The Environmental Protection Agency has announced nearly $23 million in grants for local, on-the-ground projects that reduce pollution, increase community climate resilience, and build community capacity. One of the projects is in southeast Kansas.
The Community Change Grants Program has provided funding under the Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act.
The Healthy Bourbon County Action Team will receive $2.9 million. The project is focused on Bourbon, Crawford, Cowley, and Mitchell counties in Kansas, each of which participated in the Communities Organizing to Promote Equity initiative, funded through the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and administered through the University of Kansas Medical Center. As part of the program, each county formed a Local Health Equity Action Team (LHEAT) composed of community health workers, health care providers, representatives of nonprofit organizations, churches, government officials, and residents with lived experience. The project will build on this foundation to support the LHEATs’ work to engage local and state governments on key issues, including lead-based paint, air and water pollution, transportation access, and more.
The grant program is aimed at reducing and preventing air, water, and soil pollution, building resilient infrastructure to withstand extreme weather events, and helping workforce development.
