fy17_ejsg_solicitation_second_amendment_1.30.2017.pdf

AGENCY: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Office of Environmental Justice

TITLE: Environmental Justice Small Grants Program

ACTION: Request for Proposals (RFP) Amendment

FUNDING NO: EPA-OECA-OEJ-17-01

CFDA: 66.604

DATE: January 30, 2017

SUMMARY: This notice is issued to amend the Environmental Justice Small Grants Program 2017 Request for Proposals (RFP). This amendment highlights the following changes:

1) New Closing Date. The RFP closing date is now Friday, February 10, 2017 at 11:59 PM

(ET).

2) Region 8 Contact changed.

This amendment supersedes all previous versions. The above mentioned changes are found accordingly:

1) New RFP Closing Date of February 10, 2017 detailed on pages 1, 11, 21, and 30.

2) On page 33, Section VII (Agency Contacts), Region 8 contact is listed as Corbin Darling.

All other terms and conditions remain unchanged.

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AGENCY: U. S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (EPA)

Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ)

TITLE: ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE SMALL GRANTS PROGRAM

ACTION: REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP)

FUNDING OPPORTUNITY NUMBER (FON): EPA-OECA-OEJ-17-01

CATALOG OF FEDERAL DOMESTIC ASSISTANCE (CFDA) NUMBER: 66.604

DATES: ANNOUNCEMENT DATE: November 1, 2016

CLOSING DATE: February 10, 2017

Translations available: To receive a Spanish translation of this announcement, call the Office of Environmental Justice at 1-800-962-6215. Contact Jacob Burney in the Office of Environmental Justice at (202) 564-2907 or via email at burney.jacob@epa.gov. Please note that proposals must be written in English only. Proposals written in languages other than English will not be considered for award.

Hay traducciones disponibles de este anuncio en Español. Si usted esta interesado en obtener una traduccion de este anuncio en Español, por favor llame a La Oficina de Justicia Ambiental conocida como “Office of Environmental Justice,” linea gratuita (1-800-962-6215).

DATES: The closing date and time for receipt of proposal submission is February 10, 2017 at 11:59 p.m., Eastern Time (ET). Proposal packages must be submitted through Grants.gov by 11:59 p.m. ET, February 10, 2017. Proposals received after the new closing date and time will not be considered for funding.

SUMMARY: The Environmental Justice Small Grants (EJSG) Program provides funding for eligible applicants for projects that address local environmental and public health issues within an affected community. The EJSG Program is designed to help communities understand and address exposure to multiple environmental harms and risks. Applying organizations are encouraged to have a direct connection to the vulnerable affected, community impacted by environmental harms and risks.

What types of projects are eligible for funding?

Under this RFP, EPA will award grants that support activities designed to empower and educate affected communities to understand environmental and public health issues and to identify ways to address these issues at the local level.

* An “affected community,” for the purposes of this competition, is defined as a vulnerable community that may be disproportionately impacted by environmental harms and risks and has a local environmental and/or public health issue that is identified in the applicant’s proposal.

In an effort to increase outreach to affected communities in some States and US Territories, the fiscal year (FY) 2017 EJSG program will place special emphasis on high ranking proposals to be mailto:burney.jacob@epa.gov

- 2 -performed in Underrepresented States as defined by the program1. This means a project’s location in an Underrepresented State may be a factor when making final selections (see Section V.C).

* Underrepresented States, for the purposes of this competition, are defined as States and US Territories where three or fewer EPA Environmental Justice grants have been awarded from either the EJSG or the Collaborative Problem-Solving (CPS) programs over the last five years (FY2012 - 2016). A list of all Underrepresented States is included below in this section of the RFP.

The goal of this emphasis is to encourage and increase project performance in underrepresented states in the EJSG program. Local environmental and public health issues can be found in every state and territory, and this reality should be reflected in the projects that are awarded.

Additionally, EPA emphasis will focus on projects proposed by eligible organizations that have not received an EPA Environmental Justice Grant award (either EJSG or Collaborative Problem- Solving) since FY2012. This means that EPA may factor in an applicant’s award history with the EPA EJ grant programs when making final selections among high ranking proposals. (see Section V.C).

Please note: All eligible organizations are encouraged to apply. Under this announcement, projects not located in Underrepresented States and/or proposed by organizations that have received an EPA EJ grant award since FY2012 are still eligible for award. The special emphasis described above and in Section V only applies as an “other” selection factor the selection official may consider in determining selections among high ranking proposals.

The long-term goals of the EJSG Program are to help build the capacity of communities with environmental justice concerns and to create self-sustaining, community-based partnerships that will continue to improve local environments in the future.

