Deadline: 7 February 2020

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking applications for its Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving (EJCPS) Cooperative Agreement Program to provide financial assistance to support community-based organizations to collaborate and partner with other stakeholders (e.g., local businesses and industry, local government, medical service providers, academia, etc.) to develop and implement solutions that will significantly address environmental and/or public health issue(s) at the local level.

The program’s objective is to support projects that demonstrate the utility of the Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Model. Because this program requires substantial involvement and interaction between the applicant and EPA, these awards will be made in the form of cooperative agreements.

For the purposes of the EJCPS Program, collaborative problem-solving is defined as an effort to bring together groups and resources (e.g., information, labor, money) by three or more stakeholders to solve a set of problems that any single entity cannot solve individually. Collaborative problem solving builds upon existing community understanding to establish and maintain partnerships capable of producing meaningful environmental and/or public health results. To provide a systematic approach towards collaborative problem-solving, OEJ has developed a Collaborative Problem-Solving Model (Model). Such a Model is intended to assist vulnerable and underserved communities in developing proactive, strategic, and visionary approaches to address their environmental justice issues and achieve community health and sustainability.

Award Information

• Total estimated funding expected to be available for awards under this competitive opportunity is approximately $1,200,000 contingent on the availability of funds, the quality of proposals, and other applicable considerations.
• Each award will be for up to $120,000. Proposed projects are for two years. Applicants should plan for an estimated project period start date of September 1, 2020.

Types of Projects

The EJCPS Program has funded a wide range of projects and project types over the years that address local environmental and public health concerns through collaborative partnerships. All proposed projects should include activities designed to engage, educate, and empower communities to understand the local environmental and public health issues and to identify ways to address these issues at the local level. Types of projects the EJCPS program has funded in the past include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Air Quality & Asthma
• Water Quality & Sampling
• Stormwater Issues
• Green Infrastructure
• Lead contamination
• Pesticides and other Toxic Substances
• Healthy Homes
• Illegal Dumping
• Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Resiliency
• Environmental Job Training
• Youth Development

Eligible Activities

To be eligible for funding, an EJCPS project must consist of activities that fall within the terms of the above statutory grant authorities. Projects can address multiple statutes and include multiple eligible activities. Most of the statutes above authorize funding for the following activities:

• research
• public education
• demonstration projects
• training
• monitoring
• development
• investigations
• surveys and studies
• experiments

Note: EJCPS activities must relate to gathering or transferring information or advancing awareness. Proposals should emphasize this “learning” concept, rather than trying to “fix” an environmental problem using a well-established method. All the eligible activities listed above promote learning and understanding and are acceptable activities. Examples of unacceptable grant proposals involve performing: large-scale clean-ups, treatments, routine recycling services, and major disposal and/or energy recovery projects.

Eligibility Criteria

• In accordance with CFDA 66.604, 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;*
  • federally recognized tribal governments—including Alaska Native Villages; OR
  • tribal organizations
• 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. All projects must be located within the United States and its territories.

* 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.

For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=322417