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Greetings Dear Reader,
Like many Americans, the life stories I share with friends and colleagues increasingly include a “before” or “after” reference to a climate-related natural disaster. These are sometimes difficult memories due to loss of family, catastrophic damage to property, impacts to colleagues or my community and the dread of bureaucratic loops to push towards recovery. There’s my life before and after Hurricane Katrina; before and after the Gatlinburg Fires in 2016, one of the largest disasters in Tennessee history; and my career before and after the one-two punch of two Category 5 hurricanes, Irma and Maria, in the U.S. Caribbean. Many of you have your own recent life-altering experiences from the widespread wildfire seasons over the past few years, atmospheric rivers and floods, extreme droughts and life-threating heat waves affecting nearly every corner of our country.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. has sustained 376 weather and climate disasters since 1980 where overall damages reached or exceeded $1 billion (including consumer price index adjustment to 2023), with a total cost exceeding $2.6 trillion. In 2023 alone, the United States was affected by 28 confirmed weather/climate disaster events with losses each exceeding $1 billion. Overall, these events resulted in the deaths of 492 people, along with significant economic impacts. Find more information from NOAA’s Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters website.
Given these challenges, it is now even more important to constantly learn from changing environmental conditions, prepare communities for disasters and build resilience within natural and landscaped spaces. My experiences in New Orleans, Gatlinburg and the Caribbean taught me that focusing on strengthening human response networks and organizational preparedness is as essential as monitoring and rehabilitating vital ecosystems. Natural infrastructure – such as coral reefs, coastal mangrove forests and cypress marshes – are critical for protecting human assets from the impacts of storms. Stabilizing, rehabilitating or expanding green spaces can significantly reduce flooding, mitigate extreme heat and contribute to community wellness. By taking care of ecosystems and green spaces, we enable them to take care of us.
In this newsletter, we share some of OCR’s recent and ongoing efforts to support communities in building equitable resilience to disasters. Exciting funding and technical assistance opportunities that are available now are described below. I encourage each of you use this springtime to prepare your families and your communities for the seasons ahead. Through our collective efforts we can gain wisdom from our experiences, while promoting safer, cleaner, and more prepared communities.
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Nigel A. Fields
Director, Office of Community Revitalization
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Building Blocks for Regional Resilience StoryMaps
Two new StoryMaps highlight how communities have used our Regional Resilience Toolkit to engage, assess, act, fund and measure as they prepare for and respond to disasters at the regional scale.
Saint Helena Island, South Carolina - Saint Helena Island, located within the Sea Islands archipelago that runs along the coast of much of the southeastern United States, is the epicenter of Gullah/Geechee culture and is included in the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, a National Heritage Area established by the U.S. Congress. EPA’s assistance resulted in green infrastructure designs that can protect not only the Lowcountry environment, but also the Gullah/Geechee way of life.
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West Allis, Wisconsin - West Allis, a thriving community outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin, received design assistance focused on their Farmer’s Market, where customers from 50 different zip codes shop and nearby traffic counts are high. Learn more about the green infrastructure designs and next steps that are helping them build community sustainability and resilience. | |
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Interested learning more about disaster resilience?
Don’t miss Disaster Resilient Design Concepts, a 2023 EPA publication showcasing disaster-resilient designs that can help communities reduce the impact of disasters, recover more quickly, strengthen local economies, and create safer, more equitable places to live by reducing hazards especially for those most vulnerable.
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Upcoming Smart Growth Network Quarterly Discussion
April 10, 2024 | 2:30 - 5:00 PM ET
Join us for a Quarterly Discussion on the theme, Capacity Building and Collaboration. A roundtable of federal speakers will share about capacity building and funding opportunities from the U.S. government. After the roundtable, meeting participants will use a GIS map to identify opportunities for collaboration with partners across the United States. Registered participants will be invited to add their work to the map in advance of the meeting.
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Where: EPA's Conference Center in Washington, D.C. RSVP for directions.
RSVP: Register online by April 3, 2024.