List of Underrepresented States

The following is a list of US States and territories where three or fewer EPA EJ grants have been awarded over the last five years. The list of states and territories appear in alphabetical order. EPA will place special emphasis on awarding projects located in these underrepresented states and territories for the FY2017 awards:

Alabama Kentucky North Marianas Islands West Virginia American Samoa Maine Ohio Wisconsin Arizona Maryland Oklahoma Wyoming Arkansas Michigan Rhode Island Connecticut Minnesota South Carolina Delaware Mississippi South Dakota District of Columbia Montana Tennessee Georgia Nebraska Texas Guam Nevada Utah Hawaii New Hampshire Vermont Idaho New Jersey Virgin Islands Indiana North Dakota Virginia Iowa

1 The definition of underrepresented states above is solely for purposes of this competition and does not apply in other contexts.

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Who is eligible to receive an award under the EJSG Program?

An eligible applicant MUST BE one of the following entities:

• incorporated non-profit organizations—including, but not limited to, environmental justice networks, faith based organizations and those affiliated with religious institutions;*

• federally recognized tribal governments; OR

• tribal organizations

* Applicant non-profit organizations must include documentation that shows the organization is either a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization as designated by the Internal Revenue Service; OR a non-profit organization recognized by the state, territory, commonwealth or tribe in which it is located. For the latter, documentation must be on official state government letterhead.

Applicants must be located within the same state, territory, commonwealth, or tribe in which the proposed project is located. In addition, eligible applicants must demonstrate that they have worked directly with the affected community.

The following entities are INELIGIBLE to receive an award, but we encourage applicants to partner with these organizations, as appropriate (see Contracts and Subawards solicitation clause referenced in Section IV), for technical assistance:

• colleges and universities;

• hospitals;

• state and local governments and their entities;

• quasi-governmental entities (e.g., water districts, utilities)*;

• national organizations and chapters of the aforementioned organizations**;

• non-profit organizations supporting lobbying activities as defined in Section 3 of the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995; and***

* Generally, a quasi-governmental entity is one that: (1) has a close association with the government agency, but is not considered a part of the government agency; (2) was created by the government agency, but is exempt from certain legal and administrative requirements imposed on government agencies; or (3) was not created by the government agency but performs a public purpose and is significantly supported financially by the government agency.

** National organizations are defined as comprising of one centralized headquarters or principal place of business that creates and controls the mission, structure and work carried out by its chapters or affiliates.

*** Funds awarded under this announcement may not be used to support lobbying activities or any activities related to lobbying or the appearance thereof. Subawards made to nonprofit organizations that lobby are not allowed.

How much funding is available?

https://www.epa.gov/grants/epa-solicitation-clauses#contractssubawards

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The total estimated available funding for awards under this competitive opportunity is $1,200,000 for projects related to one of the seven statutes listed in Section I.C. EPA anticipates awarding up to approximately four grants per EPA region in amounts of up to approximately $30,000 per award (EPA regional offices make the awards). These awards are for one-year projects. For the FY17 awards, in addition to the Evaluation Criteria (see Section V.A), EPA may consider the following factors when making final selections among high ranking proposals: 1) projects located in Underrepresented States and 2) projects from eligible organizations that have not received an EPA EJ grant award from either the EJSG or CPS programs since FY2012.

EPA reserves the right to increase or decrease the total number of grants awarded or reject all proposals and make no awards under this announcement. Such changes may be necessary as a response to the quality of proposals received by EPA or the amount of funds available.

Translations Available A Spanish translation of this announcement may be available. To receive translations of this document in Spanish or other languages, please contact Jacob Burney in the Office of Environmental Justice at (202) 564-2907 or via email at burney.jacob@epa.gov.

Please note, that proposals must be written in English only. Proposals written in languages other than English will not be considered for award.

Hay traducciones disponibles de este anuncio en español. Si usted esta interesado en obtener una traduccion de este anuncio en 4spañol, por favor llame a La Officina de Justicia.

Ambiental conocida como “Office of Environmental Justice,” linea gratuita (1-800-962- 6215).

CONTENTS BY SECTION

I. Funding Opportunity Description II. Award Information III. Eligibility Information IV. Proposal and Submission Information V. Proposal Review Information VI. Award Administration Information VII. Agency Contacts VIII. Other Information /Appendices

I. FUNDING OPPORTUNITY DESCRIPTION (back to Contents by Section)

A. DEFINITION OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines “environmental justice” as the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. Fair treatment means that no one group of people, including racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic groups, should bear a disproportionate share of the negative

- 5 -environmental consequences resulting from industrial, municipal, and commercial operations or the execution of federal, state, local, and tribal environmental programs and policies. Meaningful involvement means that: (1) potentially affected community residents have an appropriate opportunity to participate in decisions about a proposed activity that will affect their environment and/or health; (2) the public’s contribution can influence the regulatory agency’s decision; (3) the concerns of all participants involved will be considered in the decision-making process; and (4) the decision-makers seek out and facilitate the involvement of those potentially affected.

