U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is issuing this solicitation to request applications for projects supporting community-based nonprofit organizations (CBOs) in their efforts to collaborate and partner with other stakeholders (e.g., local businesses and industry, local government, medical service providers, academia, etc.) to develop solutions that will significantly address environmental and/or public health issue(s) in communities disproportionately burdened by environmental harms and risks.
Donor Name: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 04/10/2023
Size of the Grant: up to $500,000
Grant Duration: 3 years
Details:
These projects will help transform disadvantaged and underserved communities into healthy, thriving communities capable of addressing the environmental and public health challenges they have historically faced, as well as current and future challenges.
Objectives
Collaborative Problem-Solving Model – The program’s objective is to support projects that demonstrate the utility of the Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Model. For the purposes of the EJCPS Program, collaborative problem-solving is defined as an effort to bring together groups and resources (e.g., information, labor, money) by three or more stakeholders to solve a set of problems that any single entity cannot solve individually. Collaborative problem solving builds upon existing community understanding to establish and maintain partnerships capable of producing meaningful environmental and/or public health results. To provide a systematic approach towards collaborative problem-solving, OEJECR has developed a Collaborative Problem-Solving Model (Model). Such a Model is intended to assist vulnerable and underserved communities in developing proactive, strategic, and visionary approaches to address their environmental justice issues and achieve community health and sustainability.
Collaborative problem-solving also involves developing a well-designed strategic plan with a built-in evaluation component to measure and achieve results on local environmental and/or public health issues and to sustain the partnerships. These elements are cross-cutting and interdependent and should be utilized in a proactive, strategic, and iterative manner. Determining which elements to undertake, and in what order, can vary greatly, however, depending upon the unique facts and circumstances surrounding each environmental and/or public health issue. Not all the elements are required to be used in every situation. Rather, the CPS Model and its seven elements can be viewed as a “toolbox” filled with different tools that can be used as needed. The seven elements are as follows:
- Issue Identification, Visioning, and Strategic Goal-Setting;
- Community Capacity-Building and Leadership Development;
- Development of Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships and Leveraging of Resources;
- Consensus Building and Dispute Resolution;
- Constructive Engagement with Other Stakeholders;
- Sound Management and Implementation; and
- Evaluation
Types of Projects
The EJCPS Program has funded a wide range of projects and project types over the years that address local environmental and public health concerns through collaborative partnerships. All proposed projects should include activities designed to engage, educate, and empower communities to understand the local environmental and public health issues and to identify ways to address these issues at the local level. Types of projects the EJCPS program has funded in the past and would be eligible to be funded under this competition with CAA 138 IRA funding, include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Air quality & asthma
- Water quality and sampling
- Food access to reduce vehicle travel and fuel emissions
- Stormwater issues and green infrastructure
- Lead contamination § Pesticides and other toxic substances
- Healthy homes
- Illegal dumping
- Emergency preparedness and disaster resiliency § Environmental job training
- Youth development relating to Environmental Justice
For this competition, EPA will give special consideration to applications that focus on the following program priority:
- Projects addressing Climate Change, Disaster Resiliency, and/or Emergency Preparedness – The effects of climate change and extreme weather events tend to adversely impact the most vulnerable communities and populations disproportionately. Therefore, EPA may give special consideration to projects that address the needs of underserved and vulnerable communities that have been adversely impacted or are likely to be adversely impacted by natural disasters, including, but not limited to, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, floods, earthquakes, and future pandemics.
- Rural areas – EPA will give special consideration to high-ranking proposals to be performed in rural areas as defined by the program. Rural areas, for the purposes of this competition, are defined as one of the following:
- Local areas with populations of 50,000 or less that have limited access to public or private resources commonly found in metropolitan areas
- Community Network areas selected by the Rural Partners Network
- Coal and Energy Communities
- Health Impact Assessment (HIA) – HIA is a “practice that aims to protect and promote health and to reduce inequities in health during a decision-making process.” One’s health is affected by genetics and the health care we receive, but also by the built, social, and natural environments in which they live and work. As such, there is growing recognition that a broad range of decisions can affect health, and health consequences, positive and negative, should be considered as part of decision-making. EPA may give special consideration to HIA projects that seek to determine the potential effects of a proposed environmental decision on the health of underserved and vulnerable communities and the distribution of those effects within the communities.
Funding Information
The total estimated funding expected for all awards under this solicitation is approximately $30,000,000, broken down as follows:
- $25,000,000 for CBOs proposing projects for up to $500,000 each. Approximately 50 awards for up $500,000 each are anticipated under this track.
- $5,000,000 for qualifying small CBOs with 5 or fewer full-time employees proposing projects for up to $150,000 each. Approximately 33 awards for up to $150,000 each are anticipated under this track.
Between these two tracks of funding, EPA anticipates awarding approximately 83 cooperative agreements nationwide. Cooperative agreements resulting from this announcement will be funded for a three-year performance period and are expected to be fully funded at time of award.
Eligible Projects
Eligible Project Categories – Consistent with section 138(b)(2) of the Clean Air Act, Applications submitted in response to this funding opportunity must address one of the following five broad categories:
- community-led air and other pollution monitoring, prevention, and remediation, and investments in low- and zero-emission and resilient technologies and related infrastructure and workforce development that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollutants;
- mitigating climate and health risks from urban heat islands, extreme heat, wood heater emissions, and wildfire events;
- climate resiliency and adaptation;
- reducing indoor toxics and indoor air pollution; or
- facilitating engagement of disadvantaged communities in Local, State and Federal public processes, such as advisory groups, workshops, and rulemakings
Eligible Project Activities – The following are more specific examples of the types of activities which may be considered for funding under this solicitation. It is provided for illustrative purposes only and is not all inclusive:
- research that is incidental to the project design
- public education
- small-scale construction and demolition work (if needed for project)
- small-scale clean-ups
- installations of air or water filtration systems
- major disposal training
- energy recovery projects training
- building refurbishments that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants
- mitigation of pollution
- remediation of lead or asbestos
- workforce development to support low and zero emission and resilient technologies that reduce greenhouse gas and other air pollutants.
- Environmental Justice partnership building that engages disadvantaged communities in Local, State and Federal public processes, such as advisory groups, workshops, and rulemakings
- community revitalization planning in support of climate resiliency and adaptation
- monitoring of sources of pollution
- efforts to improve equitable transportation and mobility including through efforts to address barriers of cost and safety related to walking, bicycling, and public transit in order to reduce air pollution
- development of disaster preparedness plans
- community revitalization planning addressing local pollution and greenspace
- facilitating the engagement of disadvantaged communities in State advisory groups, workshops and rulemakings and other public processes.
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible Entities based on the assistance listing – In accordance with CFDA 66.306 (as it will be updated to be consistent with this announcement), an eligible applicant must be one of the following entities:
- a community-based nonprofit organization; or
- a partnership of community-based nonprofit organizations
NOTE: the partnership must be documented with a signed Letter of Commitment from the community-based nonprofit organization detailing the parameters of the partnership, as well as the role and responsibilities of the community-based organization.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.