Pacific Southwest, Region 9
Serving: Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Pacific Islands, Tribal Nations
Children's Health Protection Grants for Communities
EPA received over 250 grant applications in response to the February 2011 request for proposals to address children's environmental health in under-served communities by building capacity for these communities to reduce environmental exposures in areas commonly occupied by children, such as homes, schools, and child-care centers. EPA awarded the grants in August and September of 2011, to 13 applicants across the nation. Four of the grants awarded are for projects in Pacific Southwest communities that will be conducted by: Farmworker Justice, Pesticide Action Network of North America, Sonora Environmental Research Institute, and the University of California, Berkeley.
Farmworker Justice is a nonprofit organization that works to empower migrant and seasonal farmworkers to improve their living and working conditions. Farmworker Justice's Healthy Fields, Healthy Kids project will work with community farm worker organizations in California, Arizona, and Florida to provide education and outreach to farmworker families to improve their children's environmental health and also to build the capacity of partner organizations to support further children's environmental health work.
The Pesticide Action Network of North America (PANNA) is a nonprofit organization that works to replace the use of hazardous pesticides with ecologically sound and socially just alternatives. PANNA will partner with Californians for Pesticide Reform and three community groups in Arvin, Wasco, and Tulare counties to implement the project entitled, Building Community Capacity to Monitor, Track, and Address Environmental Health Hazards and Improve Children's Health Outcomes in California's San Joaquin Valley project.
The Sonora Environmental Research Institute (SERI) is a nonprofit organization that provides unbiased research and technical assistance on environmental issues to identify solutions to environmental problems based on a sustainable future. SERI's Community Based Healthy Childcare Program will provide healthy homes training, inspections, and certifications for Head Start programs and small in-home child-care providers in Tucson, Arizona.
The University of California, Berkeley Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health (CERCH) works to understand and reduce the risk of environmental threats to children's health, locally and globally. The CERCH project will enhance and expand existing CERCH education activities to farm worker communities in California. The five main activities of the project include: educating Monterey County teachers, providers, and community members about children's environmental health issues; training community workers in Monterey County; updating and translating the existing CERCH online prenatal environmental health kiosk; distributing educational materials to providers in California counties with a high proportion of Latino farm workers; and establishing an online resource center for children's environmental health in low-income Latino communities.
Please see the Office of Children's Health website for more information on the awarded children's environmental health grants.
| Pacific Southwest NewsroomPacific Southwest Programs | Grants & FundingUS-Mexico Border | News & EventsCareers | About EPA Region 9 (Pacific Southwest)A-Z Index |