B. BACKGROUND

The EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ) established the Environmental Justice Small Grants Program in fiscal year (FY) 1994. The purpose of this grant program is to support communities dealing with environmental justice concerns through projects designed to empower and educate these communities to better understand environmental and public health issues and to identify ways to address these issues at the local level.

The EJSG Program has funded projects that support collaborative partnerships that address local environmental issues such as exposure to air toxics and lead, farm worker and residential exposure to pesticides, youth involvement in education, etc. Summaries of all EJSG projects funded from FY 2000 to 2015 are available on the OEJ website:

https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/environmental-justice-small-grants-program

All proposed projects should include activities designed to empower and educate communities to understand the local environmental and public health issues and to identify ways to address these issues at the local level.

All projects considered for funding under this announcement must include a work plan. All work plans should include strategies for addressing local environmental and public health issues, educating and empowering the community about those issues, and approaches to building consensus and setting community priorities. In addition, the work plan should demonstrate collaboration with other stakeholders (e.g., other community-based organizations, environmental groups, businesses, industry, federal, tribal, state and local governments, and academic institutions) in an effort to realize project goals and objectives, and build project sustainability leading to on-going efforts that address the local environmental justice issue(s).

All EJSG recipients will be required to attend the annual EJ Grantee Networking and Training Workshop. All FY2017 EJSG recipients will be required to attend the workshop at their local EPA Regional Office. The networking workshop is designed to: 1) connect current EJ grant recipients with past recipients and community partners, 2) assist all community stakeholders with strategic planning for their communities, and 3) provide general project management and federal grant guidance.

C. QUALIFIED ENVIRONMENTAL STATUTES

The EJSG Program is designed to address multi-statute environmental and/or public health issues.

For this reason, each project must include activities related to at least one of the following federal environmental statutes. Any failure to clearly and conclusively identify and cite at least one of the federal statutes in your work plan may result in your project not being considered for award.

https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/environmental-justice-small-grants-program

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1) Clean Air Act, Section 103(a)(1): conduct research, investigations, experiments, demonstration projects, surveys, and studies (including monitoring) related to the causes, effects (including health and welfare effects), extent, prevention, and control of air pollution.

2) Clean Water Act, Section 104(a)(1): conduct and promote the coordination of research, investigations, training, demonstration projects, surveys, and studies (including monitoring) relating to the causes, effects, extent, prevention, reduction, and elimination of water pollution.

3) Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, Section 20: conduct research, development, monitoring, public education, training, demonstration projects, and studies on pesticides.

4) Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act, Section 203: conduct research, investigations, experiments, training, demonstration projects, surveys, and studies relating to the minimizing or ending of ocean dumping of hazardous materials and the development of alternatives to ocean dumping.

5) Safe Drinking Water Act, Section 1442(c) (3)(A): develop and expand the capability to carry out a program (that may combine training, education, and employment) for occupations relating to the public health aspects of providing safe drinking water.

6) Solid Waste Disposal Act, Section 8001(a): conduct and promote the coordination of research, investigations, experiments, training, demonstration projects, surveys, public education programs, and studies relating to solid waste (e.g., health and welfare effects of exposure to materials present in solid waste and methods to eliminate such effects). Please note that proposals supporting brownfields work are not eligible for funding under this announcement.

7) Toxic Substances Control Act, Section 10: conduct research, development, monitoring, public education, training, demonstration projects, and studies on toxic substances.

D. EPA STRATEGIC PLAN LINKAGE & ANTICIPATED OUTPUTS, OUTCOMES

& PERFORMANCE MEASURES:

Pursuant to Section 6a of EPA Order 5700.7, “Environmental Results under EPA Assistance Agreements,” (see https://www.epa.gov/grants/epa-order-57007a1-epas-policy-environmental-results-under-epa-assistance-agreements). EPA must link proposed assistance agreements to the Agency’s Strategic Plan. EPA also requires that grant applicants and recipients adequately describe environmental outputs and outcomes to be achieved under assistance agreements. Guidance and examples of outputs, outcomes, performance measures, and logic models can be found at Office of Grants and Debarment’s website, Linking Assistance Agreements to Environmental Results:

https://www.epa.gov/grants/policy-regulations-and-guidance-epa-grants

1. Linkage to EPA 2014-2018 Strategic Plan and Cross-Agency Strategies (Evaluation Criteria, Section V.A) All proposals must support EPA Strategic Plan Goal 3, “Cleaning up Communities and Advancing Sustainable Development” and EPA’s Cross Agency Strategy, “Working to Make a Visible Difference in Communities”. The plan is available at: https://www.epa.gov/planandbudget/strategicplan

2. Outputs (Evaluation Criteria, Section V.A) The term “output” means an environmental activity, effort, and/or associated work product related to an environmental goal and https://www.epa.gov/grants/epa-order-57007a1-epas-policy-environmental-results-under-epa-assistance-agreements https://www.epa.gov/grants/epa-order-57007a1-epas-policy-environmental-results-under-epa-assistance-agreements https://www.epa.gov/planandbudget/strategicplan

- 7 -objective that will be produced or provided over a period of time or by a specified date.

