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Grants Available for New England Community-Based Nonprofits Working to Reduce Environmental Risks

Release Date: 06/22/2006
Contact Information: David Deegan, (617) 918-1017

(Boston, Mass. – June 22, 2006) – Two programs are making grant funds available to groups working to improve New England’s environment from the ground up.

EPA's New England regional office is seeking applications for two national funding programs designed to assist local groups working to reduce environmental risks in communities. These funding programs are the “EJ Small Grants” program and the “EJ Collaborative Problem-Solving” program.

Proposed EJ Small Grants projects, worth $50,000 each, must be designed to form collaborative partnerships, educate the community, develop a comprehensive understanding of the local environmental and/or public health issues and identify ways to address these issues at the local level. EPA anticipates awarding at least one grant in the New England region.

The purpose of proposed EJ Collaborative Problem-Solving projects, worth $100,000 each, must be to address an existing local environmental and/or public health issue. However, these projects cannot focus only on education or training. EPA expects to award at least one of these grants in the New England region.

The deadline for both grant applications is late October. Applicants may apply for either program, but not both.

Eligible applicants must be either:

- a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization as designated by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service; or
- a non-profit organization, recognized by the state, territory, commonwealth or tribe in which it is located.

In addition, an eligible applicant must be able to demonstrate that it has worked directly with, or provided services to, an affected community that is disproportionately impacted by environmental harms and risks, and has a local environmental and/or public health issue that is identified in the proposal.

The focus of this assistance agreement program is to build the capacity of community-based organizations to address environmental and/or public health issues at the local level.

EPA will hold several conference calls for prospective applicants to address questions about the programs. Calls are scheduled on July 11 and 25, August 15 and 29, September 12 and 26 and October 12. To register, e-mail Rosa Moore ([email protected]) with your name, the name of your organization, the address of your organization, your phone number, and the preferred date for the call. People can also register by calling the toll-free number 1-800-962-6215.

The deadline to submit completed application packages for the 2006 EJ Small Grants and the EJ Collaborative Problem-Solving programs is midnight on Oct. 23, 2006.

More information on both grant programs, eligibility criteria and application instructions is available (epa.gov/compliance/environmentaljustice/grants/index.html) .

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