2023 Disadvantaged Community Air Monitoring grant
Finger Lakes Region
BluePrint Geneva, Inc. $463,400
Geneva Area DAC Air Quality Monitoring Project
BluePrint Geneva’s team will gather air quality data, engage the community in analysis, and assist in determining and implementing appropriate mitigation strategies to reduce neighborhood exposures in three designated disadvantaged communities in and around Geneva.
Hudson Valley
Groundwork Hudson Valley $275,365
Tracking & Advocating for Air Quality Improvements in Southwest Yonkers
Groundwork Hudson Valley (GWHV) and partners will deploy air quality monitors across Southwest Yonkers to track pollution throughout the year, identify pollution sources, educate the community, and advocate for mitigation measures.
Long Island
Starflower Experiences, Inc. $192,000
Air Quality in Wyandanch
This project will enable Starflower to gather information about the quality of the air in the community of Wyandanch, which the community has long been concerned about. They will educate the community about the results and examine actions that can be taken.
New York Metropolitan
West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc. $499,925
Why We Can’t Breathe: Air Quality Monitoring in the South Bronx and Northern Manhattan
WE ACT and South Bronx Unite will measure, document, and analyze diverse air quality microdata on sources and impacts of air contamination and mitigation; generating recommendations to reduce greenhouse gases in the South Bronx and Uptown Manhattan.
2023 Community Impact Grants
Western New York
Clean Air Coalition of Western New York $98,096
Community Organizing to combat multiple environmental harms and risks in Environmental Justice Communities in Western New York
Clean Air will conduct community organizing focused on disadvantaged communities which will result in education and training of residents to give meaningful input around and lead to to reduced exposure to multiple environmental harms and risks.
Finger Lakes
BluePrint Geneva, Inc. $100,000
Mitigating Environmental Injustice in Geneva
BluePrint Geneva, Inc. will develop a comprehensive youth environmental justice corps to get local students informed and engaged about local environmental areas of concern and potential mitigation strategies as well expanding urban ag. initiatives.
Southern Tier
Finger Lakes ReUse Inc. $99,166.81
Advancing Waste Reduction and Materials Access in EJ Communities
Finger Lakes ReUse will research how to better serve our participants and increase environmental justice impacts while providing an increased number of Tompkins County households in need with quality used materials.
Volunteers Improving Neighborhood Environments Inc. $100,000
Maintaining Binghamton’s Legacy Community Gardens & Building Capacity for the Future
To support residents in growing their own food by addressing vital maintenance at our established (“Legacy”) community gardens, advance neighborhood composting, gaining knowledge on lead contamination, and providing informative educational workshops.
New York Metropolitan
Concrete Safaris, Inc. $100,000
Green Exercise Days Expansion: East Harlem School Children & Local Residents Grow Food, Plant Trees, & Gain Environmental Health Literacy
In this Green Exercise Day Expansion, 400 East Harlem school children (up from 200) in the 2nd - 5th grades will grow food, plant trees, & gain environmental health literacy through weekly visits to our gardens at Washington or Jefferson Houses.
Fort Greene Park Conservancy, Inc. $100,000
Green Team
Teens will research environmental harms in their community and execute an infrastructure project in Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn.
Human Impacts Institute $100,000
Creative Climate Communications Lab
The Creative Climate Communication Lab (C3 Lab) is a living lab for exploring, experimenting with, and understanding the impact of innovative, community-based engagement methods for driving climate action and community resilience.
Outstanding Renewal Enterprises, Inc. $100,000
Horticulture Youth Training Program
The Lower East Side Horticulture Training Program educates local youth on sustainable horticultural practices and improves green infrastructure in the Lower East Side through soil-building activities.
The Bronx Is Blooming $100,000
Grow, Revitalize, Engage, Educate, Nurture (GREEN)
GREEN engages Bronx community members in hands-on environmental education and stewardship projects, through which participants learn about local ecology while restoring neighborhood park ecosystems to address environmental and public health harms.
Van Cortlandt Park Alliance $100,000
Water Chestnut Removal for a Future Daylighted Stream
VCPA’s staff, volunteers and interns will work to remove water chestnut from Tibbetts Brook and the Mill Pond in order to eradicate it from our waterways to protect the future daylighted stream while developing better messaging for the community.
We Stay/Nos Quedamos, Inc. $100,000
Increasing Youth Leadership Programming Capacity and Effectivity in Melrose Commons, Bronx, NY
NQ will work with a professional consultant to evaluate our first youth-led South Bronx Climate Resiliency Symposium, and to increase organizational capacity to develop long-term monitoring/evaluation plans and protocols for NQ’s resiliency work.
Woodlawn Conservancy, Inc. $94,218
Woodlawn Reforestation Project
The Woodlawn Reforestation Project is an initiative to identify species of large canopy trees resilient to current threats for planting in a publicly accessible 400-acre urban forest. Interns in a workforce development program will plant the trees.
Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, Inc. $100,000
Community-led South Bronx Air Quality and Health Impact Research Study Focused on Air Emissions from a Local Concrete Plant
YMPJ will study the impacts of pollutants emitted from the Smyrna Ready Mix Concrete Plant located adjacent to Bronx River Houses, and partner with community leaders and the Bronx River Houses tenants to conduct outreach/engagement towards advocacy.
Hudson Valley
Groundwork Hudson Valley $100,000
Reviving Urban Forests in Southwest Yonkers in an Era of Climate Change
This project will expand efforts to assess the health of street trees and urban forests in SW Yonkers using the PlanIT Geo software leading to demonstration projects to reduce climate risks and further public health and community renewal goals.
Newburgh Urban Farm and Food, Inc. $67,092.80
Promoting Community Health with Urban Farming
The Promoting Community Health with Urban Farming will provide services and programs to the City of Newburgh that increase food access to residents who are food insecure and improve the environmental health of the community.
Outdoor Promise, Inc. $99,686
Newburgh's Water: Flowing Through Time
Newburgh's Water: Flowing Through Time seeks to address Newburgh's environmental challenges through comprehensive research, community education, and hands-on initiatives, fostering a healthier, sustainable future for residents.
Poughkeepsie Farm Project $100,000
Poughkeepsie Wellness
Poughkeepsie Wellness will move the Poughkeepsie community towards food sovereignty through a research project that upgrades community gardens to support and promote healthy relationships to self, community, healthy foods and the environment.
Sarah Lawrence College $100,000
Rising TIDES (Training Innovative and Diverse Environmental Scientists): Yonkers Blue Team and CSO Research
We will address Yonkers' exposure to contaminated water through youth-driven education, outreach, and research that seeks to better understand the severity and duration of fecal contamination in the Hudson River after Combined Sewer Overflow events.
Capital District
Kite’s Nest, Inc. $99,996
Youth Growing Justice
Our project engages youth as environmental justice leaders through a healing-centered approach to developing regenerative neighborhood businesses and food justice initiatives, while increasing knowledge of environmental stressors in our community.
Media Alliance, Inc. $100,000
Growing Environmental Education at NATURE Lab
Media Alliance, Inc. seeks support to create an outdoor environmental education space at the NATURE Lab to improve community engagement and accessibility and connectivity across our urban arts and environmental education campus.
Radix Ecological Sustainability Center $100,000
South End Food Sovereignty Education and Climate Justice Project
The South End Food Sovereignty Education and Climate Justice Project will promote food justice literacy through the care of urban garden space and the involvement of youth and adults in the process of food production, distribution, and composting.
