The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the selection of 18 grantees for approximately $3.5 million in Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training (EWDJT) grants. Each grantee will receive funds to operate environmental job training programs that advance environmental justice by providing opportunities for residents living in areas impacted by contaminated lands. Trainees gain experience for jobs related to cleanup activities in their own communities.

“EWDJT grants transform lives by providing individuals the opportunity to gain meaningful long-term employment and a livable wage in the growing environmental field,” said Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator of EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management. “Individuals completing training have often overcome a variety of barriers to employment.”

Assistant Administrator Stanislaus announced the selection of the grant recipients at the Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response training session for the Los Angeles Conservation Corps (LACC), one of the organizations chosen to receive funding this fiscal year. As of today, the LACC has graduated more than 460 students from its EWDJT program and has placed more than 80 percent of graduates in jobs in the environmental field.

The training programs serve unemployed persons, dislocated workers who have lost their jobs as a result of manufacturing plant closures, minorities, tribal residents, veterans, former gang members, ex-offenders, and other individuals who may face barriers to employment.

The programs benefit local residents impacted by brownfield sites in their communities by helping to provide opportunities to secure work and build careers cleaning up these sites. Grantees work in areas historically affected by unemployment, blight, economic disinvestment, and solid and hazardous waste sites. The EWDJT program provides communities the flexibility to deliver training that meets specific labor market demands in in fields such as: brownfields assessment and cleanup, waste treatment and stormwater management, emergency response, electronics recycling, solar installation and green remediation.

EWDJT grants are awarded to a broad range of communities with multiple indicators of need, including communities affected by natural disasters or the closure of manufacturing facilities, Economic Development Administration “Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership” designated communities (http://www.eda.gov/challenges/imcp), and Housing and Urban Development/Department of Transportation/EPA “Partnership for Sustainable Communities” designated communities (http://www.sustainablecommunities.gov). Past graduates of the EWDJT program have worked on response and cleanup activities associated with the 2010 BP oil spill along the Gulf Coast, the World Trade Center, and Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Sandy.

Graduates develop a broad set of skills that improves their ability to secure meaningful full-time employment. Since the inception of the EWDJT grant program in 1998, more than 256 grants have been awarded exceeding $54 million. Approximately 14,700 individuals have completed training, and of those, more than 10,600 individuals have been placed in full-time employment with an average starting hourly wage of $14.34. This equates to a cumulative job placement rate of nearly 72 percent of graduates.

Today’s grantees include:
•           Civic Works, Inc., Baltimore, Md.
•           City of Rochester, Rochester, N.Y.
•           Limitless Vistas, Inc., New Orleans, La.
•           Energy Coordinating Agency, Philadelphia, Pa.
•           Cypress Mandela Training Center, Inc., Oakland, Calif.
•           Nye County, Tonopah, Nev.
•           Redevelopment Authority of Cumberland County, Carlisle, Pa.
•           Auberle, McKeesport, Pa.
•           Northwest Regional Workforce Investment Board, Waterbury, Conn.
•           City of Tacoma, Tacoma, Wash.
•           City of Pittsburg, Pittsburg, Calif.
•           Hunters Point Family, San Francisco, Calif.
•           Los Angeles Conservation Corps, Los Angeles, Calif.
•           City of Glens Falls, Glens Falls, N.Y.
•           City of Springfield, Springfield, Mo.
•           Lawson State Community College, Birmingham, Ala.
•           Alaska Forum, Inc., Anchorage, Alaska
•           Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, Kingston, Wash.

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Indiana has selected St. Mary’s Medical Center, part of Ascension, the nation’s largest non-profit and Catholic health system, as a Blue Distinction Center+ for Knee and Hip Replacement, part of the Blue Distinction Specialty Care program. Blue Distinction Centers are nationally designated healthcare facilities shown to deliver improved patient safety and better health outcomes, based on objective measures that were developed by Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies with input from the medical community.

Knee and hip replacement procedures are among the fastest growing medical treatments in the U.S., according to studies published in the June 2014 Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery¹ and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons².

In 2010, the estimated cost of hip replacements averaged $17,500 and the estimated cost of knee replacements averaged $16,000, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)³.

Hospitals designated as Blue Distinction Centers+ for Knee and Hip Replacement demonstrate expertise in total knee and total hip replacement surgeries, resulting in fewer patient complications and hospital readmissions. Designated hospitals must also maintain national accreditation. In addition to meeting these quality thresholds, hospitals designated as Blue Distinction Centers+ are on average 20 percent more cost-efficient in an episode of care compared to other hospitals. Quality is key: only those facilities that first meet nationally established, objective quality measures will be considered for designation as a Blue Distinction Center+.

St. Mary’s is proud to be recognized by Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Indiana for meeting the robust selection criteria for knee and hip replacements set by the Blue Distinction Specialty Care program.

“This designation is the direct result of the commitment that the St. Mary’s Joint Replacement Solutions program and staff has in providing our patients with quality outcomes and an excellent experience,” said Chris Johnston, Joint Care Coordinator at St. Mary’s. “It is an honor to receive this recognition, as we contribute to Ascension’s focus on developing a leading national orthopedic service line for the health system’s patients across the country.”

Since 2006, the Blue Distinction Specialty Care program has helped patients find quality providers for their specialty care needs in the areas of bariatric surgery, cardiac care, complex and rare cancers, knee and hip replacements, maternity care, spine surgery, and transplants, while encouraging healthcare professionals to improve the care they deliver.

“As a Blue Distinction Center, Anthem is recognizing St. Mary’s for its efforts to improve the quality of care for health care consumers,” said Robert W. Hillman, president of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Indiana.” High quality care is not only cost effective, it results in better health outcomes.”

For more information about the program and for a complete listing of the designated facilities, please visit www.bcbs.com/bluedistinction.