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The program provides free design and project development assistance, community engagement and partnership development workshops that support climate resilience and environmental justice activities in disaster-prone areas. Find more information in the "Funding and Technical Assistance Opportunities” section below to learn about this opportunity and if it might be a good fit for your community. | |
Funding and Technical Assistance Opportunities | |
Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grants
EPA’s Inflation Reduction Act Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change program has announced a Notice of Funding Opportunity for approximately $2 billion dollars in IRA funds. This program will fund environmental and climate justice projects across the country. These projects will benefit disadvantaged communities by reducing pollution, increasing community climate resilience and building community capacity to address environmental and climate justice challenges. There are two technical assistance programs dedicated for these, detailed below.
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Community Change and Equitable Resilience Technical Assistance
EPA is offering a specialized Community Change Equitable Resilience Technical Assistance program targeted to communities that are disaster-prone and disadvantaged. These communities are located in areas that are particularly vulnerable to extreme heat and more intense heat islands, wildfire and smoke, floods, storms or other climate impacts. This program is focused on place-based, site-specific design assistance to help communities increase their resilience in the face of these disasters. The program will provide free design and project development assistance, community engagement, and partnership development workshops. In addition, applicants will receive support in developing their Community Change Grant application.
How to Apply: Requests for technical assistance will be accepted via a webform which is open now and will remain open until 50 recipients have been identified.
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Community Change Technical Assistance
For communities not in disaster-prone areas, EPA is also offering Community Change Technical Assistance, which will provide general grant application support, project planning and development assistance, outreach and engagement support, and general capacity building to disadvantaged communities, in conjunction with the Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grants.
How to Apply: To request technical assistance for preparing an application, fill out the request form.
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Grant Funding to Address Indoor Air Pollution at Schools
Is your organization working to help schools develop indoor air quality management plans? EPA's Grant Funding to Address Indoor Air Pollution at Schools program is accepting applications through March 19, 2024.
Who Should Apply: Entities with experience conducting national, regional or multi-state IAQ management capacity building programs, providing IAQ training, executing IAQ research in school settings, or disseminating IAQ standards and policies that have achieved positive outcomes – especially with schools and Tribal entities – are encouraged to apply.
Eligibility: Grants will be distributed on a competitive basis to states, territories, Indian Tribes, nonprofit organizations, local governments and educational agencies.
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Climate Pollution Reduction Grants Implementation Grants
EPA recently announced two competitions for CPRG Implementation Grants, (1) a general competition for applications from states, territories, municipalities, tribes, tribal consortia, and territories, and (2) a competition only for tribes, tribal consortia, and territories. These competitions are open to entities that received planning grants to develop Priority Climate Action Plans (PCAPs) under phase 1 of the CPRG program, as well as entities that did not directly receive a planning grant and are applying for funds to implement measures included in an applicable PCAP.
General Competition Deadline: Applications for the general competition are due April 1, 2024.
Tribes and Territories Competition Deadline: Applications for tribes, tribal consortia and territories are due May 1, 2024.
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We’re celebrating with Haines, Alaska, our partner community in the Recreation Economy for Rural Communities program, and the Chilkoot Indian Association, an Alaska Native Tribe, which received $1.4 million to build an EV charging station in Haines. Until now, there have been no publicly available EV charging stations in Haines. | |
This Women's History Month, we are excited to share stories from our community partners. Stay tuned to our social media accounts for more! | | |
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Penny Peters
Akwesasne Travel Manager
"I have been very fortunate to be able to work in roles that have the betterment of our community at its forefront, not only for the right now but for future generations. I hope to continue to be able to cultivate tourism as a means to cultural preservation and pride in the Mohawk spirit."
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Gigi Dennis
City Manager, Monte Vista, Colorado
"I have the privilege of leading my community to do better and be better. I have to set the example of what I believe the citizens want to see improved upon and what they may care about. Like it says in the Alan Jackson song, 'The greatest contribution is the one you leave behind.'"
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Megan Susman
Environmental Protection Specialist
Special Women's History Month shoutout to OCR's own Megan Susman! Megan works on the intersection of smart growth development strategies and climate change. She researches and writes about local, state and federal development-related policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate impacts, while bringing multiple other benefits.
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