EPA) is announcing the selection of 34 organizations to receive over $3.2 million in funding for projects under the Environmental Education (EE) Grants Program. “When we equip communities with the right tools to raise awareness and advance environmental education, it benefits everybody,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “This funding will empower students and teachers in schools, and support community members in underserved and overburdened areas as we work together to tackle the climate crisis, advance environmental justice and deliver on our mission of protecting human health and the environment for all.”
The funding will range from $50,000 to $100,000, to organizations that provide environmental education activities and programs. This year’s grantees will conduct project activities in 24 states, including Puerto Rico.
This year’s education projects include:
- Increasing access to the Long Island Sound for underrepresented families by using an 80-foot teaching vessel as a floating classroom where families will learn about their local environment and how their daily behaviors can contribute to the protection of one of the areas greatest natural resources.
- Implementing a pilot program in high schools that links locally experienced flood risks with climate literacy education and action in a historically marginalized environmental justice community.
- Using “Green Schoolyards” in low-income communities, where green space is scarce, as educational sites where K-8 students will explore the connection of caring for living systems and improving water and air quality.
- Generating and distributing portable, sustainable, and reusable stand-alone environmental education units to economically distressed and underserved minority communities in Appalachia.
- Training teachers in underserved communities to use the Chicago-Calumet River watershed as a site for STEM learning.
- Creating innovative solutions to the increasing plastic pollution problems associated with Louisiana’s parade culture, where plastic beads and toys are abandoned along parade routes and later enter the natural environment as plastic debris.
- Using “learning orchards” at schools as a tool to engage teachers, students, and community members in hands-on environmental education opportunities while simultaneously providing a sustainable, affordable source of healthy fruit in underserved neighborhoods.
- Empowering the public with the skills and motivation to engage in hands-on ecological restoration through the creation of a youth restoration corps, bilingual restoration leadership trainings for community leaders, and engaging volunteers on high-impact stewardship projects in low-income communities.
- Collaborating with educators at Title I schools in the Bay Area to develop engaging environmental education content following the completion of a one-week externship with a local water agency.
- Developing a program that promotes environmental stewardship of the Nisqually Watershed by connecting traditional ecological knowledge, community science, and behavior change while allowing Nisqually tribal youth to gain high school Career and Technical Education credits and explore career opportunities in the natural resource management field.
The following organizations have been selected to receive this year’s EE Grants:
- Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education
- Earth Conservation Corps
- Earth Team
- Ecology Education Inc.
- EcoRise Youth Innovations (Awarded Grant in Region 6 and Region 9)
- Emory University
- Friends of the Chicago River
- Groundwork Hudson Valley, Inc.
- Growing Gardens
- Gonzaga University
- Industry Initiatives for Science and Math Education (IISME)
- International Center for Appropriate and Sustainable Technology (ICAST)
- Jastech Development Services, Inc.
- Kansas Association for Conservation and Environmental Education
- Kansas City Community Gardens, Inc.
- Louisiana State University
- Manhattan College
- Maryville College
- Minnesota State University, Mankato
- Mystic Aquarium
- New Haven Ecology Project
- Nisqually River Foundation
- Port Townsend School District
- Protect Our Water Jackson Hole
- SoundWaters, Inc.
- South Central Ozark Council of Governments
- Talking Talons Youth Leadership
- The Trust for Public Land
- The Living Classroom Foundation
- University of Illinois Chicago
- University of Puerto Rico at Aguadilla
- University of South Alabama
- Wildlands Restoration Volunteers
EPA anticipates providing funding for these projects once all legal and administrative requirements are satisfied.