EPA Announces $1.3 Million to Fund 13 Environmental Justice Grants in New England | US EPA

Projects in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont

December 16, 2021

BOSTON, Dec. 16, 2021 — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced $1,350,000 in environmental justice (EJ) grant funding for 13 grants in New England selected through the Environmental Justice Small Grants (EJSG) and Collaborative Problem-Solving Cooperative Agreement (EJCPS) programs. The New England projects are among 133 grants, totaling $14.1 million, announced by EPA to advance environmental justice nationwide.

In New England, ten EJ Small Grant recipients have been selected to receive up to $75,000 each, and three EJCPS grant recipients have been selected to receive up to $200,000 each, following successful completion of the award process. The majority of these EJ grants are receiving funds appropriated through the American Rescue Plan (ARP).

“President Biden has made it clear that delivering environmental justice is a top priority for this Administration, especially in communities most gravely impacted by the pandemic and health outcome disparities from pollution,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “Thanks to the President and Congress, today’s environmental justice grants funded in large part by the American Rescue Plan will provide critical support to our most overburdened and vulnerable communities.”

“EPA is very proud to be funding thirteen important projects in five New England states to help overburdened communities address longstanding environmental concerns,” said EPA New England Acting Regional Administrator Deb Szaro. “EPA New England has always made addressing environmental justice concerns a priority, and we are now redoubling that commitment to ensure that EPA is protecting public health and the environment for all our citizens.”

New England-based EJ Small Grant Recipients

Connecticut:
New Haven Ecology Project, based in New Haven, Conn., plans to inspire New Haven residents to grow food locally and build the City’s capacity to improve air quality and public health. The organization’s project aims to create spaces for community knowledge sharing that amplify local experts and youth voices regarding climate friendly food by utilizing its farm to create an intensive learning experience for summer farm interns and a Green Jobs Corps crew. The organization focuses on learning and leadership, inviting people across ages and identities to connect to their urban environment, build community, grow into their full potential, and contribute to a just and sustainable role. Through an established network of connections in New Haven, the New Haven Ecology Project will create a welcoming learning space to engage 175 people for an annual conference and five smaller workshops, including youth workshops.

Katherine Sebastian Dring (Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation) is a state recognized Tribal government located in Connecticut and a small non-profit that plans to expand a Native Farm to School Program that promotes healthy eating, growing techniques and traditional native crops at schools, and on its reservation at the Mary Momoho Community Garden for children and adults. The community garden supports a long-standing food pantry program that provides healthy food bundles for tribal members and other individuals in need of assistance. The Tribe plans to invite students to its 220-acre reservation in North Stonington, CT to learn about and participate in the community garden, participate in air and water quality testing and receive environmental education. The project seeks to expand the Tribe’s food pantry effort by expanding the garden to carry out the project, yield more crops, water collection and irrigation, outfit a complete solar green energy system for the processing station, educational environment, and zero carbon footprint community center.

Towers Foundation, based in New Haven, Conn., is a small non-profit that proposes to revitalize a 13,300 square foot area on its residential campus in downtown New Haven by building a functioning community garden for low-income seniors, neighbors, and community partners. The project’s objective is to provide environmental and nutritional assets that will lead to higher quality of life and stronger community health. The proposed outcomes of this project would improve air quality and green space from added trees, plants, and shade; reduced food insecurity; increased nutritional health from consuming fresh fruits and vegetables; and expanded socialization opportunities through activities with other residents, families, friends, and neighbors.

Greater Dwight Development Corporation, based in New Haven, Conn., is a small non-profit that seeks to address longstanding, neighborhood-scale environmental justice and health concerns through the development of a new action-oriented plan for the Greater Dwight neighborhood, framed around health and the environment. The organization plans to partner with the Yale University Urban Design Workgroup and others to conduct a community engagement and planning process focused on addressing air quality and urban heat island effect concerns; develop research on environmental conditions in the neighborhood, including air quality monitoring; and develop a web-based neighborhood planning document, including a GIS-based, real-time dashboard of air quality in the neighborhood.

Massachusetts:
GreenRoots, based in Chelsea, Mass., is a small non-profit that plans to create a comprehensive multi-stakeholder, community-led task force addressing air quality concerns in Chelsea and East Boston, MA. In April 2021, GreenRoots received $200,000 from the MA Attorney General’s Office as part of a settlement for air quality violations. Funding from the MA Attorney General’s Office will be used to purchase air purifiers for homes in Chelsea impacted by poor air quality. GreenRoots’ EJ Small Grant project will ensure this program has robust community engagement and is a replicable model for other EJ communities. The EJ Small Grant will support the facilitation of a resident-led, multi-stakeholder task force to understand and analyze air quality data collected; translate and share data out easily, accessibly and multilingually; collaborate with air quality experts, health institutions and city partners to best determine air filter distribution; develop strategies to ensure regular air filter use; and lastly, it will support information gathering to determine if the filters are improving health and quality of life and if there are potential policy changes that could lead to lasting air quality improvements.

