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EPA New England Offers $5,000 to $30,000 Healthy Communities Grants in New England; Deadline for One-Page Proposals is April 30th

Release Date: 03/30/2005
Contact Information:

Contact: Sheryl Rosner, EPA Office of Public Affairs, (617) 918-1865, rosner.sheryl@epa.gov

For Immediate Release: March 30, 2005; Release # sr053016

Contact: Sheryl Rosner - 617-918-1865

BOSTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s New England Office today announced that grants of $5,000 to $30,000 are available for eligible organizations for projects in the six-state region through its Healthy Communities Grant Program. The deadline for one-page project proposals is April 30th.

The Healthy Communities Grant Program integrates nine EPA New England programs – covering such topics as: compliance assistance and pollution prevention in schools and healthcare sectors; asthma; children’s environmental health; community air toxics; pesticides; smart growth; and the Urban Environmental Program. These programs work together to identify competitive projects that will achieve measurable environmental, human health and quality of life improvements in communities across New England.

EPA expects to award about 20 to 25 grants through this competitive program, based on availability of funding. Eligible applicants include non-profit organizations, local government, public and private universities and colleges, hospitals, state or regional agencies, K-12 schools or school districts and tribes.

The grant program will achieve this through identifying and funding projects that:

• target resources to benefit communities at risk (environmental justice areas of potential concern, places with high risk from toxic air pollution, urban areas) and sensitive populations (e.g. children, elderly, others at increased risk);
• assess, understand and reduce environmental and human health risks;
• increase collaboration through community-based projects;
• build institutional and community capacity to understand and solve
• environmental and human health problems; and,
• achieve measurable environmental and human health benefits.

Target Investment Areas include environmental justice areas of potential concern, places with high risks from toxic air pollution, sensitive populations, and/or urban areas (populations of 35,000 or more). Target program areas include: asthma, capacity-building on environmental and public health issues, healthy indoor/outdoor environments, healthy schools, preserving & restoring urban natural resources and open/green space, smart growth, and water quality monitoring or analyses.

In order to qualify, projects must meet two criteria: (1) be located in and directly benefit one or more of the four Target Investment Areas; and (2) achieve measurable environmental and public health results in one or more of the seven target program areas.

To help answer questions from prospective applicants, the Healthy Communities Grant Program will sponsor four telephone conference calls before the one-page project summary is due on April 30. Telephone informational sessions for the one-page summary outlines will be held April 12 and 19. The training sessions are optional, but RSVPs are required.

Copies of the Request for Proposal and other application forms are available from EPA's web site at www.epa.gov/ne/eco/uep/grants_2005hc.html
Interested applicants may request a proposal or RSVP for an upcoming training session by calling Sandra Padula at 617-918-1797.

Related Information:
Urban Environmental Program
Grant Applications