Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Grant Program Fact Sheet

f/EPA
^ office Or ^
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
United States	Office of Enforcement and June 2006
Environmental Protection Agency Compliance Assurance
Office of Environmental Justice	(2201 A)
http://www.epa.qov/compliance/environmentaliustice/qrants/ei-cps-qrants.html
Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem
Solving Cooperative Agreement Program
FACT SHEET
Background
For the first time in 2003, the Office of Environmental
Justice (OEJ) launched the Environmental Justice
Collaborative Problem-Solving Cooperative Agreement
(EJ CPS) program. To find out the latest information on
the EJ CPS program visit:
http://www.epa.qov/compliance/environmentaliustice/qr
ants/ei-cps-qrants.html. This website also provides a
description of the current projects that have been
awarded.
The EJ CPS program requires selected applicants, or
recipients, to use the Environmental Justice
Collaborative Problem-Solving Model (EJ CPS Model)
as part of their projects. The purpose of the EJ CPS
Model is to assist affected communities so that they
can develop proactive, strategic, and visionary
approaches to address their environmental justice
issues and to achieve community health and
sustainability.
The key elements of the EJ CPS Model are:
•	Issue Identification, Visioning, and Strategic Goal-
Setting;
•	Community Capacity-Building and Leadership
Development;
•	Development of Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships and
Leveraging of Resources;
•	Consensus Building and Dispute Resolution;
•	Constructive Engagement with Other Stakeholders;
•	Sound Management and Implementation; and
•	Evaluation.
Request for Applications
On February 1, 2006, OEJ released the Request for
Applications (RFA) for the EJ CPS Program. The EJ
CPS Program is of a national scope, and therefore, the
purpose of the RFA was to make one assistance
agreement award per region. The RFA closed on March
31, 2006; however, the EJ CPS program was cancelled
and no awards were made because OEJ did not receive
enough applications to meet its national program
objectives.
On June 22, 2006, a new announcement for the
EJ CPS will be released. Significant changes to the
RFA have been made in an effort to solicit more
applications. Some of these changes include:
•	The definition of "eligible applicant"
•	The contents of the application package
•	The format of the workplan
•	The Threshold Eligibility Criteria
Any organization that applied under the earlier RFA
must submit a new application.
Eligible Applicants
An eligible applicant MUST BE either:
(1)	a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization as designated by
the Internal Revenue Service; OR
(2)	a non-profit organization, recognized by the state,
territory, commonwealth, or tribe in which it is located.
In addition, an eligible applicant must be able to
demonstrate that it has worked directly with, or provided
services to, the affected community. An "affected
community," for the purposes of this assistance
agreement program, is a community that is
disproportionately impacted by environmental harms and
risks and has a local environmental and/or public health
issue that is identified in the proposal.
The New Request for Applications period will be
open from June 22, 2006 to 11:59pm October 23,
2006.

-------
A "non-profit organization," means any corporation,
trust, association, cooperative, or other organization
that:
(1)	is operated primarily for scientific, educational,
service, charitable, or similar purposes in the public
interest;
(2)	is not organized primarily for profit; and
(3)	uses its net proceeds to maintain, improve, and/or
expand its operations.
The focus of this assistance agreement program is to
build the capacity of community-based organizations to
address environmental and/or public health issues at
the local level. Therefore, for this assistance
agreement program, the term "non-profit organization"
EXCLUDES:
•	colleges and universities;
•	hospitals;
•	state and local governments and federally-
recognized Indian tribal governments;
•	quasi-governmental entities (e.g., water districts,
utilities)*;
•	national-, multi-state-, or state-wide- organizations
with chapters;
•	non-profit organizations that engage in lobbying
activities as defined in Section 3 of the Lobbying
Disclosure Act of 1995; and
•	those non-profit organizations which are excluded
from coverage under paragraph 5 of OMB Circular
A-122 (see OMB Circular A-122, paragraph 5 at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars/a122/a12
2 2004.html
* Generally, a quasi-governmental entity is one that: (1) has a close
association with the government agency, but is not considered a part
of the government agency; (2) was created by the government
agency but is exempt from certain legal and administrative
requirements imposed on government agencies; or (3) was not
created by the government agency but performs a public purpose and
is significantly supported financially by the government agency.
For More Information
If you would like more information about the EJ
Collaborative Problem-Solving Program, please call the
Office of Environmental Justice's 24-hour hotline (1-800-
962-6215) or visit the website at:
http://www.epa.qov/compliance/environmentaliustice/qra
nts/ei-cps-q rants.html	
EPA's Commitment to Environmental
Justice
On November 4, 2005, United States Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen L.
Johnson issued a memorandum reaffirming EPA's
commitment to environmental justice for all people,
regardless of race, color, national origin, or income.
Environmental justice means not only protecting
human health and the environment for everyone, but
also ensuring that all people are treated fairly and are
given the opportunity to participate meaningfully in
the development, implementation, and enforcement
of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.
Because minority and/or low-income communities
frequently may be exposed disproportionately to
environmental harms and risks, EPA works to protect
these and other burdened communities from adverse
human health and environmental effects of its
programs, consistent with existing environmental and
civil rights laws and regulations, as well as through
the implementation of Executive Order 12898
("Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in
Minority Populations and/or Low-Income
Populations," Feb. 11, 1994).
The memorandum identified eight national
environmental justice priorities and directed the
integration of environmental justice considerations
into EPA's planning and budgeting processes,
including into the Agency's Strategic Plan for Fiscal
Years 2006-2011. This cooperative agreement
program (Program) focuses on one of those eight
priorities, which is the use of collaborative problem-
solving to address local environmental and/or public
health issues. Each remaining priority involves a
specific issue, including: (1) reducing asthma
attacks; (2) reducing exposure to air toxics; (3)
increasing compliance with regulations; (4) reducing
the incidence of elevated blood lead levels; (5)
ensuring that fish and shellfish are safe to eat; (6)
ensuring that water is safe to drink; and (7)
revitalizing contaminated sites (please note that this
Program cannot be used to fund Brownfields
projects).
EPA will continue to fully implement its programs,
policies, and activities to ensure that they do not
adversely affect populations with critical
environmental and/or public health issues, including
minority and/or low-income communities.

-------