Brownfields Training, Research,
and Technical Assistance Grant
Fact Sheet

National Center for Neighborhood and Brownfields Redevelopment

EPA BROWNFIELDS PROGRAM

EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, tribes, communities, and other stakeholders to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield site is real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. EPA funds eligible applicants through assistance agreements to provide training, research, and technical assistance to facilitate brownfields revitalization.

ORGANIZATION DESCRIPTION

Established within the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, the National Center for Neighborhood and Brownfields Redevelopment (NCNBR) actively engages in service, research, and outreach for the promotion of neighborhood and brownfields redevelopment. NCNBR helps local, regional, state, and federal agencies and community-based organizations working in urban neighborhoods, to understand the inter-relationships between brownfields and neighborhood redevelopment and to promote urban revitalization opportunities. The Center has developed a variety of technical tools to build local capacity for successful neighborhood revitalization planning and implementation. NCNBR has been working on projects related to smart growth, sprawl reduction, as well as brownfields reuse alternatives, community health, neighborhood planning, environmental and social impact analysis, green building, geospatial modeling, and public perceptions.

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO INCREASE CAPACITY OF LOCAL COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANIZATIONS

Grantee
National Center for Neighborhood and Brownfields Redevelopment

Project Focus:
Technical Assistance Program for Community-Based Organizations to Build Local Capacity for Active Participation in Brownfields Redevelopment

Project Period:
October 2005 to September 2008

Project Description:
NCNBR has developed a technical assistance program to increase the capacity of local community-based organizations working in distressed urban neighborhoods to actively participate in addressing environmental, economic, and community aspects of brownfields redevelopment. The program is designed to meet the needs of nonprofit community development organizations to better understand the complexities of contaminated property, economic feasibility, and financial requirements, as well as environmental cleanup and redevelopment issues necessary to meaningfully participate in brownfields redevelopment.

Responding to needs and preferences identified in their needs assessment survey, NCNBR developed a program to be delivered in an on-site, hands-on fashion with community organizations and consisting of sessions devoted to the following brownfields-related topics:

• Neighborhood Revitalization Planning and Visioning
  
• Brownfields Identification and Preliminary Site Assessment
  
• Phase II Assessment and Understanding Risks and Reuse Implications
  
• Neighborhood Marketing and Public Involvement Strategies
  
• Financing and Insurance Issues
  

NCNBR pilot tested these topical modules in over a dozen separate training sessions conducted since in Fall 2006 with four different community development organizations located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Paterson, New Jersey. NCNBR will implement the sessions with two additional community development corporations in 2008, for a total of 25-30 assistance sessions conducted during the project period. The final product materials, including both content and delivery methods, will be completed and ready for replication and distribution by the Fall 2008 to other university-based or regional organizations devoted to supporting local community-based brownfields redevelopment.

CONTACTS

For further information, including specific grant contacts, additional grant information, brownfields news and events, and publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields or call 202.566.2777.

For further information about NCNBR's brownfields technical assistance activities, visit http://www.policy.rutgers.edu/brownfields/ or call Henry Mayer, Executive Director, at 732.932.0387, ext. 653.

*The information on this fact sheet is subject to change.