Environmental Justice Grant Successes in EPA's Pacific Southwest (Region 9)

Since 1994, EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region has awarded 150 small grants to 124 organizations, totaling over $3 million. Nearly 90% of the recipients have been non-profit organizations, including tribal grassroots organizations.

Environmental Justice Small Grants are a powerful tool for engaging communities in environmental problem solving. Many grant recipients use EPA funding to establish stewardship in their communities through volunteer programs and projects. For example, the Environmental Health Coalition (EHC) has created a video-learning tool, Creating Healthy Neighborhoods. EHC is using a grant to train community members about how to engage in local land use decisions. Additionally, Community Services Unlimited reached over one hundred Los Angeles residents through healthy home gardening workshops; Amigos de los Rios organized 27 stewardship days that reached over 300 residents; Urban Habitat convened numerous community education events and forums on climate change that reached an estimated 300 community residents; The Watershed Project enlisted its members and volunteers in replacing over 2,000 cubic feet of hard packed clay with native habitat and green space in the heart of Richmond, California; the Kokua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services Clinic in Hawaii trained 10 community volunteer health educators and reached over 600 local residents with culturally relevant information about healthy homes; the Community Water Center empowered 141 San Joaquin Valley volunteer community members to advocate for solutions to drinking water challenges at the local, regional and state levels; Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice educated over 230 truckers, more than 20 businesses, two schools and one daycare center and over 2,000 Kettleman City and Avenal residents about the impacts of diesel truck idling and brought on nine businesses to a voluntary “Good Neighbor Agreement” to abide by anti-idling laws.

• Creating Healthy Neighborhoods
• Community Services Unlimited
• Amigos de los Rios
• Urban Habitat
• The Watershed Project
• Kokua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services Clinic 
• Community Water Center
• Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice

• Kokua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services: Our Community, Our Health (pdf) (898.01 KB, 2011)
  Kokua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services is a non-profit corporation seeking to connect low income, Asian and Pacific Island immigrant residents in need with existing services. The “Our Community, Our Health” project was a community-wide campaign to mitigate the causes of indoor air pollution, reduce exposure to toxic cleaning chemicals, and address public health issues resulting from poor sanitation.
• Community Water Center: Protecting Groundwater from the Ground Up (pdf) (201.99 KB, 2011)
  Community Water Center, a San Joaquin Valley based environmental justice organization, works to ensure that all communities have access to safe, clean and affordable water primarily through community organizing, education and advocacy. This project raises the awareness of the issue through outreach and education.
• GreenAction for Health and Environmental Justice: Diesel Education, Emission Reduction, and Environmental Health Project (pdf) (270.57 KB, 2011)
  Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice provided education, outreach and monitoring on diesel emissions and vehicle idling; reaching out to businesses, truckers, schools bus drivers, parents, students and the San Joaquin Valley Air District to reduce pollution from diesel trucks and buses. Greenaction and many businesses signed “Good Neighbor Agreements” committing the companies to educate their drivers and comply with anti-idling laws.
• Yurok Tribe Environmental Program: Climate Change Impacts Assessment and Prioritization Project (pdf) (623.43 KB, 2010)
  The purpose of the Climate Change Impact Assessment and Prioritization Project is to understand the technical issues associated with climate change research and develop partnerships, so that the Tribe may begin climate adaptation planning.
• Amigos de los Rios: The Emerald Necklace (pdf) (627.3 KB, 2010)
  Amigos de los Rios, a non-profit organization that works to create vibrant communities in collaboration with local governments, businesses and residents and to bring renewed life to urban neighborhoods, developed local Emerald Necklace Action Teams comprised of residents from five disadvantaged areas within Emerald Necklace Coalition Cities. Community members engaged in a series of Emerald Necklace Action team workshops and events to boost awareness of the link between public health and environmental health.
• Communities for a Better Environment, LA Youth Making the Connection: Climate Change, Local Fossil Fuel Impacts and Alternatives (pdf) (116.73 KB, 2010)
  Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) is a California based environmental health and justice organization which promotes clean air and water and advocates for toxic-free communities. The Connection project focused on youth in the disadvantaged community of South East Los Angeles. The project educated youth about the local and global impacts of fossil fuel use on their community and other environmental justice communities, enabled youth to carry out simple alternative energy projects such as installation of photovoltaic panels and involved youth in local fossil fuel policy and regulatory processes.
• Community Services Unlimited, from the Ground up: Promoting Safe and Healthy Urban Agriculture (pdf) (355.78 KB, 2010)
  Community Services Unlimited is an organization working to address the inequalities and systemic barriers that make sustainable communities and self-reliant life-styles unattainable. The project teaches young people in South Central Los Angeles about sustainable urban agriculture in order to increase access to healthy food, while raising awareness about, and reducing exposure to, lead and pesticide hazards.
• The Malama Learning Center: Hawaii Green Collar Institute (pdf) (299.31 KB, 2010)
  The Malama Learning Center, a non-profit organization that brings art, science, conservation, and culture together through education to promote sustainable living on the Hawaiian Islands, created the “Green Collar Institute” to bring awareness to high school and college students of the environmental and climate change issues affecting their communities. The project brings community change through environmental education.
• Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment, New Voices are Rising—Youth Creating Environmentally Just Communities (pdf) (375.41 KB, 2010)
  The New Voices Are Rising grants program serves high school students from low-income communities of color in Oakland and Richmond, California.
• Urban Habitat: Community Climate Action Engagement Project (pdf) (280.2 KB, 2010)
  he purpose of the Community Climate Action Engagement Project was to increase the Richmond community’s ability to engage in the development of the City’s Energy and Climate Action Plan (ECAP) and to engage decision makers in addressing the significant impacts that climate change has on the city’s low-income communities of color.
• The Watershed Project: Richmond Greenway Bioswale and Native Plant Garden (pdf) (351.16 KB, 2010)
  The Watershed Project built a bioswale at the Richmond Greenway, a nascent park whose boundaries form one side of the Iron Triangle Neighborhood in the City of Richmond. The bioswale and native plant garden helped to address the issues of water quality and environmental literacy in the underserved community.