Outputs may be quantitative or qualitative but must be measurable during the funding period. Examples of some expected outputs from the project(s) may include the following:

• The number of residents trained by an environmental and/or public health program to reduce resident exposure to environmental and/or public health hazards (e.g., number of residents trained on safe shellfish harvesting)

• Creation of an environmental and/or public health program to achieve and sustain environmental and/or public health improvements (e.g., a community-wide asthma coalition)

3. Outcomes (Evaluation Criteria, Section V.A.) The term “outcome” means the result, effect or consequence that will occur from carrying out an environmental program or activity that relates to an environmental or programmatic goal or objective. Outcomes may be environmental, behavioral, health-related, or programmatic in nature; must be quantitative; and may not necessarily be achievable within an assistance agreement funding period. EPA encourages recipients to identify outcomes wherever possible because they lead to environmental and/or public health improvement more clearly than outputs.

Examples of expected outcomes are listed below.

4. Performance Measures (Evaluation Criteria, Section V.A.) The applicant should develop performance measures to be achieved through the proposed activities and describe them in their proposal. These performance measures will help gather insights, will be the mechanism to track progress concerning successful progress, output and outcome strategies, and will provide the basis for developing lessons learned to inform future recipients. A logic model is useful in developing performance measures. See Appendices G and H for a sample logic model template. Examples of expected outcomes may include but are not limited to the following:

1. The number of residents that actually adopt safe shellfish harvesting

2. The number of community members that utilize an asthma action plan to manage asthma at home, work, and/or school

3. The number of families that have reduced exposure to lead paint as a result of their homes undergoing a lead abatement program

4. Reduction of carbon emissions/pollution

The following are questions to consider when developing output and outcome measures of quantitative and qualitative results:

1. What are the measurable short term and longer term results the project will achieve?

2. How does the project measure progress in achieving the expected results (including outputs and outcomes) and how will the approach use resources effectively and efficiently?

II. AWARD INFORMATION (back to Contents by Section)

A. FUNDING AVAILABILITY AND PROJECT PERIOD

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The total estimated amount of funding available for awards under this solicitation for FY 2017 is approximately $1,200,000. Awards will be made in the form of one-year federal grants from EPA regional offices in amounts of up to approximately $30,000 per award for projects related to at least one of the seven statutes listed in Section I.C. All awards will be fully funded at the time of award.

B. NUMBER OF ANTICIPATED AWARDS

EPA anticipates awarding up to approximately four grants per EPA region for projects related to at least one of the seven statutes listed in Section I.C. In total, up to 40 grants are anticipated to be awarded.

All awards are subject to the availability of funds, the quality of the proposals submitted, and other applicable considerations.

EPA reserves the right to increase or decrease the total number of grants awarded or reject all proposals and make no awards under this announcement. Such changes may be necessary as a response to the quality of proposals received by EPA or the amount of funds available.

For a listing of EPA’s ten regions and the states for which they are responsible, please see Section VII. If additional funding becomes available after the original selections are made, EPA reserves the right to make additional awards under this announcement consistent with Agency policy and guidance. Any additional selections for awards will be made no later than six months after the original selections have been made.

III. ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION (back to Contents by Section)

A. Eligible Entities based on CFDA. In accordance with CFDA 66.604, an eligible applicant must be one of the following:

• incorporated non-profit organizations —including, but not limited to, environmental justice networks, faith based organizations and those affiliated with religious institutions;*

• federally recognized tribal governments; OR

• tribal organizations

* Applicant organizations claiming non-profit status must include documentation that shows the organization is either a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization as designated by the Internal Revenue Service; OR a non-profit organization recognized by the state, territory, commonwealth or tribe in which it is located. For the latter, documentation must be on official state government letterhead.

Applicants must be located within the same state, territory, commonwealth, or tribe in which the proposed project is located. In addition, eligible applicants must demonstrate that they have worked directly with the affected community.

An “affected community,” for the purposes of this competition, is defined as a vulnerable community that may be disproportionately impacted by environmental harms and risks and has a local environmental and/or public health issue that is identified in the applicant’s proposal.

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The following entities are INELIGIBLE to receive an award, but we encourage applicants to partner with these organizations, as appropriate (see Contracts and Subawards solicitation clause), for technical assistance:

• colleges and universities;

• hospitals;

• state and local governments and their entities;

• quasi-governmental entities (e.g., water districts, utilities)*;

• national organizations and chapters of the aforementioned organizations**;

• non-profit organizations supporting lobbying activities as defined in Section 3 of the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995; and***

* Generally, a quasi-governmental entity is one that: (1) has a close association with the government agency, but is not considered a part of the government agency; (2) was created by the government agency, but is exempt from certain legal and administrative requirements imposed on government agencies; or (3) was not created by the government agency but performs a public purpose and is significantly supported financially by the government agency.

