This action approves an award in the amount of $500,000 to provide funding to the lowcountry alliance for model communities (lamc)

The recipient will conduct robust engagement, deliver technical assistance and community-based disaster risk reduction training and capacity building to EJ communities, as well as community-participatory research related to natural and man-made hazards with the long-term goal of establishing and growing a regional network of resilience in the south east (rise) fellows (citizen resilience planners) to increase community capacity to inform local response to local resilience needs. As part of the project, lamc plans to hold 9 training events (training, education, resilience planning and response, local action).activities:the activities include creating and deploying outreach and marketing materials for the recruitment of 16 community-based organizations across region IV for the rise program. Lamc will then conduct a series of 9 facilitated ejac trainings in year one of the project, and develop a model for collaborative problem-solving that utilizes community-led data collection and monitoring of environmental hazards and public health impacts. Year two of the project enacts 12 facilitated ejstrong monthly trainings, ejstrong field practicums, and informing and evaluating the local resilience and hazard mitigation planning efforts. Year three's activities include the formation of a rise regional network, the development of the resilience hub framework called rise mutual aid network (man), and training on developing community data collection and monitoring network, led by a subaward partner. Additionally the end of each project year contains an evaluation of the project. Subrecipient:activities implemented through subawards include establishing a model for community-led hazard monitoring and community-based health impact assessments that inform and evaluate local resilience and hazard mitigation planning efforts, the development of a curriculum based on this model to be incorporated into the training series, assisting lamc with developing and facilitating training curriculum for other communities to implement similar community-led research and monitoring programs, and developing the qapp for all monitoring activities taking place during the grant period. Outcomes:the anticipated deliverables include ejac training objectives, ejstrong training objectives, ejstrong field practicum objectives, the establishment of the rise fellow network, a health impact assessment and analysis, as well at the framework for the rise playbook story map. The expected outcomes include increased community capacity, community-focused resilience plans, community leadership development, collection of local data to inform resilience efforts, establishment of the rise fellow network, local collective resilience monitoring and evaluation, increased awareness of community directed resilience planning, integration of the rise man framework into action in resilience plans by rise fellows, leveraging resources and community-based resilience plans adopted into local municipal planning, and the establishment of local resilience hubs to conduct effective disaster response and management. The intended beneficiaries include environmental justice communities throughout the southeast primarily targeting organizations and communities within EPA region IV (georgia, kentucky, tennessee, north carolina, south carolina, alabama, mississippi, and florida) states.