Urban Environmental Program in New England

1998 Boston Grantees

Re-Vision House, Inc.
Project Title: Community Supported Urban Agriculture Project

Re-Vision House Inc. (RHI), a transitional residence for pregnant and parenting teens, will expand its urban aquaculture / agriculture program to develop a greenhouse and farm on a 16,000 square-foot parcel of vacant land across the street. This facility will produce vegetable seedlings, fish and food crops, and will function as an educational site for agricultural and horticultural classes open to shelter and community residents. Funding will support stipends for two RHI interns to receive hands-on job training on the farm, provide assistance in all aspects of greenhouse, field crop and fish production, marketing, and farm development, and to access other skills and information from outside sources, including classes on agriculture and the environment.
Measures of Success: Participation of RHI interns in the community-based site council responsible for decision-making and site planning of greenhouse and farm; success of interns in developing and presenting community agricultural / environmental workshops; number of participants in these workshops; and ability of interns to grow and market start-up seedlings to community gardeners; interns' success in meeting self-defined goals.
EPA Partners: Franklin Field / Franklin Hill Healthy Boston Coalition, Blue Hill Boys and Girls Club, and Garden Futures.

Bowdoin Street Health Center
Project Title: Environmental Mapping Project

The Bowdoin Street Health Center will continue it's Community Environment Committee (CEC)'s program of mapping environmental hazards and organizing to improve these risks. After mapping several neighborhoods out by hand, BSHC is looking to transfer this information to computer. The CEC's organizing focus includes restoring and revitalizing vacant land, cleaning up polluting auto body shops, and eliminating the hazards posed by a large, uncovered salt pile in the middle of a residential neighborhood. In addition, the CEC will continue to present its mapping material to other community and health organizations and provide assistance in forming new CEC's, and will continue to help organizing the annual "Environmental Justice in the ‘Hood" conferences.
Measures of Success: Number and quality of relationships developed with other community-based groups; formulation of planning and remediation Programs; transfer of mapping information to computer software; success of CEC organizing campaigns.
EPA Partners: Dudley Street Neighborhood Program, Dorchester Gardenlands Preserves;

MA Department of Food and Agriculture
Project Title: Environmental Resource Management

Working together with local chefs, farmers, food producers and community groups, the Massachusetts Department of Food and Agriculture will coordinate three public market on the Boston waterfront to support local food production. The public markets will demonstrate the feasibility of reviving an age-old Boston tradition of a permanent public market on the waterfront. Each market will feature fresh produce, baked goods, and seafood and fish, as well as local artists and chefs. In addition to supporting local farmers and efforts to strengthen the link between agriculture and the urban center, these markets are an excellent opportunity to generate vitality in the Boston waterfront, provide city residents with wholesome food products, and provide economic incentives for regional producers and fishermen to market their goods locally.
Measures of Success: Number and diversity of vendors in each market; turnout at each event; progress towards developing a permanent indoor market.
EPA Partners: Sustainable Boston, City of Boston; Friends of the Boston Public Market; Teen Program of the South Boston Neighborhood House; Artists for Humanity.

Neighborhoods Against Urban Pollution
Project Title: Clean Up and Reclaim

The goal of this projects is to work with community-based groups from across Greater Boston to craft City-wide Programs for resolving common land-use problems with auto-related businesses, Boston Edison's abandoned transformer sites, and trash transfer stations. NAUP will assist Community Environment Councils in researching each of these problems areas, developing strategies to solve site-specific problems, and developing ways to reproduce successful results. NAUP will also serve to coordinate community-based efforts with government enforcement and private sector accountability.
Measures of Success: Development of a unified permitting process model for auto businesses; meetings with Boston Edison and CEC to discuss abandoned transformer sites; selection of 2-3 pilot sites for clean-up and redevelopment; update of NAUP manual; degree to which government agencies look to CECs for advice on new policies; confidence of CEC members in working with regulators and decision-makers; perception of CEC network as a City-wide voice on urban environmental issues.
EPA Partners: Alternatives for Community and Environment, Bowdoin Street Health Center, Dudley Street Neighborhood Program, and Tellus Institute.

South Boston Community Health Center
Project Title: The Indoor Air Quality Advocate Group

This project will train at least eight residents of the West Broadway public housing development to identify and monitor features of the environment which adversely impact indoor air quality and advocate to improve their environment and reduce respiratory symptoms. The IAQ Advocacy Group will be trained in a variety of skills to ensure the sustainability of the project as a community-based movement, including indoor environmental assessment, principles of asthma, community organizing, self advocacy, and fund-raising, The Group will also gather multi-level data on asthma and respiratory health, and organize community meetings to share data and devise intervention strategies.
Measures of Success: Success of IAQ group in mobilizing community members; pre- and post-documentation of intervention and education strategies; improvement in indoor air quality for selected intervention homes; compilation and dissemination of health data related to asthma and respiratory disorders.
EPA Partners: Boston School of Public Health, Tufts School of Medicine Environmental Studies Department, West Broadway Housing Development, Public Health Program.

Mass Riverways
Project Title: Mill Creek Project Plan

Riverways will work with community organizations and municipalities to revitalize Mill Creek and Chelsea Creek by developing a vision and plan of action for this area, by providing technical assistance and information on land uses, water quality, and health of the marsh habitats, providing information on potential funding sources and other resources for brownfields redevelopment and marsh restoration, and by helping build a strong resident group to organized community activities in the creek area.
Measures of Success: Amount of resource brought into the project; number of residents involved in the project; ability to utilize partnerships; improvements in the marsh and creek; increased opportunities for residents to enjoy the marsh and creek.
EPA Partners: Chelsea GreenSpace and Recreation Committee, City of Chelsea's Environmental Crew; ROCA YouthStar, Appalachian Mountain Club.

Suffolk County Conservation District
Project Title: Environmental Improvement and Local Empowerment at the Boston Nature Center

In an effort to help link local youth to the natural environment, the SCCD will recruit and place local youth on site at the new 70-acre Boston Nature Center to construct trails, cull vegetation, and learn about the ecosystem of this urban forest. In conjunction with Roxbury Community College, the SCCD will also develop a booklet comprising descriptions of environmental careers and required skills.
Measures of Success: Recruitment of 12 local youth; successful completion of site work; implementation of orientation and training activities; youth's increased interest in and access to environmental careers.
EPA Partners: Roxbury Community College, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Mass Audubon, Healthy Boston Coalition, AmeriCorps.

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 has worked with UEP for four years to develop and sustain Center for Environmental Education. The Center works to strengthen the community's awareness of the environment and to increase its involvement in its future. Through education, training, and collaborations, the Center enables residents to make informed choices regarding environmental affairs, issues, and careers.

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.

Chelsea Green Space Awareness Day sponsored by URP

Neighborhoods Against Urban Pollution (NAUP):
Project: Clean up and Reclaim

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 with community based groups from across Great Boston to craft city-wide Programs for resolving common land-use problems with auto-related businesses, Boston Edison's abandoned transformer sites, and trash transfer stations. NAUP will assist Community Environment Councils (CECs) in researching each of these problem areas. NAUP will then develop strategies to solve site-specific problems and ways to reproduce successful results.

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.

Chelsea Creek Action Group:
Project Title: Chelsea Creek Restoration

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.thm ) 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.

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