ATLANTA – Georgia Tech’s Safety, Health Environmental Services (SHES) program recently received $100,000 from the U.S. Department of Labor to develop education and training related to workplace safety, from hazard awareness (including controls and avoidance) to workers’ rights and employee responsibilities under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
SHES is one of 102 nonprofits nationwide that received monies, which totaled $12.7 million. In addition to training and educational materials development, funding categories included targeted topic training and capacity building.
The funding, administered by OSHA, comes from the Susan Harwood Training Grants Program. The program’s namesake, the late Dr. Susan Harwood, served as the director of OSHA’s Office of Risk Assessment for 17 years.
“The Susan Harwood Training Grants are a critical investment that the Department of Labor makes to help workers know their rights and power – in turn making their workplace safer and healthier,” said then-Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su.
“This grant honors Dr. Harwood’s remarkable legacy of safeguarding workers from workplace hazards throughout her years at the Department of Labor. I’m eager to witness the impact these organizations will achieve in her name.”
SHES is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor to provide a range of occupational safety, health, and environmental training and consulting services to manufacturing and construction industries in the Southeast and is housed in Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute.
As a socioeconomic development organization, the Enterprise Innovation Institute takes a people-centered approach to programming, focusing on the ways that families and communities across Georgia (as well as the U.S. and the world) benefit directly from its offerings.
During the 2024 fiscal year SHES worked with 40 different industries — predominantly related to construction — and a total of 56,095 workers were removed from unsafe situations. The group completed 354 site visits, identifying and correcting 1,481 serious hazards, including risks from chemicals and fire extinguishers, electrical and personal protective equipment, and machine guarding.
Harwood Grant monies from that year funded the SHES Temperature Extremes program, which aimed to train 550 individuals through 10 one-hour training sessions and 12 half-day sessions. The program exceeded its goals, training 281 people over the course of 16 one-hour sessions and 363 people during 27 half-day sessions.
“The SHES team has been fortunate to work on a variety of Harwood Grant projects over the years, helping us to assist employers with providing safe and healthy workplaces,” said Paul Schlumper, director of SHES.
“This current funding will allow us to continue our efforts to develop training materials for young workers and their trainers/mentors. Training will include safety and health topics such as hazard awareness, fall prevention, ladder safety, chemical exposure, and personal protective equipment.”
SHES offers OSHA 21(d) Consultation Program and the Georgia Environmental Compliance Assistance Program (GECAP), both free and confidential services available to small businesses in Georgia. SHES also serves as an OSHA Training Institute Education Center, offering courses in a variety of occupational safety and health topics. To learn more, visit oshainfo.gatech.edu.