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Providence, RI Organization Selected for EPA Environmental Education Grant

Release Date: 10/05/2011
Contact Information: Paula Ballentine, 617-918-1027

(Boston, Mass. – October 5, 2011) An organization based in Providence, RI, that aims to reduce the risks of poor air quality was recently awarded a $38,860 environmental education grant by EPA.

The Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island was one of 74 organizations in New England to apply for funding and one of four to receive part of the $219,094 awarded.

The funding will be used for the league’s ECO Youth Multimedia Community Educators Program, which offers after school programs to mostly underserved high school students on air quality, toxics and house-hold chemicals to help reduce the exposure of community members to asthma triggers, including VOCs and emissions.

The project creates a group run by youth that lets communities better address issues of toxic substances and air quality through youth-run public presentations. Through this education, community members reduce their exposure to possible asthma triggers both indoors and outside.

EPA funds environmental education projects that focus on educating teachers, students, parents or the general public about human health problems. These issues range from pollution; improving teaching tools and techniques for educators through workshops; building state or local capability to develop and deliver environmental education or public outreach programs; or promoting environmental careers and stewardship among students through hands-on activities.
 
The program also encourages projects that educate members of a community through community-based organizations, or educates the general public through print, film, broadcast, or other media to be more environmentally aware and make environment friendly decisions in their day-to-day lives.

 Other New England groups awarded grants were:

•  The Education Connection in Litchfield, Conn ($28,977) for a program aiming to integrate the environment into classrooms and involving 10 middle school teachers and up to 250 students.
   
•  The Mount Desert Island Biological Lab in Salisbury Cove, Maine ($83,628), a two-year program to educate students and teachers in two inland Maine high schools about marine vegetative environments.
   
•  The Coalition for Buzzards Bay of New Bedford, Mass. ($67,629), which is working to educate elementary school children on water quality issues through a partnership between Bay In My Backyard, the YMCA Southcoast and Wareham Public Schools.

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