** National organizations are defined as comprising of one centralized headquarters or principal place of business that creates and controls the mission, structure and work carried out by its chapters or affiliates.

*** Funds awarded under this announcement may not be used to support lobbying activities or any activities related to lobbying or the appearance thereof. Subawards made to nonprofit organizations that lobby are not allowed.

B. THRESHOLD ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

These are requirements that, if not met by the time of proposal submission, will result in elimination of the proposal from consideration for funding. Only proposals from eligible entities (Section III) that meet all of these criteria will be evaluated against the ranking factors in Section V. Applicants deemed ineligible for funding consideration because of the threshold eligibility review will be notified within 15 calendar days of the ineligibility determination.

1. Proposals must substantially comply with the proposal submission instructions and requirements set forth in Section IV of this announcement or else they will be rejected.

However, where a page limit is expressed in Section IV with respect to the proposal workplan, pages in excess of the page limitation will not be reviewed.

In addition, initial proposals must be submitted through Grants.gov as stated in Section IV of this announcement (except in the limited circumstances where another mode of submission is specifically allowed for, as explained in Section IV) on or before the proposal submission deadline published in Section IV of this announcement. Applicants are responsible for following the submission instructions in Section IV of this announcement to ensure that their proposal is timely submitted.

https://www.epa.gov/grants/epa-solicitation-clauses#contractssubawards http://www.sam.gov/

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2. Proposals submitted after the submission deadline will be considered late and deemed ineligible without further consideration unless the applicant can clearly demonstrate that it was late due to EPA mishandling or because of technical problems associated with Grants.gov or relevant SAM.gov system issues. An applicant’s failure to submit their proposal through Grants.gov because they did not timely or properly register in SAM.gov or Grants.gov will not be considered an acceptable reason to consider a late submission. DO NOT wait to register in SAM.gov or Grants.gov. Finalizing these registrations could take a month or more. Register as soon as possible. Applicants should confirm receipt of their proposal with Jacob Burney, burney.jacob@epa.gov, as soon as possible—failure to do so may result in your proposal not being reviewed.

3. Qualified Environmental Statutes: Projects must include activities related to at least one of the Qualified Environmental Statutes listed under Section I.C. A project workplan must explain how it is tied to the local environmental and/or public health issue in the affected community. Any failure to clearly and conclusively identify and cite at least one of the federal statutes in your work plan may result in your project not being considered for award. Projects must not be used for the purposes of routine program implementation, implementation of routine environmental protection restoration measures, duplication of work performed under a prior EPA grant, or completion of work which was to have been completed under a prior EPA grant.

4. Ineligible activities: If a proposal includes any ineligible tasks or prohibited activities, that portion of the proposal will be ineligible for funding and may, depending on the extent to which it affects the proposal, render the entire proposal ineligible for funding.

5. Multiple Proposals: Applicants may submit only one proposal under this solicitation. If an applicant submits more than one then they will be contacted by EPA prior to the evaluation process to determine which one to withdraw. However an applicant organization may be a partner on a proposal from another organization.

6. Please note that proposals must be written in English only. Proposals written in languages other than English will not be considered for award.

C. COST-SHARING OR MATCHING FUNDS

No cost-sharing or matching is required as a condition of eligibility or otherwise considered for evaluating proposals for award.

IV. PROPOSAL & SUBMISSION INFORMATION (back to Contents by Section)

A. CONTENT AND FORM OF PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

http://grants.gov/ http://www.sam.gov/ http://www.grants.gov/ http://www.sam.gov/ http://grants.gov/

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All proposals must be submitted electronically through www.grants.gov. Proposals transmitted via postal mail, fax, and/or email will not be considered. Proposals are due Friday, February 10, 2017 at 11:59 PM (ET).

REQUIRED FORMS & DOCUMENTS: The following forms and documents are required.

Failure to include all documents listed below may result in your proposal being rendered ineligible:

1) SF-424 Application for Federal Assistance (part of the Grants.gov application submission process)

2) Proposal Work plan (subject to page limit described below and see optional template in Section IV.A.2) - use “Project Narrative” form in Grants.gov to submit your workplan

3) Itemized Budget Sheet (Appendices E and F)

4) Project Performance Measures / Logic Model (Appendices B & C)

5) Key Contacts List (EPA Form 5700-54) – use “Key Contacts” form in Grants.gov

6) Resumes of the Project Manager (PM) and other key personnel

7) Proof of Non-Profit Status

For documents 3, 4, 6 and 7, applicants can submit using the “Other” attachments forms in Grants.gov.

