An Update on the EPA Environmental and Climate Justice Grant Programs

Across the country, community groups, faith leaders, nonprofits, tribal partners, local governments, and educational institutions stand ready to deliver safer water, cleaner air, healthier communities, local jobs, and weather-ready infrastructure. These projects aren’t ideas—they were approved, reviewed, and set to launch. Then the funding was frozen, blocked, and now stripped from communities following a series of Executive Orders that resulted in the unlawful termination of the EPA’s Environmental and Climate Justice Grant programs.

More than 800 projects and over $1.5 billion of federal investment in local and regional projects sit in limbo.

But communities haven’t given up. They’re still ready. They’re still here. And they’re calling for action.

The Solutions for Community Resilience (SCR) project supports small, community-based organizations in accessing funding for projects that promote safe, clean, healthy and resilient environments. As the eastern national grantmaker, ISC and its five partners (Emerald Cities Collaborative, Groundwork USA, River Network, Trust for Public Land, and Urban Sustainability Directors Network) will develop equity-centered coordination services to the three eastern regional grantmakers. To ease the process of tracking in the eastern region, SCR will develop a data visualization hub and national evaluation and tracking system to help identify gaps in grantmaking courage within EPA regions 1-3 with the objective of ensuring that communities most impacted by environmental injustices are poised to receive funding. The SCR’s team’s collective community-based relationships and networks, equity-centered expertise, and well-honed tools and materials enable us to offer flexible, on-demand services and solutions to the EPA and eastern regional grantmakers to ensure a successful Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program.

Objectives

Communities across the Eastern U.S. are facing increasing climate and economic pressures often without equal access to the tools, data, and funding they need to prepare and adapt. Many small, rural, Tribal, urban, and capacity-constrained communities are left behind in competitive grant processes, limiting their ability to advance solutions that build resilience. The Solutions for Community Resilience project is designed to change that story. Together with local partners, we will:

• Implement a competitive and equitable intake and evaluation process that ensures every community has a fair opportunity to access resources.
• Develop an Eastern National Evaluation and Tracking System and Data Visualization Hub to make data accessible, transparent, and useful for decision-making.
• Coordinate services for eastern regional grantmakers to align priorities and reduce duplication, strengthening support for locally-led solutions.
• Complete outreach to urban, rural, Tribal, remote, and capacity-constrained communities so no community is left out of the resilience conversation.
• Provide capacity-building support to grantees so that local leaders have the tools, knowledge, and connections they need to successfully complete projects.

By creating a fair, transparent, and collaborative grantmaking process, SCR ensures that more communities can design and complete projects that protect health, strengthen local economies, and prepare for climate impacts. With shared data and aligned support, funders and communities will track progress in real-time and ensure that investments translate into safer, healthier, more resilient futures.

What We Do

Invest Build

Investment

in municipalities, tribal nations, and community organizations in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast United States

Capacity Building

with a focus on providing grantees support and resources to complete climate resilience projects