EPA Announces $600,000 in Brownfields Technical Assistance Funding to Advance Equitable Development and Address Historical Environmental Justice Challenges in Brownfields Communities
WASHINGTON (February 8, 2021) — Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing the selection of Groundwork USA, a national nonprofit organization, to receive $600,000 in funding to provide technical assistance to brownfields communities. This funding will help provide nationwide technical assistance to coach and train brownfields communities on a variety of innovative and effective community engagement approaches to provide low-income and minority residents the opportunity to participate in and directly benefit from brownfields revitalization in their communities.
“This technical assistance will encourage long-term community participation and build local capacity among residents, organizations, government agencies and institutions,” said Barry Breen, Acting Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management. “Communities benefiting from this assistance will be better equipped to lead efforts that advance equitable development and address historical environmental justice challenges, as part of the revitalization and reuse of brownfield sites.”
Using the money provided by EPA, Groundwork USA will provide communities with best practices for integrating environmental justice and equitable development principles in addressing local brownfields cleanup and revitalization challenges. This work will include:
- Developing a visual resource library with a series of audio, video and graphic pieces demonstrating how to use community engagement activities to incorporate environmental justice and equitable development principles into brownfields planning processes.
- Delivering a series of workshops and trainings on how to engage a broad coalition of stakeholders, develop environmental justice and equitable development goals, and address other topics identified by communities.
- Offering direct technical assistance to 25 clients based on their self-identified needs in building capacity to integrate equity and environmental justice throughout the brownfields assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment process.
Background
Since the inception of EPA’s Brownfields Program in 1995, the program’s cumulative investments have leveraged more than $33.6 billion from a variety of public and private sources for cleanup and redevelopment activities. Through fiscal year 2020, this equates to an average of $20.13 leveraged for each EPA Brownfields dollar spent. These investments resulted in approximately 170,724 jobs nationwide.
Groundwork USA is a national organization with local roots that works to empower people and engage local businesses, organizations, and government officials to revitalize neighborhoods and transform community liabilities into community assets. It supports a network of more than 20 local trusts, based in small legacy cities, underserved neighborhoods within larger cities, and rural communities.
To learn more about EPA Brownfields Technical Assistance visit: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/brownfields-technical-assistance-training-and-research