The Water Workforce Opportunity: How Camden Is Driving Collaborative Solutions Around Its Infrastructure And Economy
By Joseph Kane
Falling into disrepair and neglect, the country’s water infrastructure is posing an enormous physical and financial challenge for many regions. However, many of these same regions are launching new plans and investments to accelerate infrastructure repairs, which are often going hand-in-hand with larger economic development activities, including the support of long-lasting career pathways.
Indeed, from California’s Bay Area to Louisville, Kentucky, regional leaders are seizing the moment to not only improve their infrastructure, but also to improve their economies. With the aim to hire, train, and retain a skilled water workforce, water utilities and a range of community partners — from educators to labor groups — are connecting workers with greater economic opportunity. And it is the promise of this opportunity that is spurring new thinking and action, especially in municipalities like Camden, New Jersey, where poverty, joblessness, and environmental degradation have persisted for some time.
While the city of Camden continues to face a long list of economic and environmental struggles, including a poverty rate over 38 percent, dozens of contaminated brownfields sites, and an older combined sewer system susceptible to flooding, leaders are pioneering collaborative solutions focused on infrastructure investment and workforce development. Led by the Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority (CCMUA), the region’s primary wastewater utility, a variety of groups have partnered together to improve existing water services, promote green infrastructure development, and help local residents fill positions connected to all these activities.
For example, the Camden Collaborative Initiative (CCI) — a partnership of more than 40 different community organizations and businesses — has served as a regional body and platform to define priorities, encourage discussion, and test out new ideas, with a focus on improving environmental and economic outcomes. CCMUA has served as a major partner and funder in CCI’s efforts, including the creation and coordination of seven different working groups, which focus on anything from environmental education to brownfields redevelopment. At a more basic level, since many of CCI’s activities are driven by non-profit partners who lack much extra financial capacity, CCMUA has also offered community meeting space and served in an advisory role to move efforts forward.
In particular, CCI’s activities have built off a number of ongoing workforce development initiatives, which have aimed to equip disadvantaged residents with the skills and job readiness they need to pursue careers in the trades, administration, and other positions in the water sector.
One such effort, PowerCorps Camden, has helped promote environmental stewardship and applied learning in the community. Modeled off a similar program in Philadelphia, the effort aims to recruit young people, ages 18 to 26, from the city of Camden to take on full-time positions in a six-month AmeriCorps program, where they help maintain green spaces and improve formerly polluted sites. Crucially, many of these “at-risk” youth may not be able to easily secure employment elsewhere, and they are also gaining additional life skills training and benefiting from job placement services. While the program is still nascent since it only started in 2015, it has long-term potential to boost training, reduce crime, and ultimately support stronger career pathways in the water sector, whether filling needs in utilities, engineering companies, or other local employers.
Likewise, in concert with other CCI partners, CCMUA has spearheaded a Green Jobs Summer Ambassadors Program, which represents a 5-week immersive experience for high school students aimed at introducing them to water-related careers. Similar to another effort pursued in Wilmington, Delaware, the program not only gives students the chance to engage in environmental management and conservation, but it also connects them with mentors and potential future employers. Even though the program just started, it has already reached dozens of students, who have helped support 50 different green spaces across the city, including rain garden maintenance, leading to several neighborhood benefits and more responsible stormwater management.
Joseph Kane is a senior research associate and associate fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program.
This article was originally published on "The Avenue".