This agreement provides funding under the inflation reduction act (IRA) to youth ministries for peace and justice (ympj)

Ympj will lead a formal community-driven health impact assessment (HIA) to investigate the health impacts and benefits of redevelopment scenarios for brownfield sites located along the bronx river waterfront. In partnership with the new york dept. Of state, ympj is leading a diverse community coalition to develop a brownfield opportunity area (BOA) plan for this target area. The HIA will build upon this work and provide impacted residents and stakeholders a tool and process to comprehensively assess potential redevelopment plans at priority sites to ensure that they yield the greatest returns in the form of improved health and environment, and reduced disparities, inequities, and other burdens. Focused on a community and population that faces harsh social determinants of health and dramatic health disparities in the form of high rates of asthma, cancers, cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, and other ailments, ympj's HIA will consider improvements in air quality, healthy food access and local food production/sovereignty, availability of high quality open space for outdoor recreation and safe streets for active transportation, and a range of issues related to climate resilience and disaster preparedness, including strengthening stormwater management, expanding green infrastructure, and addressing built-environment- and housing-related risks extreme heat. Activities:the activities include: creating and disseminating a request for proposals for an HIA consultant and evaluation consultant for the project; convene a steering committee comprised of individuals from participating partner organizations; start the HIA screening process which will include at least two community listening sessions with residents in the project target area and the stakeholder; task the HIA consultant with developing a detailed workplan for completing all steps and components of the assessment and a community and stakeholder participation plan; lead interviews, focus groups, workshops, and other engagement/conversations with key constituencies; implement the appraisal process, which includes conducting a literature review of the impacts of brownfield redevelopment on resident health; surveying and analyzing existing health impact and sdoh data for the target area; developing a comprehensive overview that includes community profiles and the local policy landscape; and laying out the data that can be used to assess interventions and the gaps/limitations in that data; facilitating discussions/deliberations by the steering committee on actionable recommendations for designing or enhancing prospective redevelopment plans in the target area to maximize positive health impacts and minimize negative ones; and task the consultant with drafting a health impact assessment report that includes the data, analysis, and results that arose from each of the screening, scoping, appraisal, and recommendations steps. .subrecipient:no subawards are included in this assistance agreement.outcomes:the anticipated deliverables include a health impact assessment report and a performance evaluation report. The expected outcomes include: educating bronx community members on how the environmental justice issues addressed by this project affect them and illustrate their vested interest in sustaining the project's momentum into the future; developing actionable recommendations for enhancing the redevelopment plans for identified interventions to maximize positive health impacts and minimize negative ones which will be presented to the NYS BOA planning coalition; and sharing the report widely with ympj and partner networks and bronx community members. The intended beneficiaries include, broadly, all residents living in bronx county and specifically, residents living in the neighborhoods or hunts point, longwood, parkchester and soundview.