The Brownfields program, which provides no-cost environmental training to low-income residents, represents a successful, longstanding partnership between the College, the City of Tacoma, Workforce Central and the Metropolitan Development Council.
The current training is funded through a $500,000 federal stimulus grant. Over the past eight years, over $1 million in grant funding has been leveraged to support the program.
The Bellwether Awards were established to recognize outstanding programs that are at the forefront of innovation throughout the United States and Canada and are sponsored by the Community College Futures Assembly, sponsored by the Institute of Higher Education at the University of Florida. Now in its 15th year, the Assembly convenes annually as an independent national policy forum both for key opinion leaders to work as a “think tank” in identifying critical issues facing the future of community colleges, and to recognize Bellwether Finalist colleges as trend-setting institutions.
Earlier this year, Clover Park Technical College became the first technical college and the first college from Washington State to win the MetLife Community College Excellence Award. MetLife recognized the Brownfields partnership for its outcomes in placing nearly 80% of graduates into jobs, a rate that has held steady in spite of continuing economic struggles. Clover Park would be the first college from Washington to be honored with a Bellwether Award. Recent winners from the Western United States include Linn-Benton Community College in Oregon and Rio Hondo Community College in California.
Brownfields:
http://cfpub.epa.gov/bf_factsheets/gfs/index.cfm?xpg_id=7132&display_type=HTML
Bellwether Award:
http://www.coe.ufl.edu/Futures/bwfaq.html
MetLife Community College Excellence Award:
http://www.jff.org/projects/current/workforce/metlife-foundation-community-college-exc/141
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