The agreement provides funding to enhance community wildfire smoke preparedness

This $1,883,040 federal Project Grant awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Wildfire Smoke Preparedness in Community Buildings Grant Program (CFDA 66.044) will support Esperanza Community Housing Corporation in South Central Los Angeles to enhance community resilience against wildfire smoke hazards. Key activities include smoke readiness planning, outreach and training, indoor/outdoor air quality monitoring, deploying portable air cleaners, and upgrading HVAC systems in the Mercado La Paloma community center to serve as a smoke safety hub. Esperanza is partnering with SmartAirLA to develop and deploy a Wildfire Danger Tracker website and SMS alert system to prevent health emergencies among vulnerable populations. The 3-year grant will fund staffing, educational materials, and incentives to engage the community in smoke preparedness efforts.

Specifically, this recipient will base its wildfire smoke preparedness community and outreach campaign at the mercado LA paloma building in south central LOS angeles, a region that suffers disproportionately from asthma, lung disease, cancer, and other health concerns that result from an overconcentration of environmental hazards which will only get worse with the impacts of climate change and increased frequency and strength of wildfires. Esperanza community housing's nationally recognized healthy breathing program staffed by promotores DE salud (community health promoters) will partner with smartairla, a social enterprise dedicated to empowering underserved communities suffering from pollution to protect their health with data. Outreach efforts will be amplified through the development and deployment of smartairla's proprietary wildfire danger tracker, a website and phone-based SMS text early warning system to prevent health emergencies among vulnerable populations triggered by dangerous wildfire smoke. Welcoming more than 300,000 visitors annually, the mercado LA paloma is open to the public and after needed building upgrades, IT will serve as a wildfire smoke safety community hub during and after wildfire smoke events. Activities:the activities include: - smoke readiness planning, - outreach and training, - indoor and outdoor air quality monitoring, - deployment of portable air cleaners, - significant improvements to buildings such as upgrading heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) units or systems and weatherization necessary to protect occupants from hazards stemming from wildfires. Subrecipient:esperanza will partner with smartairla on this project. Smartairla will play a significant role in the success of the project by developing and deploying the wildfire danger tracker (WDT) website and hipaa compliant text system. Smartairla will also produce english/spanish multi-media wildfire danger preparedness tips, distribute participant and community advisor incentive gift cards, and conduct the WDT evaluation through surveys and interviews. Annual costs will include staffing, WDT display materials, 5 sets of multi-media tips (graphics, fotonovelas, short-videos) which will be updated annually, and gift cards. Year 1 total request: $164,500; year 2 total request: $182,000; and year 3 total request: $195,750 3-year total subaward request: $542,250OUTCOMES:the anticipated deliverables include protecting the people of south LOS angeles (south LA) from wildfire smoke danger by strengthening its community building's, the mercado LA paloma, wildfire smoke preparedness infrastructure and using the site as the launch pad for a grassroots education and outreach campaign. The expected outcomes include: - expansion in communities and/or community buildings adopting smoke readiness plans; - increase in community buildings that effectively reduce occupants' exposure to wildfire smoke; - increase in availability of air monitoring data to inform wildfire smoke management activities; - increase in awareness, capacity, and action to reduce building occupants' exposure to wildfire smoke within highly impacted communities. The intended beneficiaries include: - public and private non-profit organizations - the general public and the community members within the community that they serve.