^£DS7^ Community Action for a Renewed Environment 5 \ } CARE Program Quarterly Highlights—Winter 2008 2007 CARE National Workshop Most Successful Yet With almost 50 communities in the CARE network, the CARE National Training Workshop on October 31, 2007 was the largest in CARE's three-year history. The two-and-a-half day event was held at EPA Region 4 in Atlanta, Georgia. With more than 180 people attending, approximately half were from CARE community projects. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, EPA Region 4 Administrator J. I. Palmer, Jr., and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)/ Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) Director Dr. Julie Gerberding opened the Workshop, commending local environmental health leaders for their continued dedication to solving some of the toughest environmental and health issues. 2008 CARE RFP Announced APPLY NOW! The 2008 CARE Cooperative Agreement Request for Proposals (RFP) is now available. Approxi- mately $3 million available. Applications due March 17, 2008. Visit the CARE Web site at www.epa.qov/CARE for application details. New 2007 CARE Communities m Seattle, WA * ^ Spokane, WA Granger, WA Martinez, CA * Fort Edward, NY * Pacoima, CA ¥ ~ Level I Grant Level II Grant * Rifle, CO ^ Albuquerque, NM Phoenix, AZ Crete, NE * Grand Rapids^MI Gary, IN Tug Fork, WV * Woonsocket,RI v Hartford, CT New York, NY * Portsmouth, VA * Kennett,MO Albany, GA * Charleston, SC Laredo, TX In 2007, $3.4 million in cooperative agreements were made available to 22 communities through the CARE program. Fifteen received level I and seven received level II grants. Since 2005, the CARE grants to reduce toxics in the environment have reached almost 50 communities in 26 states. To read more about each of the 2007 CARE grantee communities rep- resented in this map, visit www.epa.gov/CARE. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) program helps communities address risks from various sources of toxic pollutants in their local environment. CARE Mail Code 8001A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, DC 20460 Phone: 1-877-CARE-909 Inside this Edition: CARE National Workshop p. 1 CARE Communities in Action p. 2-3 Tools and Resources p. 3 CARE Site Visits .p. 4 LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS. HEALTHY COMMUNITIES. www .epa.gov/CARE ------- Page 2 U.S. EPA CARE Program: Quarterly Highlights—January 2008 Read community successes along the four steps in the CARE process: joining together, identifying problems & solutions, implementing solutions & reducing risks, and becoming self-sustaining. CARE Communities in Action Joining Together The Pueblo C.A.R.E.S. Project, a Level 1 grant in Southern Colorado, has partnered with another CARE project, Denver HAND, to learn from HAND'S experiences as Pueblo C.A.R.E.S. begins mapping out a schedule for creating and prioritizing its inventory of toxic exposures. Pueblo C.A.R.E.S. is also addressing mold problems caused by flooding, and the director of HAND was able to share his knowledge and provide some information on this issue from his work with the cleanup in New Orleans. The Muskegon County Environ- mental Coordinating Council (MCECC), a Level II CARE grantee in Muskegon, Michigan, is partnering with Digital Spectrum Enterprises to develop a half-hour documentary on two of the commu- nity's priorities, lead contamination and air quality. The documentary DVD will be distributed throughout the state via the local television stations, intermediate school districts, college and university television and radio stations, public service announcements, local doc- tors' offices, and the public libraries. The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, a Level I CARE project located in Tacoma, Washington, is continuing to build its partnership. The group has used a few strategies to build the partner- ships: hosting field trips, holding meetings at different locations, and that inviting speakers from different organizations who contribute to the groups knowledge while learning about the coalition's work. Identifying Problems and Solutions Harambee House, Inc., in Savannah, Ga., along with EPA and ATSDR, set out in Novem- ber to expand the group of partners supporting the work of both the CARE project and the EPA/ATSDR pilot project in the Hudson Hill and Woodville neighborhoods of Savannah. These neighborhoods are home to 1600 people, 97 percent of whom are people of color and 75.5 percent of whom live below the federal poverty level. The small, 4.4 square mile neighborhoods are surrounded by 17 industries, and residents are concerned about health risks—primarily air toxics. Partners were sought who could help identify community environ- mental and health concerns, document all sources of risks in communities and develop, prioritize and implement strategies to reduce health risks. New and old partners were invited to participate in a day-long Community Charetteon Saturday, Nov. 10 at the Epworth By the Sea Conference and Retreat Center on St. Simon's Island to kick-off the Savannah Community Environmental Collaborative. Those who could not attend the Charettewere invited to a separate partners' meeting at the Savannah De- velopment Renewal Authority, and to an elected officials' meeting at the Woodville Community Center. Potential project partners identified how their organizations can assist the communities in identifying and reducing environmental health risks. About 25 residents participated in the Charette, engaging in various visioning exercises that allowed participants to identify community concerns, vulnerabilities, and assets. At the Charette, the partners meeting and the elected officials' meeting, old and new partners pledged to support the project. Attendees included Abena Ajanaku of the Georgia Environ- mental Protection Division, Councilwoman Mary Osborne, Alderman Van Johnson, State Representative Bob Bryant, Chatham County Commission Chairman Pete Liakikas, Chatham County Health Department Rep. Doris Brown, the VP of NAACP, and representatives from DNR, the Savannah Development Renewal Authority (SDRA) and several local churches, among others. Many partners voiced specific resource commitments to support the CARE project, perhaps most notably SDRA that committed to help with everything from meeting space and typing, to generating GIS maps and doing research for the project. Participants in the Community Charette envision what their neighborhoods could look like using Legos®. ------- U.S. EPA CARE Program: Quarterly Highlights—January 2008 Page 3 Identifying Problems and Solutions (Cont'd) Southwest Detroit/South Dearborn Environmental Collaborative (SD2EC) conducted five focus groups with a total of 45 