Speak for the Trees, based in Watertown, Mass., is a small non-profit that plans to improve the size, health, and equity of Boston’s urban forest. The proposed project, “Community Tree Stories,” will increase awareness and dialogue surrounding inequitable tree canopy cover and its implications on the health of residents living in EJ communities. The project will be conducted in partnership with community-based organizations and nonprofits who will co-develop a series of community tree walks in three neighborhoods for residents, municipal officials, and researchers to explore and deepen their understanding of the intersections of environmental justice, clean air, and tree canopy cover. Through survey collection, storytelling, and community engagement, the project will incubate partnerships and develop shared visions for an urban forest that provides public health benefits. Data and information collection will also nurture a partnership with American Forests in developing a community-informed Tree Equity Score Analyzer (TESA) for Boston. TESA will define and refine future tree equity work in Boston, enabling residents, grassroots organizations, elected officials, and City of Boston staff to create parcel-scale tree planting scenarios for environmental and public health benefits.

Regional Environmental Council, based in Worcester, Mass., is a small non-profit that aims to increase the accessibility and affordability of healthy food for residents of Worcester’s low-income neighborhoods by creating a more equitable and sustainable regional food system. This project seeks to promote community health and welfare by increasing public education and building local capacity to address climate change by training urban gardeners in best practices for urban food gardening techniques that promote climate resilience. The project will educate and train growers at 60 community and school garden sites in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color to engage in healthy soil and bio growth practices that sequester carbon and will create a network of skilled community volunteers to support this project.

Mystic River Watershed Association plans to increase understanding of residents’ current experience of extreme heat and housing and food insecurity in Everett, Mass., in order to implement climate resilience efforts and ensure that potential strategies to combat these issues do not increase social inequities, such as gentrification and displacement of lower-income and working-class residents. The project seeks to: examine policies, plans and programs that were activated during the pandemic via municipal and community-based organizations in Everett through participatory research; identify if strategies are adaptable or can be improved upon for long-term climate resilience, with a particular focus on extreme heat and housing and food insecurity; and determine resident-led policy, systems and environmental change strategies to combat extreme heat and housing and food insecurity.

Rhode Island:
Refugee Development Center, based in Providence, R.I., is a small non-profit that seeks to address housing safety and prevent lead poisoning among refugees in Rhode Island. The project will focus on increasing awareness about lead safety and decrease the incidence of lead poisoning among refugees. Refugee Development Center plans to conduct preventative home visits and phone check-ins on lead safety with refugee families in collaboration with relevant partners. The project’s long-term goal is to increase knowledge about lead safety in the refugee community and for participants in the project to spread awareness among their family and friends.

Vermont:
Center for Whole Communities, based in Burlington, VT is a small non-profit that plans to create the Vermont Environmental Justice (VT-EJ) Network that will strategically build on work addressing local environmental and public health issues, drawing on findings and results from project partners’ research on COVID-19 vulnerabilities, EJ mapping, and community surveys. The demographics and rural setting of Vermont can hide environmental injustices in the state’s communities; however, issues of water quality, indoor air quality, energy affordability, transportation access, food insecurity, and associated health risks disproportionately affect low-income populations and communities of color. The VT-EJ Network will bridge overburdened community members with decision-makers at the state and local level, fostering relationships and creating continuity between communities and government, increasing accessibility of information and resources, and supporting context-sensitive communication. Long term, the VT-EJ Network will strengthen communities’ ability to equitably distribute environmental burdens and benefits.

New England-based EJ Collaborative Problem-Solving Grants

Connecticut:
Hartford Parent University, Inc., in collaboration with Hartford Public Schools, Trinity Health Care, the City of Hartford’s Public Health Department and stakeholders will implement Phase 1 and 2 of an EPA New England Healthy Communities grant with a focus on lead poisoning in the home, classroom and water supply in Hartford – the poorest town in Connecticut. Unlike the first virtual EPA pilot project, this “Working Together for a Healthy Hartford” program will be a hands-on interactive program with the community at large through HPU’s parent organizers and eight Hartford Public School PTO’s and PTA’s. HPU anticipates reaching 1,000 community members over the course of two years. The focus will be on collaborative problem-solving, in the context of environmental justice, using a “proactive, strategic, and visionary community-based processes to develop solutions to address local environmental and public health issues” to achieve a Healthy Hartford. 90 percent of all parent workers are bilingual.

