Press Release

July 26, 2006
Contact: Jerry Carey
Phone: (856) 566-6171
careyge@umdnj.edu

Grant to UMDNJ-School of Public Health Supports Minority Worker Training
The Prudential Foundation Renews $100,000 Commitment for 2006

PISCATAWAY — The Foundation of UMDNJ has received a $100,000 grant from The Prudential Foundation to renew Prudential’s support of the Newark Brownfields Minority Worker Training Program administered by the UMDNJ-School of Public Health. This is the second year that The Prudential Foundation has awarded a grant to this training program.

The Newark Brownfields Minority Worker Training Program trains underemployed or unemployed minority men and women from the Newark area in the skills required to secure union or private contractor jobs in the environmental clean-up and construction industries. Since the program’s inception in 2000, more than 150 Newark area residents have completed the 17-week program of intensive, high-caliber instruction in the handling and removal of hazardous materials, construction trades and life skills training in job-related math, reading, writing, computer literacy and personal finance.

“We are so thankful for Prudential’s continued support because this program provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for these individuals to learn the skills they need to get and keep good jobs,” said Mitchel Rosen, director of the Office of Public Health Practice at the UMDNJ-School of Public Health and coordinator of the Brownfields Training Program.

“The Brownfields Minority Worker Training Program presents a great opportunity for the people of Newark and The Prudential Foundation is proud to continue its support for another year,” said Gabriella Morris, president of The Prudential Foundation. “This program does more than provide valuable job training and life skills for individuals. It prepares them for jobs in an industry that works to improve the very environment where the citizens of Newark live and work.”

According to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, more than 450 known or suspected brownfields sites exist in Newark alone. Each year, the Newark Brownfields Minority Worker Training Program receives more than 150 applicants for the 30 spots available in the program. More than 80 percent of the program’s graduates go on to secure jobs with unions or private contractors.

UMDNJ is the nation's largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 5,500 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and its only school of public health, on five campuses. Last year, there were more than two million patient visits to UMDNJ facilities and faculty at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a mental health and addiction services network.