Over $10 Million in Training Grants Awarded by OSHA

OSHA awarded approximately $10.5 million in Susan Harwood federal safety and health training grants to 79 nonprofit organizations.

The Susan Harwood Training Grants Program provides funding for nonprofit organizations, including colleges and universities, community and faith-based groups, employer associations, and labor unions, along with joint labor-management associations. The fiscal year 2019 grants go to projects in three categories: Capacity Building, Targeted Topic Training, and Training and Educational Materials Development.

Grants for targeted training include programs focused on training for fall protection, OSHA’s most frequently cited standard.

Targeted Training, Training Materials

The targeted training grants include $159,494 for the Associated General Contractors of America in Arlington, Virginia, to provide 7.5 hours of crane hazards training in English and Spanish to 510 employers and workers in the construction industry. The training will cover types of cranes, assembly and disassembly hazards, lifting, rigging, signaling, qualifications, maintenance, repair, and inspection requirements. The targeted audience is small and new businesses with minority workers with limited English language skills.

Grants for fall protection training include:

• $132,400 to the Brazilian Worker Center in Allston, Massachusetts, for residential roofing fall prevention training for 660 Brazilian and Latino workers, supervisors, and small business owners in the construction industry;
• $141,379 to Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Connecticut, to provide fall prevention training to 620 employers and workers in general and construction industries, covering the use of ladders and scaffolds and prevention of falls from roofs;
• $160,000 to the Corporation to Develop Communities of Tampa in Tampa, Florida, for providing 4 hours of fall protection training to 364 employers and workers in the construction industry;
• $111,885 to Greenville Technical College in Greenville, South Carolina, for 4 hours of fall prevention training for 310 employers and workers in the construction industry;
• $153,120 to the Job-Site Safety Institute of Raleigh, North Carolina, for 4 hours of fall prevention training for 600 employers and workers in the residential construction industry;
• $160,000 to the National Association of Tower Erectors (NATE) to train 336 at-risk workers and their employers in small businesses in fall prevention in wireless rooftop deployment;
• $160,000 to the Organization of Hispanic Contractors in Dallas, Texas, for 2.5 hours of fall prevention training for 900 employers and workers in the construction industry;
• $150,000 to the Philadelphia Area Project on Occupational Safety & Health for fall prevention training provided in English, Spanish, and Portuguese to 500 employers and workers in small residential and small commercial construction; and
• $159,775 to the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, to provide fall prevention training for 680 employers and workers in the light manufacturing/industrial sector and general industry.

The Training and Educational Materials Development Grants are for much smaller amounts. The grants include $74,952 to Georgia Tech Research Corporation in Atlanta, Georgia, to develop training materials on hazards in the entertainment industry. Topics to be covered include fall, scaffolding, electrical, struck-by and health hazards, and hot work. The target audience will be employers and workers in the film and television industry involved in both production and construction.

Capacity Building Grants

The capacity building grants include funds for two pilot projects:

• $80,000 to Tampa Hillsborough Action Plan, Inc., for personal protective equipment (PPE) training in residential construction for young, hard-to-reach workers with limited English proficiency and temporary workers transitioning to full-time employment; and
• $78,388 to Texas A&M University—Kingsville to develop 4-hour electrical safety training, provided in English and Spanish, for workers in the oil and gas industry.

Recipients of capacity building follow-on grants include the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium; New Jersey State AFL-CIO, Community Services Agency; Oklahoma State University; Port of San Diego Ship Repair Association; Rutgers School of Management & Labor Relations; and Western New York Council on Occupational Safety & Health.

Former Official Honored

The grant program honors the late Susan Harwood, a former director of the Office of Risk Assessment in OSHA’s Health standards directorate. Harwood helped develop federal occupational safety and health standards for asbestos, benzene, bloodborne pathogens, cotton dust, formaldehyde, and lead. She died in 1996.