Maine:
Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness, multiple tribal communities – The five Wabanaki people and communities in Maine will be served through this grant. Funding will support the expansion of Environmental Health Worker services to limit ongoing COVID-19 impacts with an emphasis on indoor and outdoor air quality, clean drinking water, and emergency preparedness. Additionally, youth groups in each community will work with a designated Environmental Health Worker and internal and external partners to create projects surrounding clean drinking water, air quality, and/or emergency preparedness based off their assessment of individual community needs. Youth leaders will then present the results of their projects to community members and internal and external partners.

Massachusetts:
Partners for a Healthier Community, Inc., Springfield – This organization will launch the “Pioneer Valley Air Quality Monitoring Project” (PVAQM) to build community leadership for issues including air quality awareness, climate resilience, environmental justice, urban forestry and community science. The project will build on the efforts of the Pioneer Valley Asthma Coalition, Live Well Springfield, and partners ReGreen and Earthwatch in addressing health outcomes through the maintenance and expansion of an air quality monitoring network in the cities of Springfield, Holyoke and Chicopee. Working together, the partner agencies will maintain and expand the current PVAQM network of over 50 sensors collecting data on PM2.5 and ozone in the region, focusing on EJ neighborhoods in Holyoke and Springfield to Chicopee and other nearby EJ areas. The project will conduct semi-annual monitoring of other organic contaminants and toxic substances and will operate with a lens of racial and health equity to ensure that resident voices are at the center of project planning and implementation. The project will build on collaboration among community-based organizations, coalitions, and the cities’ departments to ensure that community residents have a voice in advocacy and decision-making around these issues.

Background on 2021 EJ Small Grants

Nationwide, EPA’s 2021 EJ Small Grants selections will benefit communities in 37 states, as well as Washington DC and Puerto Rico. The ninety-nine projects, many funded through ARP, cover a wide array of environmental justice issues including the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, air monitoring, indoor/outdoor air quality, food access, community planning, water treatment training, community agriculture, green jobs and infrastructure, emergency preparedness and planning, toxic exposures, water quality, and healthy homes projects.

Also, in support of President Biden’s Executive Orders 13985 and 14008 , EPA has for the first time created a designation exclusively for small nonprofit organizations, defined as having 10 or fewer full-time employees. This effort reflects the President’s Justice40 initiative defined in EO 14008 and ensures that grant resources reach organizations of lower capacity that historically struggle to receive federal funding. 83 of the organizations receiving an EJ Small Grant this year are small nonprofit organizations. To see the full listing of all 99 organizations receiving an EJSG and to learn more about EJSG, visit: https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/environmental-justice-small-grants-program

Background on 2021 EJ Collaborative Problem-Solving Grants

Nationwide, EPA’s 2021 EJ Collaborative Problem-Solving selections will benefit communities in 24 states, as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. These 34 projects address a breadth of environmental justice issues including the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, air monitoring, indoor/outdoor air quality, community education, EJ tool development, green jobs and infrastructure, food access, emergency preparedness and planning, toxic exposures, land reuse, water quality, and support of healthy homes. To see the full listing of all the selected 34 EJCPS projects and to learn more about EJCPS, visit: https://www.epa.gov/environmental-justice/environmental-justice-collaborative-problem-solving-cooperative-agreement-0.

Background on the American Rescue Plan Appropriation to EPA

Earlier this year, EPA announced spending plans for the $100 million in ARP funding appropriated by Congress in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and health outcome disparities, with $50 million being designated to improve ambient air quality monitoring, and $50 million specifically designated for environmental justice to address disproportionate environmental or public health harms and risks in underserved communities through a range of local initiatives.

Of this $50 million ARP appropriation for EJ, $4.1 million went to support 21 EJ projects under the State/Tribal/Local EJ Cooperative Agreement (SEJCA) awards program. The additional EJSG and EJCPS selections announced today will account for approximately $9.55 million of ARP funds with additional funding provided through regular annual appropriations to EPA. Upcoming ARP-funded EJ grant activities will be announced after the EJSG and EJCPS awards are finalized.

To learn more about EJ at EPA, visit: https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 was signed into law on March 11, 2021. To learn more about ARP funding at EPA, visit: https://www.epa.gov/arp.

For up-to-date information about Environmental Justice funding opportunities, events, and webinars, subscribe to EPA’s Environmental Justice listserv by sending a blank email to: join-epa-ej@lists.epa.gov. Follow us on Twitter: @EPAEnvJustice.