Two Massachusetts nonprofits will receive $30,000 awards from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to address local health and environmental issues in minority and low-income communities. Funds will be used for research, education and developing solutions.
“These funds will help communities across the region understand and address exposure to a variety of environmental harms and risks,” Curt Spalding, regional administrator of EPA’s New England office, said in a statement. The “EPA is committed to addressing the impacts of climate change so many of the projects supported by this year’s grants will help communities prepare for local climate impacts.”
The Trustees of Reservations received funding for its Boston Youth Conservation Corps, which works with 15- to 18-year-olds in the neighborhoods of Mattapan, Roxbury, Hyde Park, East Boston, Dorchester and Jamaica. Projects include enhancing urban greenways, tending gardens and planting native vegetation, raising awareness of pollution, air and water quality and access to healthy food. The corps aims to address high rates of asthma, diabetes and obesity in Boston’s poorest neighborhoods, which have a disproportionately high rate of asthma and diabetes hospitalizations and adult obesity, and the least amount of open space per child.
Regional Environmental Council in Worcester received the funding for its project called Greening Our Gardens – Urban Growing Strategies for Climate Resiliency. The project will promote efficient water use, storm water run-off prevention and the use of gardening practices that can contribute to climate resiliency, including carbon sequestration. It also aims to increase access to healthy food in Worcester’s lowest-income/highest risk neighborhoods through an educational program for urban gardeners. The project will impact gardens across the city, but resources will be focused in the city’s five lowest income and highest-risk neighborhoods. The council is partnering with the Stockbridge School of Agriculture and the state Chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association.
Overall, four nonprofit organizations in New England were awarded a total of $120,000 from the EPA. The New England grant winners – two in Massachusetts, one in Rhode Island and one in Connecticut – were among 44 organizations nationwide given nearly $1.3 million to address environmental justice issues nationwide.