participants and collected 150 surveys to identify community concerns. Based on the results of the focus groups and other input, the planning committee determined that project work could most effectively be accom- plished through subcommittees. The planning committee identified four subcommittees, called "Environmental Issue Teams" to collect the data and prepare a report to the full SD2EC membership. The four teams approved by consensus are air quality, solid waste, land use, and healthy homes. Implementing Solutions and Reducing Risks • MCECC is partnering with Berrien County, Michigan, to develop a guidebook on ordinance development for local governments. The creation of this document may assist other local governments in developing a variety of ordinances, with special focus on environmental health issues such as lead. • In St. Louis' Grace Hill Clean Air Project, 176 residents used one bottle of green cleaner instead of one bottle of commercial cleaner, 56 participants of whom were participants in the Neighborhood College/Clean Air class. Also, Grace Hill took advantage of two partnerships to put on a metal finishers/electroplaters workshop, and an auto-body workshop. The first was coordinated by Marie Steinwachs, who collaborated with Grace Hill to organize and present the metal finishers workshop. The second was coordinated by EPA with the help of Grace Hill and other partners. Grace Hill effectively leveraged their partnerships and offered their resources and connections in order to support and assist the workshop efforts. More than 70 individuals participated in the two workshops. • The Tucson, Arizona, project achieved environmental results in multiple areas. 39 promotoras, or community outreach workers, completed environmental health training offered by the CARE project. Promatoras succeeded in completing a total of 673 home visits and 1,420 screening tests for lead. Fifty-eight tests were positive, representing 39 homes, and items testing positive were replaced. Project leaders also gave a presentation to 16 people on childhood lead poisoning prevention. In addition, project partners distributed 230 trees to families, resulting in 84,426.1 lbs of pollution prevented. Becoming Self-Sustaining The Boston Public Health Commission's Safe Shops Tool Kit is officially on-line and available for use. The Commission (2006 Level II CARE grantee) developed the Safe Shops Tool Kit to describe the Safe Shops outreach strategies and successes and provide the tools and resources to help neighbor- hoods around the world to proactively address auto shop pollution prevention. To view or download the Safe Shops Tool Kit, visit: www.bphc.org/bphc/ safeshops toolkit.asp. Other auto shop educational material and information about the Safe Shops Project can be found at: www.bphc.org/safeshops. For further information, contact Tiffany Skogstrom at 617-534-5966 or Tiffany_Skogstrom@bphc.org. The CARE network has enabled leveraging of resources between grantees in the Northeast. The CARE project of New Haven is lending their handheld particulate matter (PM) counter to the Pioneer Valley/Hampden County CARE (Holyoke, MA) "Community Soot Patrol," diesel exhaust education project. Giovanni Zinn of New Haven had written a simple instruction protocol with data sheets for his New Haven youth groups to follow, which were perfect, transferable products to go along with the PM handheld counter. EPA Project Officer Marybeth Smuts is also working with Northeast States Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM), the CARE grantee for Camden, New Jersey, to borrow four of their black carbon monitors and their technical personnel for a month of sampling during January or February. Boston Public Health Commission n rsssssssvsssjfti¦sssssy* THI MITCH «BC»TB»*M PBOTCCTtO•» "JMOAM if""' taajHl , . HUH . UUMLH» rf IIms1 gjgjggr - ri hTTrtnnr- Safe Shops Tool Kit ------- Page 4 U.S. EPA CARE Program: Quarterly Highlights—January 2008 EPA Managers See Leaders in Action on Site Visits Senior management from the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances (OPPTS) visited several CARE grantees in 2007. Two Denver- based CARE grantees, Groundwork Denver, inc. and West Denver Care, hosted Jim Jones, OPPTS Deputy Assistant Administrator, in November. "The Groundwork Denver project teams are very sophisticated and are doing a great job following the CARE model," he reported, "and the West Denver team has a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and is well connected in the community." In Sa- vannah, Georgia, OPPTS Assistant Administrator Jim Gulliford attended a meeting with elected officials hosted by the Harambee House on Novem- ber 13. Gulliford commended the pro- ject partners' commitment to improv- ing the communities' environmental health, and noted that their ongoing engagement is what will make this work sustainable over time. (From left to right) Hudson Hill resident leads a neighborhood tour with EPA CARE Program Co-Chair Kent Benjamin and EPA Assistant Administrator Jim Gulliford. Tools and Resources for CARE Communities If minimizing pollution from local businesses is part of your CARE project, there are many low- or no-cost resources available to assist businesses in your community in becoming more efficient and environmentally sound: • Through the Department of Commerce's Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program, companies can receive a variety of business and process efficiency services across the United States. • For more facility-specific issues, the Green Suppliers Network (GSN), pro- gram provides onsite technical assistance to small and medium-sized manufacturers to help them learn ways to increase efficiency, identify cost-saving opportunities, and optimize resources and technologies to eliminate waste. The result—more effective processes, higher profits, and fewer environmental impacts. Process reviews combining "lean manufacturing" and pollution prevention concepts are coordinated Green Suppliers Network through local MEP centers and state pollution prevention programs. For more information about the Green Suppliers Network, visit www.qreensuppliers.gov. Some CARE projects have already utilized assistance from GSN and MEPs. For example, the Rochester Green Suppliers Network collaborated with small stationary air toxic sources to identify opportunities for applying pollution prevention measures. Part of this effort included establishing the company's benchmark of emission then pollution prevention measures were implemented and compared against the benchmark for improvement. MEP • MANUFACTURING EXTENSION PARTNERSHIP 0CAJBMB http://www.epa.gov/care LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS. HEALTHY COMMUNITIES. ------- |