Won asks about $4.5M GROW pilot overlap with existing programs

Can you also help us understand the difference between the $4.5 million in green workforce program pilot?

How does that...

Overlap with the 600 million for the existing green career pathways for young people versus the 4.5 million green workforce program pilot by the Mamdani administration.

So just to clarify, you're referring to the GROW program from DEP, correct?

Yes.

Yeah, so I'd say that's a reflection of this administration's commitment to following through on what we've outlined already.

The Green Economy Action Plan.

And so that investment from DEP is a reflection of the belief of that climate change is real.

We need to continue to invest in the Green Economy Action Plan.

So that investment is not...

At the time of the Green Economy Action Plan was not explicitly outlined, but as we know, the plan was based on projections, based on information at the time, but this administration continues to adapt and,

as seen here, invest in good opportunities to connect

people working with the DOH fund.

So am I understanding you correctly?

You're saying that the $4.5 million is not net new, it's for the existing program?

No, this was a new $4.5 million pilot administered by DEP.

So that was a new investment by DEP.

Okay, and what is different?

You're saying that it's a completely different set of funding and it's being used for different purposes?

It's being used to help train 20 participants in managing over a thousand different rain gardens in East New York and South Ozone Park.

Okay, so it's not overlapping with the 600 million.

This is a completely separate program from what the Adams administration already had?

So again, just to clarify, the $600 million is not part of the $600 million because it's not part of the funding that was outlined in the Youth Action Plan.

And so this is a separate $4.5 million investment that was made by DEP just recently.