LENEXA, KAN. – Yesterday, September 25, in commemoration of Climate Week NYC, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and AmeriCorps announced the Environmental Justice Climate Corps, a new partnership launched as part of President Biden’s American Climate Corps to open doors for people to serve in careers that benefit disadvantaged and other low-income communities.
This partnership will support more than 250 AmeriCorps VISTA members nationwide over three years, with each new participating member completing a one-year term of service. This historic initiative is the largest environmental partnership in AmeriCorps’ history and EPA’s first nationwide service effort. The Environmental Justice Climate Corps represents the Biden-Harris Administration’s ongoing commitment to tackling the climate crisis and advancing environmental justice. It also reaffirms the Administration’s commitment to creating pathways to middle class jobs and a step to implement the Biden-Harris Administration’s Executive Order to Promote Good Jobs by supporting workforce development through the American Climate Corps.
EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan will announce the program alongside AmeriCorps CEO Michael D. Smith during their upcoming Climate Week NYC 2024 Solutions House panel.
“Our partnership is a first-of-its-kind effort within the federal government to expand pathways into environmental justice careers,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “This program will create opportunities for young people through President Biden’s American Climate Corps that will help folks in overburdened communities access and benefit from historic funding secured under the President’s Investing in America agenda.”
“Low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately impacted by the most severe harms of climate change – whether that’s air pollution, extreme temperatures, or flooding,” said Michael D. Smith, CEO, AmeriCorps. “Through this groundbreaking partnership with EPA, we will target resources to underserved communities where they are needed most, while putting hundreds of young people from those communities on a path to environmental justice careers.”
Environmental Justice Climate Corps members will be paid a living allowance and reimbursed for selected living expenses. In total, this allowance is equivalent to receiving more than $25 per hour throughout their year of service. Members will obtain the benefits of AmeriCorps VISTA service—including the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award, which is valued at $7,395 in FY24, and streamlined pathways into certain federal jobs—as well as gain mentorship and professional development opportunities. This program aims to recruit participants from communities disproportionately impacted by environmental justice challenges and seeks to recruit individuals with an interest in environmental justice careers.
The Environmental Justice Climate Corps is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s American Climate Corps—a workforce training and service initiative that will ensure more young people have access to the skills-based training necessary for good-paying careers in the clean energy and climate resilience economy. The American Climate Corps will mobilize a new, diverse generation of more than 20,000 Americans in the initiative’s first year, putting them to work conserving and restoring our lands and waters, bolstering community resilience, deploying clean energy, implementing energy efficient technologies, and advancing environmental justice—all while creating pathways to high-quality, good-paying clean energy and climate resilience jobs in the public and private sectors after they complete their paid training program.
Applications for the Environmental Justice Climate Corps will open in early 2025, with a goal for its first cohort to start later that year. To sign up for updates on the program, visit EPA’s website.