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Greetings Dear Reader,
Nearly all communities – from cities to small towns to rural areas – are grappling with the worsening reality of extreme heat. Increasing temperatures stemming from the global challenge of climate change are now pushing local communities to take action, like developing climate adaptation and resiliency strategies and investing in infrastructure improvements that reduce heat-related impacts.
The good news is solutions like green roofs, cool roofs and trees can help communities reduce the worst impacts of extreme heat. These measures can also save energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality.
In OCR's programs – such as Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities – we often see how infrastructure and land use decisions can exacerbate heat-related issues within communities. We also know that communities of color and those with lower income residents are disproportionately affected by heat islands, often due to historical redlining. We work closely on heat islands with colleagues in EPA's Office of Air and Radiation to help communities translate science into policy decisions and reduce the negative impacts of heat on public health. You can learn more about these programs and about our community-centered work in the sections below.
Extreme heat is an urgent challenge we must address to protect public health, increase public safety and sustain local economies. Working together and learning from one another, we can keep our most vulnerable populations, natural resources and infrastructure safe and protected. Our partner communities are working with us to do just that.
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Nigel A. Fields
Director, Office of Community Revitalization
| Photo: Nigel Fields participates in a Building Blocks workshop in Jennings, Missouri in June 2024. | | | |
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Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities
One thing OCR’s Chip Gurkin has learned in his work is that local communities love celebrating what makes them unique. We love helping communities use their identity and assets to build healthy, environmentally friendly towns! Chip’s Perspectives blog post, Activating the Building Blocks of Sustainability, describes how we help communities turn their greatest assets into actions that matter.
Photo: Rayne, Louisiana, is the “Frog Leg Capital of the World,” displaying frog-themed statues and murals around the city to prove it.
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Upcoming Heat-Related Webinar
OCR will co-host a webinar focusing on extreme heat on August 20 with the Smart Growth Network and Maryland Department of Planning. It will feature the Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard for Heat, developed by the University of Arizona and the American Planning Association, which is an approach that communities can use to analyze how heat mitigation policies are integrated into different plans and to identify opportunities to better target heat mitigation policies in high heat risk areas. Staff from the City of Boston will speak about the city’s approaches to heat resiliency and OCR will give an overview of federal activities related to extreme heat protection.
This will be the second of three webinars in the Sustainable Growth Webinar Series scheduled in August from the Maryland Department of Planning on topics related to resiliency. A webinar scheduled for August 13 will highlight EPA’s Office of Research and Development’s Equitable Resilience Builder tool, and a webinar scheduled for August 27 will highlight housing resiliency in New Orleans in the decades since Hurricane Katrina.
Visit the Sustainable Growth Webinar Series webpage on the Maryland Department of Planning’s website to register for upcoming webinars.
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Looking for Tools to Talk About Heat?
Cool Your Community Social Media Toolkit: Check out the toolkit from EPA’s Heat Islands program. You’ll find downloadable social media graphics and customizable messages in English and Spanish to increase awareness of extreme heat, share information on heat island solutions and encourage action to mitigate heat islands.
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Climate Change Indicators Report: EPA released the fifth edition of the Climate Change Indicators Report, which shows the continuing and far-reaching impacts of climate change on the people and environment. Extreme heat is a featured theme in the report, as the United States continues to experience more unusually hot summer days and more frequent heat waves that threaten people’s health and strain the electric power grid.
Heat & Health Tracker: Our colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have launched a new Heat & Health Tracker to help communities prepare for extreme heat and prevent heat-related illness. You can enter your ZIP code in the tool to see your community’s daily risk.
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Recent Announcements on Extreme Heat | |
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New Actions to Protect Workers and Communities from Extreme Heat
Last week’s announcement from the White House highlights recent work by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to address excessive heat in the workplace and by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help communities protect against disasters and natural hazards – including extreme heat, storms and flooding. As part of this coordinated effort later this summer, state, local, Tribal, and Territorial leaders will meet for a White House Summit on Extreme Heat.
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First Standard on Heat Stress in Construction
The American Society of Safety Professionals recently published the first national voluntary standard addressing heat stress for workers in construction and demolition operations. The standard offers guidance on protecting workers, explains how to acclimate workers to high heat conditions, and provides requirements for training employees and supervisors.
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Upcoming Smart Growth Network Quarterly Discussion
Thursday, July 18, 2024 | 2:30 - 5:00 PM ET
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EPA and Smart Growth America invite you to join us in Washington, D.C. for the Smart Growth Network’s Summer 2024 Quarterly Discussion on the theme, Resilience to Extreme Heat.