It is strongly advised that applicants organize their proposals in the order presented above when submitting through Grants.gov. This will facilitate review and scoring of your proposal. However, applicants will not be penalized if documents are ordered differently. The following is a detailed description of all the required forms and documents:

1) SF-424 APPLICATION FOR FEDERAL ASSISTANCE: The SF-424 is the official form required for all federal grants and cooperative agreements. This form is a required form in Grants.gov for all federal grant applicants. The form requests the basic information about your organization and proposed project. To complete the SF-424 form, applicants must provide a DUN and Bradstreet (D&B) Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number. Applicants can receive a DUNS number at no cost by calling the dedicated toll-free request line at 1-800-627-3867 or by visiting the D&B website at http://www.dnb.com.

2) PROPOSALWORK PLAN (Template available in Section IV.A.2): The work plan is the most important part of the proposal package. The work plan describes the project. Work plans that are focused and succinct are stronger than ones that try to address too many issues.

The work plan, as described below, must not exceed eleven (11), single-spaced typewritten pages and be on letter size pages (8 1/2 X 11 inches). Any pages beyond eleven (11) pages will not be read by the Review Panel. It is recommended that applicants use a standard font (e.g.

Times New Roman, Calibri, and Arial) and a 12-point font size with 1-inch margins.

Applicants whose projects are located in Underrepresented States and/or who have not received an EPA EJ grant since FY2012 must self-identify that in the work plan. (See page 2 for a list of Underrepresented States). EPA intends to verify this information.

http://www.grants.gov/ https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2014-09/documents/epa_form_5700_54.pdf http://www.dnb.com/

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The following table may be helpful when drafting the work plan:

The 11-page work plan must contain the following components (items 1.0-6.0 below) and should be identified by the headings in the EXACT ORDER as listed below. Also ensure that the workplan addresses all the evaluation criteria in Section V and any necessary threshold eligibility criteria in Section III:

1.0 PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

a. Project Summary – Recommended one-page summary document. Summary includes:

• Project Title

• Project Location (including community/neighborhood(s), city, state, and zip code)

• Underrepresented State? (Yes/No)

• Applicant Information (name, address, main contact information)

• New EPA EJ Grantee (if awarded)? (Yes/No)

• Brief Description of Applicant Organization

• Project Period

• Environmental Statute(s) and Project Type(s)

• List of Project Partners (if applicable)

• Project Abstract

• Will you need to develop a QAPP for your project? (see Appendix F)

b. Environmental and Public Health information about the Affected Community - the applicant will be evaluated on the ability to clearly describe the local environmental justice issue(s) the project proposes to address and the community that is impacted.

Please describe the following:

• The local environmental and public health issue(s) that the project seeks to address;

• Results achieved from the efforts to address the local environmental and public health issues(s);

• The characteristics of the affected community;

• How the affected community may be disproportionately impacted by the environmental and public health harm(s) and risk(s);

• How the affected community will benefit from the results of the project; and

• How the applicant will maintain and sustain an ongoing relationship with the affected community’s residents and/or organizations.

The proposal must include relevant information such as demographics, geographic location, and community history. We encourage the use of EPA’s EJSCREEN tool to characterize and describe your target community. Instructions and resources on how to use EJSCREEN are included at the hyperlink above. For any questions you have about EJSCREEN, please contact Kevin Olp at olp.kevin@epa.gov or 202-564-5423.

https://www.epa.gov/ejscreen mailto:olp.kevin@epa.gov

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c. Organization’s Historical Connection to the Affected Community - The applicant will be evaluated on the description of the strong connection between their organization and the affected community as that term is defined in this announcement. Please describe the following:

• The history of the organization’s involvement with the affected community, including the length of your involvement and how you became involved;

• How the organization has worked with the affected community’s residents and/or organizations to address local environmental and public health issues;

• How the affected community’s residents and/or organizations were involved in developing the current project plan and are part of the decision-making process; and

• How the organizations’ efforts have increased the community’s capacity to address local environmental and public health issues

d. Project Linkages and Partnerships

Please describe the following:

• How the project supports EPA Strategic Plan Goal 3, ”Cleaning up Communities and Advancing Sustainable Development” and EPA’s Cross Agency Strategy, “Working to Make a Visible Difference in Communities” See:

• How the project is related to the qualified environmental statutes identified in your Project Summary. Please note each project must include activities that are authorized by one of the federal environmental statutes listed in Section I.C.

• Describe the partnerships identified in your project (if applicable), including:

- Planned roles of each partner listed in your Project Summary, including which project activities each will be responsible for

- What resources each partner brings to the partnership

- How the partner has a vested interest in working with this partnership [other than just getting income]

- How the applicant organization plans to maintain and sustain these relationships on into the future

If there are no partnerships associated with your project, please indicate this in your workplan and describe how you will perform the project without partnerships.

However, partnerships are strongly encouraged!!

2.0 Project Activities / Milestone Schedule / Detailed Budget Narrative

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a. Project Activities - Clear description of steps the applicant will take to meet the program objectives. Descriptions of the detailed project activities or components and the anticipated products/results associated with each activity.

b. Milestone Schedule - Clearly articulated milestone schedule, including timeframes and major milestones to complete significant project activities.

c. Detailed Budget and Budget Narrative - Clearly explain how EPA funds will be used.

