Environmental Literacy Program: Increasing community resilience to extreme weather & climate change

The goal of this funding opportunity is for communities to have sufficient collective environmental literacy to take actions that build resilience to extreme weather and climate change in ways that contribute to community health, social cohesion, and socio-economic equity. These communities will be composed of children, youth, and adults who participate in formal and/or informal education experiences that develop their knowledge, skills, and confidence to: 1) reason about the ways that human and natural systems interact globally and locally, including the acknowledgement of disproportionately distributed vulnerabilities; 2) participate in civic processes; and 3) incorporate scientific information, cultural knowledge, and diverse community values. Efforts to build environmental literacy should ultimately aim to reduce risks from current and future environmental hazards through climate-smart and inclusive decision making and long-term stewardship of healthy ecosystems, all the while promoting a low-carbon economy.

Projects should demonstrate how they will engage children, youth, and/or adults to build these capabilities, particularly through active and social learning, during the award period. Projects should leverage and incorporate relevant state and local resilience plans and collaborate with individuals and institutions that are involved in efforts to develop or implement those plans. Projects may focus on a single location or multiple locations and a single type of environmental hazard or a range of hazards that impact a community or communities. Projects will be based on the established scientific evidence about current and future extreme weather and climate change hazards facing communities and should consider relevant socioeconomic, cultural, and ecological factors in the targeted location(s). Particular attention should be paid to community members that have greater exposure to, and fewer resources to deal with, extreme weather and/or climate change impacts. Projects should support diversity, equity, inclusion, and climate justice in all aspects of the project.