Participants will explore effects of extreme heat on communities and strategies to mitigate it through smart growth, with a focus on equity and public health. We will hear from experts, ask questions and participate in breakout groups guided by discussion questions. SGN members are also invited to share briefly about their own work related to extreme heat and smart growth. A networking happy hour will follow the main program.
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Host: Smart Growth America
Where: 1350 I St. NW, Washington, DC
RSVP Deadline: Friday, July 12, 2024
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National Adaptation Forum
OCR's staff Kelsey Evans and Rebecca Garman attended the National Adaptation Forum in Saint Paul, Minnesota from May 13-16. The Forum brought together hundreds of professionals working across disciplines and sectors to advance climate adaptation and resilience. Kelsey and Rebecca joined other EPA staff to build communities of practice and learning and share about federal resources, including the Community Change Equitable Resilience Technical Assistance.
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Funding and Technical Assistance Opportunities | |
EPA's Recreation Economy for Rural Communities
Open Application Period Coming Soon!
EPA's Recreation Economy for Rural Communities planning assistance program will be announcing the opportunity for communities to apply very soon. The RERC program provides planning assistance to small towns and rural communities to help them boost their outdoor recreation economy and revitalize their main streets. The program is a partnership between EPA's Office of Community Revitalization, the USDA Forest Service, the Northern Border Regional Commission, the Appalachian Regional Commission, and the Denali Commission.
Selected communities will work alongside federal agency partners and consultants to participate in a planning process that helps identify the community's vision, goals and actions they wish to take to boost outdoor recreation, revitalize their main streets and promote equitable access to the outdoors for residents and visitors alike.
Stay tuned for the forthcoming announcement and get ready to apply! Watch this newsletter and the RERC website for an announcement when the application period opens. The website also includes:
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National Endowment for the Arts – Our Town Grants
Our Town is the National Endowment for the Arts’ creative placemaking grants program. Through project-based funding, the Our Town program supports activities that integrate arts, culture and design into local efforts that strengthen communities over the long term. Projects engage a wide range of local stakeholders in efforts to advance local economic, physical and/or social outcomes in communities. Competitive projects are responsive to unique local conditions, develop meaningful and substantive engagement in communities, center equity, advance artful lives and lay the groundwork for long-term systems change.
Deadline: The first deadline for Grants.gov is August 1. Please note that the Grants.gov registration process can take several weeks.
Who Is Eligible to Apply? Organizations eligible to apply include:
- Nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3), U.S. organizations.
- Nonprofit institutions of higher education.
- Units of local government.
- Federally recognized tribal communities or tribes.
Applicant organizations must have completed at least 3 years of arts programming prior to the application deadline.
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Department of Transportation – Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program
The Department of Transportation’s Office of the Secretary of Transportation will soon release a Notice of Funding Opportunity for the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program for the Reconnecting Communities Pilot discretionary grant program, established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program is awarded on a competitive basis for projects that reconnect communities by removing, retrofitting or mitigating highways or other transportation facilities that create barriers to community connectivity, including to mobility, access or economic development.
Additional information on how to apply, frequently asked questions, and the USDOT’s Benefit-Cost Analysis Guidance for Discretionary Grant Programs are forthcoming and will be available at the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program Website. The funding opportunity is scheduled to be published on Grants.gov in early July.
This NOFO will include two grant types that involve the following activities.
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Capital Construction: USDOT may award funding for eligible construction activities necessary to carry out a project to remove, retrofit, or mitigate an existing eligible facility or replace an existing eligible facility with a new facility that reconnects communities. BIL specifies that the minimum capital construction grant award is $5 million. USDOT anticipates that Capital Construction Grants may range from $5 million to $100 million. If a project is partially funded, project components executed through the RCP award must demonstrate independent utility.
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Community Planning: USDOT may award funding for eligible public engagement, feasibility studies, and other planning activities. BIL specifies that the maximum Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program Planning Grant award is $2 million.
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OCR’s professionals spend a lot of time on the road, working directly with communities as they plan and strategize for the future. We don’t often get the chance to do that work for ourselves and our office, so one thing we love is the chance to work together. In May, OCR's team took a rare three days to meet and deepen our shared understanding of our work. We explored strengths and opportunities, learned to tell our stories and those of our partner communities, dreamed big dreams, and walked together as we toured a local example of innovative land use.
We also met with our Associate Administrator, Vicki Arroyo, shown here in the center, back row. We will use what we learned to better serve the communities we work with.
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