Applicants must itemize costs into the following budget categories: personnel, fringe benefits, contractual costs, travel, equipment, supplies, other direct costs, indirect costs, and total costs. Describe itemized costs in sufficient detail for EPA to determine the reasonableness and allowability of costs for each work plan component/activity.

3.0 Environmental Results – Outputs, Outcomes, and Performance Measures (Logic Model)

a. Environmental Results-Outputs/Outcomes - Applicants will be evaluated based on the expected project outputs and outcomes identified in the proposal for their project. The expected outputs and outcomes should be effective in achieving the Program Objectives listed in Section I, including developing strategies for addressing local environmental and public health issues, educating and empowering the community about those issues, and developing approaches to building consensus and setting community priorities in the affected community.

b. Performance Measures - The extent and quality to which the proposal demonstrates a sound plan for tracking progress toward achieving the expected outputs and outcomes (examples of outputs and outcomes are provided in Section I. and Appendix B of the announcement).

4.0 Programmatic Capability

In order to be evaluated under this criterion in Section V, applicants must provide information on their:

a. Organizational Experience related to the proposed project and their infrastructure as it relates to their ability to successfully implement the proposed project.

b. Staff Experience / Qualifications of Project Manager (PM) - Provide information that clearly demonstrates that the proposed PM and other staff associated with the project are qualified to perform the project successfully. This will be determined through the description of the following:

- Why the PM and associated staff are qualified to undertake the project;

- Illustrating the PM’s ties/historical connection to the community and the applicant organization. Please include detailed descriptions of

- 15 -any activities that the PM has worked on with the community and/or applicant organization.

c. Expenditure of Awarded Grant Funds - Applicants will be evaluated based on their approach, procedures, and controls for ensuring that awarded grant funds will be expended in a timely and efficient manner and applicants must describe this in the workplan.

5.0 Past Performance

Submit a list of federally funded assistance agreements (assistance agreements include Federal grants and cooperative agreements but not Federal contracts) similar in size, scope and relevance to the proposed project that your organization performed within the last three years (no more than 5 agreements, and preferably EPA agreements) and describe:

i. whether, and how, you were able to successfully complete and manage those agreements and

ii. your history of meeting the reporting requirements under those agreements including whether you adequately and timely reported on your progress towards achieving the expected outputs and outcomes of those agreements (and if not, explain why not) and whether you submitted acceptable final technical reports under the agreements.

In evaluating applicants under these factors in Section V, EPA will consider the information provided by the applicant and may also consider relevant information from other sources, including information from EPA files and from current/prior grantors (e.g., to verify and/or supplement the information provided by the applicant). If you do not have any relevant or available past performance or past reporting information, please indicate this in the proposal and you will receive a neutral score for these factors (a neutral score is half of the total points available in a subset of possible points). If you do not provide any response for these items, you may receive a score of 0 for these factors.

6.0 Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) Information

• Indicate whether you believe that your project will involve the use of existing environmental data or the collection of new data (use the checklist in Appendix I to assist you in making this determination). For more information about Quality Assurance Project Plans, please consult the following website http://www.epa.gov/quality/qs-docs/g5-final.pdf.

You are not required to develop a QAPP at this point. You are only being asked to determine whether or not you will need a QAPP should your project be selected for funding. If required, then an approved QAPP must be in place prior to the initiation of project activities.

http://www.epa.gov/quality/qs-docs/g5-final.pdf

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3) Itemized Budget Sheet (Template available in Appendices E and F): This sheet should support the Detailed Budget Narrative section of your workplan.. Provide a detailed budget and estimated funding amount for each project component/activity. Identify the requested federal dollars. Clearly explain how EPA funds will be used. Applicants must itemize costs related to personnel, fringe benefits, contractual costs, travel, equipment, supplies, other direct costs, indirect costs, and total costs. All subaward funding should be located under the “other” category. This section provides an opportunity for narrative description of the budget or aspects of the budget such as “other” and contractual. Describe itemized costs in sufficient detail for EPA to determine the reasonableness and allowability of costs for each work plan component/activity. Helpful tips on writing a budget can be found at: http://www.epa.gov/ogd/recipient/ogd_budget_detail_guidance.pdf

If the applicant does not have a current negotiated indirect cost (IDC) rate, the applicant may include a flat IDC rate of 10% of salaries and wages. Please note: Recipients that opt to use the 10% flat rate are obligated to use the flat rate for the life of the grant award.

Total estimated costs in the budget breakdown should reflect federal funding only. Include in the narrative how/if partners will contribute to the project via in-kind or financial support.

