EPA Community Grants Available to Protect Public Health and the Environment in New England

  • 03/15/18

Boston – The US Environmental Protection Agency is making grants available for New England communities to support EPA's "Back-to-Basics" agenda to reduce environmental risks, protect and improve human health and improve the quality of life. 

EPA New England's Healthy Communities Grant Program is accepting proposals for projects that will benefit one or more New England communities. EPA plans to award about 10 cooperative agreements.
"EPA is very much looking forward to receiving strong nominations for the Healthy Communities Grant Program," said Alexandra Dunn, regional administrator of EPA's New England office. "By focusing on Administrator Pruitt's "Back-to-Basics" agenda, we'll be able to make a lasting positive difference by partnering directly with local experts to advance clean air, clean water, and clean land – ultimately protecting public health and the environment in our communities."

The Healthy Communities Grant Program will identify and fund projects that can make positive differences by focusing on target "Back-to-Basics" investment areas. Eligible projects under this program must be located in or directly further one or more of the three "target investment areas" (areas needing to create community resilience; environmental justice areas of potential concern; or sensitive populations), and identify how the proposed project will achieve measurable environmental or public health results in one or more of the four "target program areas" (clean, green, and healthy schools; community and water infrastructure resilience; healthy indoor environments; or healthy outdoor environments).

Full descriptions of the target investment and target program areas can be found in the 2018 Healthy Communities Grant Program Request for Initial Proposals.

Eligible applicants include state and local governments, public nonprofit institutions or organizations, private nonprofit institutions or organizations, quasi-public nonprofit institutions or organizations, federally recognized Indian Tribal Governments, K-12 schools or school districts; and non-profit organizations, such as grassroots and community-based organizations. Funding will be considered for a college or university to support a project with substantial community or tribal involvement. 

A two-step process will be used to select proposals. An initial project summary must be submitted as a first step; then applicants with the highest quality proposals will be invited to submit full proposals. The deadline to submit an initial project summary is April 13.

To help answer questions from prospective applicants, the Healthy Communities Grant Program will host three conference calls before the initial project summary is due. The information sessions are being offered March 27, March 29, and April 3. These information sessions are optional, but RSVPs are required. A registration form can be found in the Request for Initial Proposals.

More information:

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