The agreement provides funding to rhode island department of environmental management (ridem) to strengthen community connections and build a collective understanding of environmental justice concerns…

This $944,618 federal Cooperative Agreement award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 1 under the Environmental Justice Government-to-Government (EJG2G) Program (CFDA 66.312) provides funding to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM) to strengthen community connections and build understanding of environmental justice concerns in the Upper Narragansett Bay watershed.

Key activities include training a cohort of staff from community-based organizations on environmental justice issues and environmental health topics through workshops and presentations. The cohort will also receive training and materials on residential programs related to energy savings and financial assistance to empower residents to mitigate environmental hazards. Beyond the training, sub-recipients will engage in community events and program activities to involve residents in the local communities. The project aims to increase community understanding of environmental justice, facilitate engagement in policy decisions, and develop a sustainable model for future collaboration within the watershed.

The agreement provides funding to rhode island department of environmental management (ridem) to strengthen community connections and build a collective understanding of environmental justice concerns in the upper narragansett BAY watershed, which is connected by the providence, blackstone, woonasquatucket, and moshassuck rivers. The project partners in collaboration with ridem will train a cohort of program staff from environmental and social service community-based organizations in providence, central falls, pawtucket, and woonsocket through a series of environmental justice (EJ) workshops and environmental health presentations. The goal is to build a shared understanding of environmental justice issues, history, and practices and strengthen community and government connections across the watershed. Technical presentations on topics including air quality, water quality, tree equity, and climate change impacts will be provided to this cohort by ridem and project partners. Members of this cohort will receive training and materials on residential programs related to energy savings and financial assistance to empower residents in their communities to mitigate the impacts of environmental hazards in homes. Beyond this training curriculum, subrecipients will engage in community events and program activities to engage residents from the local communities. The intended outcomes include increased community understanding of environmental justice issues, engagement in policy decision-making, and the development of a sustainable model for future collaboration in the upper narragansett BAY watershed, which connects the environmental justice areas of providence, central falls, and pawtucket.activities:the activities covered by this project include hosting workshops and training activities, creation of videos, artwork, and other outreach materials, development of a community resources web portal, and convening community stakeholders to build community capacity for participation in decision-making at the state and local government level. Members of the training cohort will receive training and materials on residential programs related to energy savings and financial assistance to empower residents in their communities to mitigate the impacts of environmental hazards in homes. Beyond this training curriculum, subrecipients will engage in community events and program activities to engage residents from the local communities to support empowerment in local decision making on environment and public health issues in communities near the providence, blackstone, woonasquatucket and moshassuck rivers.subrecipient:five subawards will be allocated to five different entities. Subaward 1 will provide funding to the woonasquatucket river watershed council to provide assistance with facilitation, technical assistance, and program administration. The woonasquatucket river watershed council will be responsible for administering community participant stipends, the development and hosting of the web resource portal, and providing equipment to support community tours. Subaward 2 will provide funding for the racial and environmental justice committee to conduct six community workshops on the impacts of environmental hazards and environmental racism and commit up to 200 hours toward cohort planning. The racial and environmental justice committee will also use funds for print materials, supplies and participant gift cards related to their workshops. Subaward 3 will provide funding to movement education outdoors to provide one educational workshop series and up to 200 hours of cohort planning, curriculum development and support for the project. Subaward 4 will provide funding to impact RI to provide up to 2,000 hours of staff support to assist in the distribution of information into underserved communities who will be directly effected by natural disaster and environmental hazards in rhode island's air and rivers. Subaward 5 will provide funding to t