66.604: Environmental Justice Small Grant Program

66.604

Inactive

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Sept. 21, 2022

Sept. 21, 2022

The Environmental Justice Small Grants (EJSG) Program provides funding directly to community-based organizations for projects that help residents of underserved communities understand and address local environmental and public health issues. The term “underserved community” refers to a community with environmental justice concerns and/or vulnerable populations, including people of color, low income, rural, tribal, indigenous, and homeless populations that may be disproportionately impacted by environmental harms and risks. In general, the EJSG program awards grants that support community-driven projects designed to engage, educate, and empower communities to better understand and address local environmental and public health issues. Community-driven projects are projects that include activities where community residents and/or representatives are integrally involved in the thinking behind and execution of those activities. Therefore, applying organizations should have a direct connection to the underserved community impacted by environmental harms and risks. Funding Priorities - Fiscal Year 2021: 1) Public Education, Training, Emergency Planning, and/or Investigations on Impacts of COVID-19 on Underserved Communities and Vulnerable Populations – (UPDATE 4/19/2021) American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds are being made available for projects that address health outcome disparities from pollution and the COVID–19 pandemic and that identify and address disproportionate environmental or public health harms and risks in minority populations or low-income populations under: Clean Air Act, section 103 (b)(3) and the Safe Drinking Water Act, section 1442(c)(3). Currently understood science around COVID-19 transmission indicates that most transmission is via respiratory droplets, airborne transmission, and/or close contact with an infected person. Transmission from contaminated surfaces, while possible, appears to be less common. Additionally, reducing environmental or public health harms and risks in underserved communities requires a well- trained safe drinking water workforce. See Appendix A - Guidance on American Rescue Plan Funding - for examples of which types of projects will be funded with ARP funds and which will be funded with EJ funds. NOTE: EJSG funds cannot be used for Human Health Studies, including taking blood or other medical information from humans. 2) Projects addressing Climate, 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. 3) PORTS INITIATIVE PARTNERSHIP: EPA’s Ports Initiative program led by the Office of Transportation and Air Quality (OTAQ) anticipates funding approximately six projects that address clean air issues at coastal and inland ports or rail yards or other relevant projects. Since 2016, EPA’s Environmental Justice and Ports Initiative programs have partnered to support effective and meaningful engagement between communities, the port industry and other port stakeholders. Emissions from diesel equipment at ports disproportionately impact nearby communities that are often comprised of low-income populations and people of color. To promote community-port collaboration for effective planning, EPA has developed the Community-Port Collaboration Toolkit, which is designed to help communities and ports develop collaboration skills and to enhance understanding of stakeholders’ priorities and challenges associated with port-related activities. The Toolkit includes the Ports Primer for Communities, the Community Action Roadmap, and the Environmental Justice (EJ) Primer for Ports along with associated training materials and worksheets. The tools were developed through a collaborative process with feedback from port operators, communities, environmental justice organizations and government agencies. A demonstrated use of the Toolkit during the project period is strongly encouraged, with particular emphasis on Steps 1, 2, and 3 of the Community Action Roadmap: prioritizing goals and concerns; identifying levers of change; and identifying influencers and other stakeholders with whom to build relations. NOTE - To qualify for the Ports Initiative funding, your project must only include activities related to the Clean Air Act, Section 103(b)(3). 4) SMALL NON-PROFIT SET-ASIDE TRACK - EPA intends to set aside approximately half of the total available funding in FY21, $3.6M, for awards to non-profit organizations who have 10 or fewer full-time employees on staff at the time of submission of their application and award. The dollar amount intended for these awards may be adjusted depending upon the quality of applications received and other relevant considerations. This set-aside is intended to promote environmental justice funding to those communities and grassroots organizations that need it the most. Applications from these applicants will be evaluated separately, based on the criteria outlined in Section V of the Request for Proposal (RFA), from the applications from other eligible applicants. Accordingly, there will be two selection lists developed under the competition- for small non-profit organizations and for the remaining applications. To qualify for consideration under this set-aside, applicants must submit documentation with their application (such as an employee roster) verifying the number of full-time employees on staff and the associated hours per week and salary/wage details for each full-time employee. For this announcement, a full-time employee is defined as an employee who works 40 or more hours per week for the applying organization. NOTE - Applicants who meet the standard set forth above for inclusion under the set-aside at the time of submission of their application, but who during this competition subsequently grow larger than 10 full-time employees, must immediately notify EPA of their change in size. If an applicant can confirm that their change in size has no material impact on their original workplan, then they will be moved from the set-aside track and considered for award under the non-set aside track. However, if an applicant fails to notify EPA, then they may be deemed ineligible to receive an award under this competition. Also, please note that Ports Initiative projects as described above will either be in the set aside track or regular non-set aside track depending on whether the applicant who submits the project qualifies for the set aside—if they do they will be considered in the set-aside track; if they do not they will be considered under the non-set aside track.

B - Project Grants (Discretionary)

An eligible applicant must be one of the following: • incorporated non-profit organizations —including, but not limited to, community-based organizations, grassroots organizations, environmental justice networks, faith based organizations and those affiliated with religious institutions;* U.S. Territories • Tribal governments, must be either federally-recognized or state-recognized – including Alaska Native Villages • tribal organizations * • Freely Associated States (FAS) – including local governmental entities and local non-profit organizations in the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Palau. Applicant organizations claiming non-profit status must include documentation that shows the organization is either a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization as designated by the Internal Revenue Service; OR a non-profit organization recognized by the state, territory, commonwealth or tribe in which it is located. For the latter, documentation must be on official state government letterhead. Applicants must be located within the same state, territory, commonwealth, or tribe in which the proposed project is located. This means that an applicant’s registered address of record (i.e. the address designated on their IRS or State-sanctioned documentation) must be in the same state, territory, commonwealth or tribe as the location of the proposed project. The following entities are INELIGIBLE to receive an award, but we encourage applicants to partner with these organizations, as appropriate: • colleges and universities; • hospitals; • for-profit businesses; • state and local governments and their entities; • quasi-governmental entities (e.g., water districts, utilities)*; • national organizations and chapters of the aforementioned organizations**; •International organizations and chapters of the aforementioned organizations • Individuals • non-profit organizations supporting lobbying activities as defined in Section 3 of the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995; and*** * Generally, a quasi-governmental entity is one that: (1) has a close association with the government agency, but is not considered a part of the government agency; (2) was created by the government agency, but is exempt from certain legal and administrative requirements imposed on government agencies; or (3) was not created by the government agency but performs a public purpose and is significantly supported financially by the government agency. ** National organizations are defined as comprising of one centralized headquarters or principal place of business that creates and controls the mission, structure and work carried out by its chapters or affiliates. *** Funds awarded under this announcement may not be used to support lobbying activities or any activities related to lobbying or the appearance thereof. Subawards made to nonprofit organizations that lobby are not allowed. For certain competitive funding opportunities under this assistance listing, the Agency may limit eligibility to compete to a number or subset of eligible applicants consistent with the Agency's Assistance Agreement Competition Policy.

Eligible beneficiaries are the Non-Profit Community Groups as described under Applicant Eligibility above, and the residents of the communities they serve. List selected may not be all inclusive.

https://sam.gov/fal/1c7d41e80ea74d7a8b4a35268680d4b6/view