Grantee Networking and Training Workshop: All EJSG recipients will be required to attend a two-day workshop to be held simultaneously at each EPA regional office and coordinated virtually by the Office of Environmental Justice in Washington, DC. The tentative date for the workshop is in mid-January 2018. Recipients will need to identify at least one authorized official to participate and travel to their corresponding EPA regional office. Recipients will be permitted to use awarded funds to pay for travel to the workshop.

Applicants should include those travel costs in proposed budgets. The workshop will feature a mix of current and past EPA EJ grant recipients who will come together to provide perspective, insight, and lessons learned regarding the environmental justice issues plaguing their communities and ways to address them. Recipients will also receive guidance on strategic planning and project management. The workshop may also include site visits to local EJ grant projects depending on the EPA regional office agenda.

4) Project Performance Measures / Logic Model (Optional logic model template and example are available in Appendices G and H).

The ability to measure project progress is critical to achieving desired goals. Targeting work toward specific project outcomes can help the recipient manage the project to achieve these results. Measurement can indicate the effectiveness of the project and whether the efforts are having a positive impact on the community.

In order to determine whether your project has achieved its intended outputs and outcomes, you will need to think about what your data source will be (e.g., people, existing records, observation, etc.) and how you will collect the data (e.g., observing behavior changes, administering pre- and post-tests). You will need to do this for each performance measure you develop.

http://www.epa.gov/ogd/recipient/ogd_budget_detail_guidance.pdf

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When developing performance measures, please list and describe the following:

• Resources/Inputs: Identify which resources, the organization and its partners are putting forward to further the project’s goals. Resources may include but are not limited to staff time, in-kind contributions, monetary contributions, etc.

• Activities: What activities will the organization and its partners conduct under your work plan?

• Outputs and Outcomes: Describe the outputs and outcomes that will result from the project (potential outputs and outcomes are listed in Section I. D).

When developing performance measures for all projects, it is also important to consider the following:

• What are the measurable short term and longer term results the project will achieve?

• How will my project measure progress in achieving the expected results (including outputs and outcomes) and how will the approach use resources effectively and efficiently?

You will also need to think carefully about your data collection process in order to get quality information from your project and to achieve your project’s intended results.

Logic models are useful tools in developing output and outcome measures. A logic model is a visual model that shows the relationship between your work and your desired results. It communicates the performance story of your project, focusing attention on the most important connections between your actions and the results. A logic model can serve as a basic road map for the project, explaining where you are and where you hope to end up. Development of a logic model for your project is not required, but strongly encouraged.

5) EPA Form 5700-54, Key Contacts List: Applicants are encouraged to ensure that all information presented on the Key Contacts form is accurate. Information contained on the Key Contacts form may be used in the event an applicant is contacted for additional information.

6) Resumes of the Project Manager (PM) and Other Key Personnel: Applicants must attach a resume or curricula vitae (CV) for the PM and other key personnel named on the Key Contacts List. Individual resumes should not exceed 2 pages in length.

7) Proof of Non-profit Status. Applicant organizations claiming non-profit status must include documentation that shows the organization is either a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization as designated by the Internal Revenue Service; OR a non-profit organization recognized by the state, territory, commonwealth or tribe in which it is located.

Documentation must be on official federal or state government letterhead.

https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2014-09/documents/epa_form_5700_54.pdf

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B. ADDITIONAL SUBMISSION PROVISIONS: The following list of provisions that apply to this solicitation and/or awards made under this solicitation, include but are not limited to: Confidential Business Information, Contracts and Subawards under grants, and Management Fees. Additional provisions can be found at: http://www.epa.gov/grants/epa-solicitation-clauses . Applicants are strongly encouraged to review these and other grant provisions when preparing proposals for this solicitation. If there is difficulty in accessing the provisions electronically at the website above, please communicate with the EPA contact listed in this solicitation to obtain the provisions.

C. INTERGOVERNMENTAL REVIEW PROCESS: If your state has chosen to participate in the intergovernmental review process, then you should submit your proposal to your State’s Single Point of Contact (SPOC) at the same time as you submit your proposal to the EPA in order to prevent delay. Please check this website to see if you are required to submit your proposal for intergovernmental review:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/grants_spoc

The intergovernmental review process can be lengthy, so it is encouraged that applicants submit proposal packages to their designated SPOCs as early as possible.

D. PRE-APPLICATION ASSISTANCE CALLS

Applicants are invited to participate in conference calls with EPA to address questions about the EJSG Program and this solicitation. Interested persons may access the pre-application assistance calls by dialing 1-866-299-3188 and entering the code 202-564-0152 when prompted. The following are the conference call dates and times:

Date Time (Eastern Standard) Tuesday, November 15, 2016 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Thursday, December 8, 2016 1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Thursday, January 5, 2017 (en Español) 1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Thursday, January 12, 2017 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Tuesday, January 24, 2017 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

In accordance with EPA's Assistance Agreement Competition Policy (EPA Order 5700.5A1),…