All News Releases By Date

New Haven, Conn. Sustainability Group Shares in EPA Grant

Release Date: 01/19/2006
Contact Information: David Deegan, 617-918-1017

(Boston, 01/19/06) - A New Haven, Conn, organization focused on cultivating habits of healthy living and sustainable environmental practices is among four community groups in New England receiving a total of $100,000 in Environmental Justice Small Grants.

The New Haven Ecology Project in New Haven received $25,000 for a project aimed at increasing local awareness regarding the environment in a distressed neighborhood of the city. Specifically, the project aims to: 1) educate high school students about local environmental justice issues; 2) generate and share data on air quality, water quality and environmental health engagement levels of the community; and 3) and create a model of community-based participatory research on local environmental justice concerns.

“These EPA grants will help sow the seeds to protect people who live in areas more vulnerable to environmental challenges," said Robert Varney, regional administrator of EPA's New England Office. "This grant to the New Haven Ecology Project will result in specific activities that will help inform and empower residents so they can promote environmental health in their own neighborhood."

The New Haven Ecology Project, founded by educators in 1990, is in the distressed West Rock neighborhood. Partners include the New Haven City Planning Department, Environmental Northeast, the Connecticut Departments of Health and Environmental Protection, the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice, Environmental Council for the City of New Haven, Yale School of Nursing, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Southern Connecticut State University, Quinnipiac River Watershed Partnership and the Quinnipiac River Watershed Association.

The grant was given out as part of EPA's Environmental Justice Small Grants program, which was launched in 1994 as a way to help ensure equal environmental protection and equal enforcement of environmental laws and policies for all people, regardless of race, color, national origin, culture or income.

Under the same program, in New England EPA also provided grants to organizations in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont. More information on this program is available at: https://www.epa.gov/compliance/environmentaljustice/grants/ej_smgrants.html .

More information on environmental justice issues in New England is available at: https://www.epa.gov/region1/ej/grants.html .

# # #