Urban Environmental Program in New England

1997 Boston Grantees

Dimock Community Health Center
Project Title: Breathe Easier

This is the third year of an ongoing asthma outreach project conducted by community health activists and teen leaders, and is directed toward four public housing units in the Egelston Square area. The UEP funds have continued to result in the organization of community efforts toward assisting targeted families in being able to access information, services, education and training. This assistance will manage and reduce the severity of asthma by identifying indoor environmental asthma triggers, and result in the long term reduction of the number of asthma attacks and hospital visits within the Dimock Health Center population and the Dorchester community.

Boston University School of Public Health
Project Title: Indoor Environment in Public Housing: A Pilot Program and Action Agenda

This asthma/indoor air quality program established a public housing and asthma tenant group, and delivered a tool designed to assist public housing residents in identifying asthma triggers and other physical hazards in South Boston public housing. Community members and the South Boston Center staff have come together to provide community education to residents of these housing projects. Through this grant, BU School of Public Health(med-sph.bu.edu) was able to develop a computer model of public housing hazards and asthma triggers.
Other partners: Tufts School of Medicine–Environmental Studies Department and West Broadway Housing Development–Public Health Program.

Urban Asthma Program in Boston
Project Title: Asthma Assessment

This Urban Asthma Program was developed as a coalition to assist Boston residents who have identified asthma (http://www.epa.gov/region01/eco/iaq/) as a major environmental health problem. This coalition consists of: Boston University School of Public Health, Dimock Community Health Center, and the Committee for Boston Public Housing. With EPA support, Boston Neighborhood Health Clinics conducted residential questionnaires in public housing complexes to determine the occurrences of asthma. EPA will continue to work with the Boston School system to establish environmental teams and to comprehensively evaluate school buildings using the EPA Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools Action kit.

Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE)
Project Title: Roxbury Environmental Empowerment Project (REEP)

REEP is a youth enrichment project sponsored by Roxbury's Alternatives for Community and Environment (www.netcom.com/~psloh ). Students from the Dudley neighborhood of Roxbury have identified asthma as a target area and are working as Youth Educators for Asthma Prevention. Youth are trained to educate their community and increase the awareness of the health impacts of air pollution.

Roxbury Community College
Project: Center for Lead Abatement

Roxbury Community College is working with UEP on a project to continuation developing the Roxbury Community College Center for Environmental Education. Courses offered include Environmental Justice, Environmental Justice and Young People, Environmental Management and Pollution Prevention, Environmental Law and Urban Policy, Introduction to Urban Landscaping, Growing Green Business, as well as certification in Lead and Asbestos training.

Crittenton Hastings House
Project Title: Lead Poisoning Prevention Program

With EPA support, Crittenton Hastings has been able to expand its current program to bring comprehensive public education, outreach and resource referral services to families throughout Boston. Through its efforts, 1400 families will be taught about Lead Poisoning Prevention each year. The overall goal of this Lead Poisoning Prevention program is to promote the healthy development of children at risk for lead poisoning through its outreach.

The Greater Boston Urban Resource Partnership
Project Title: Chelsea Creek Restoration

This is a partnership of neighborhood groups, community organizations, and city, state and federal agencies formed with federal coordination and support from US Department of Agriculture and the EPA. The Boston URP has a mission to assist urban communities in identifying, clarifying, organizing, and addressing concerns that link social, economic and environmental issues. This coalition grew out of the need for agencies and groups to see effective sustainable development in communities through the strategic use of environmental resources. The Boston URP's pilot project focuses on the revitalization of Chelsea Creek. The goals of this project are to build a support for an environmental agenda in Chelsea and East Boston. This agenda will focus on the clean up and revitalization of the heavily polluted Chelsea Creek area for the recreational and economic benefit of the surrounding communities.

Neighborhoods Against Urban Pollution (NAUP)
Project: Partners in Prevention Program

Neighborhoods Against Urban Pollution (www.netcom.com/
~psloh ) or NAUP is a coalition of Boston area health and environmental organizations. NAUP's campaigns include cleaning up and maintaining vacant lots that have been used for solid and hazardous waste dumping, cleaning up and redeveloping contaminated sites - Brownfields - and addressing the siting of polluting facilities. NAUP will develop a comprehensive model for resident-driven environmental assessment and link with environmental associations into a city wide network. NAUP is working to bring together neighborhood representatives to begin building a city-wide coalition of Community Environmental Committees (CEC). Currently NAUP is working on a project to demonstrate the application of multi-media community-based pollution prevention (www.epa.gov/opptintr/p2home/ (EPA HQ) ) measures, and to provide CEC's with the organizing capacity, education, and technical and legal tools.

Bowdoin Street Health Center
Project Title: Environmental Hazard Mapping

Bowdoin Street Health Center and Suffolk County Conservation Committee are collaborating with each other to provide a Community Environmental Hazard Mapping project in the Bowdoin and Harvard Street Health Center area, as well as to other health centers within the Boston area. This collaboration will enable the development of the data needed to complete the tracking of hazards and clusters of health effects, and the tools to act on that information.

Boston University School of Public Health
Project: Garden Futures

Garden Futures is a collaborative non-profit urban gardening organization. This is the third year of a pilot gardening program dedicated to the restoration and revitalization of urban areas and economic development through the food growth industry and career development. This program sponsors an education and training program for Urban Gardeners, a citywide community service program in garden workshops, an information clearinghouse and hotline, and an annual gardeners gathering. EPA has enabled Garden Futures to initiate a City Gardener Certificate program through a collaboration with Roxbury Community College.

Chelsea Creek Action Group
Project Title: Chelsea Creek Restoration

Chelsea residents prepare a community garden for planting. (Chelsea Greenspace and Recreation Committee).

Chelsea Creek Action Group (CCAG) is a coalition of Chelsea, Revere and East Boston ecumenical and environmental groups. The overall program goal of CCAG is to bring together an ethically diverse coalition of local residents and community groups to work toward building public awareness, promoting public access, and improving the Chelsea Creek and its surrounding watershed. CCAG's long term vision is to make Chelsea Creek a recreational, educational, and economic resource for these communities and the region as a whole. Currently CCAG is working to develop an action plan to preserve and restore Mill Creek.

Massachusetts Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Environmental Law Enforcement
Project: Urban Rivers Action Program

The mission of the Massachusetts Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Environmental Law Enforcement (www.magnet.state.ma.us/dfwele/river/riv_toc.htm ) Mass Riverways Program is to promote the restoration and protection of the Commonwealth's rivers and adjacent lands. Mass Riverways has developed a program to work with city and community organizations in an effort to revitalize Chelsea Creek and Mill Creek. These efforts include working with interested community groups and residents to develop a vision for this area, provide technical assistance and information on land uses and potential funding sources for Brownfields (www.epa.gov/region01/brownfields/), redevelopment and marsh restoration. Currently, Mass Riverways and Chelsea Green Space and Recreation Committee are supporting community efforts to increase public access to Chelsea Creek and Mill Creek shorelines, and reduce sources of pollution along the creeks.

Coalition to Protect Chinatown
Project Title: Environmental Hazards Assessment

This project will begin development of an architectural and computer model of Chinatown to provide a base for community environmental education and urban planning. The modeling project will use GIS/GPS and computer mapping technology to generate a computer model of Chinatown that will encompass with environmental health, land use, traffic, census, and population density. This modeling project will enable Chinatown residents to visualize their physical community, understand the environmental, health, and land use issues, and participate as informed citizens in future community planning processes. This project will also introduce those involved to local environmental justice issues.

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