jacksonville. 

Recognizing that need, Florida State College at Jacksonville 

(FSCJ) applied for a Brownfields Job Training grant from EPA and 

received a $500,000 award in September 2009 under the American 

Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The College partnered with 

local, nonprofit organizations to carry out student recruitment and 

retention strategies, and with other area entities, including privatesector environmental firms, to implement the course curricula.

FSCJ’s Job Training program features 17 different courses, 

covering 270 hours over a seven-week schedule. Students are 

trained in areas that include OSHA Hazardous Waste Operations 

and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER), environmental 

sampling and analysis, deconstruction and debris removal, lead 

and asbestos abatement, and confined space entry. To complement 

existing trends, the program offers a focus on “green” remediation 

techniques as well as traditional cleanup methods, ensuring that 

cleanup is sustainable and will be safe for both the community and 

environment in the long term. To round out this environmental 

focus, the curriculum includes training in general brownfields 

issues and community redevelopment, CPR and first aid, math and 

computer skills, and job interview and work-life skills.

Jacksonville, Florida

continued 

JUST THE FACTS:

• FSCJ partnered with local nonprofit 

organizations to actively recruit 

candidates for job training in a 

number of ways.

• The program’s curriculum includes 

expert training volunteered from 

environmental consulting firms, as 

well as the local Small Business 

Association and the Jacksonville 

Housing Authority.

• Training offers an emphasis on 

“green” remediation methods 

including phytoremediation, 

bioremediation, green 

deconstruction, and xeriscaping.

In Jacksonville, Environmental Training 

Offers a World of New Opportunities

With help from an EPA grant, Florida State College at Jacksonville compiles a wealth 

of local resources to create a program that changes lives and neighborhoods

February 2010 graduates of FSCJ’s Environmental Job 

Training program assemble outside of their training facility.

FSCJ’s 

first job training 

course graduated 22 of the 

24 students selected, 

a retention rate of more 

than 90 percent.
Four students 

were hired immediately 

after graduation, and FSCJ 

is working with local 

partners to find jobs for 

all of the program’s 

trainees.

Brownfields Success Story Solid Waste EPA-560-F-10-257 

In Jacksonville, Environmental Training and Emergency April 2010

Offers a World of New Opportunities Response (5105T) www.epa.gov/brownfields/

To recruit committed candidates in an area rife with unemployment and poverty, FSCJ enlisted the 

help of local partners such as Jacksonville Youth Works, a nonprofit that helps at-risk youth receive 

job training in fields like construction and skilled labor; FreshMinistries, Inc., a multi-faith, nonprofit 

humanitarian organization; and WorkSource, an agency that provides workforce-related services in 

six Florida counties. These entities worked diligently to inform the public about the Job Training 

program’s availability—handing out informational flyers and program applications, setting up booths 

at area grocery stores, holding informational sessions at community centers, and even going door-todoor in some neighborhoods. The result was nearly 200 applications for a class limited to 24 students 

per training round.

Per the requirements of EPA’s grant, FSCJ’s program (which includes multiple training rounds over 

a three-year period) must keep at least 134 of its expected 170 graduates employed for at least a 

year, which meant that their application process had to select candidates that were fully committed. 

“We go through a rigorous screening process,” explained Pamela Scherer, Manager of the FSCJ 

Job Training Program. “We look for neatness and attention to detail in the application itself and 

conduct multiple interviews with every candidate. We also perform adult education testing, criminal 

background checks, and drug screenings. By the time we’re finished we’re confident that an 

applicant is committed to the program.”

One of the 24 students selected for FSCJ’s first round of EPA-funded training was 

Michael Smith, a 47-year old father of a baby girl. Smith had been looking for 

work for more than a year. “I had sent out 227 resumes and gotten nowhere,” 

Smith relates. “There were so many people out there wanting jobs... I was 

competing with everyone who had access to the Internet.”

Smith’s luck changed when he spoke with a member of his church choir 

who was also a representative from a local workforce development 

organization, and learned about the FSCJ Brownfields Job Training 

Program. He promptly filled out an application and made it his mission to 

demonstrate his commitment to the program. “I was constantly going in [to 

the FSCJ program office] and checking on my status, and talking with people 

from the program,” said Smith. “I think it gave me an edge. They could tell that I was interested in a 

long-term career, not just a job, and that I’ve always been interested in the environment. I wanted to 

make this world a better place for my daughter.”

Training at FSCJ’s downtown facility began in January 2010 and featured instruction and input 

from a spectrum of local partners. Geosyntec, an international environmental consulting firm with 

offices in Jacksonville, donated 16 hours of training from senior-level engineers and geologists. 

The Jacksonville Small Business Association provided business and worker skills training. And the 

Jacksonville Housing Authority offered the students bus tickets and transportation reimbursements to 

ensure that students could attend.

Geosyntec’s emphasis on green remediation included training in methods such as phytoremediation, 

the use of plants to extract contamination from soil; and bioremediation, which uses natural bacteria 

to literally eat contaminants away. Students also learned about green deconstruction—the recycling 

continued 
CONTACTS:

For more information on the 

Florida State College at Jacksonville 

Brownfields Job Training grant contact 

EPA Region 4 at (404) 562-9900

Visit the EPA Brownfields Web site at:

www.epa.gov/brownfields/

and reuse of construction materials—as well as “xeriscaping” techniques, where landscaping uses only 

natural plants and other elements that require no more water than occurs in natural weather patterns.

Graduation for FSCJ’s first environmental job training class was held on February 26, 2010. 

Twenty-two of the twenty-four students graduated—including Michael Smith, who was in the top 

five percent of his class. After a year of fruitless job searches, Smith was one of four FSCJ trainees 

hired immediately after graduation. “I’ll be working as an environmental technician for a local 

company, in a contract with the city,” he explains. “We’ll be doing ground remediation, cleaning 

up contaminated sites in the area. [The FSCJ program] wanted the people who 

lived in affected areas to get these jobs, so we could clean up our own 

neighborhoods.”

FSCJ is working with the WorkSource agency and more than 15 local 

environmental firms to find work for the program’s graduates, matching 

newly-certified environmental technicians with the needs of the firms’

clients. “I’m so impressed with this city, and how much people care,” 

says Scherer. “Sometimes I wondered how we were going to get past 

certain obstacles, but they always were taken care of because of the 

momentum we have and the dedication of the people involved.”

Smith has his own praise for the program. “Environmental remediation is a 

large field and a large area,” he elaborates. “Once you get these certifications 

you can go in a lot of different directions. You could work in a lab, in an office, in 

other states, and even overseas. It gives you a wide range of opportunities.”

Brownfields Success Story Solid Waste EPA-560-F-10-257 

In Jacksonville, Environmental Training and Emergency April 2010

Offers a World of New Opportunities Response (5105T) www.epa.gov/brownfields/