NEWS GLEAMS | DOH Awards $14M in Climate Commitment Act Funds; State Environmental Justice Council Seeks Community Rep

A roundup of news and announcements we don't want to get lost in the fast-churning news cycle.

by Vee Hua 華婷婷

Washington State Department of Health Awards $14M in Climate Commitment Act Funds to 41 Community Organizations and Tribes

The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) has awarded $14 million in Climate Commitment Act (CCA) funds to 41 community organizations and tribes throughout the state. Through the CCA, Washington State's largest greenhouse gas emitters are required to auction their "emission allowances"; those funds are then reallocated to support environmental justice and climate resilience programs, especially in communities that are disproportionately impacted by the consequences of climate change.

Recent funds have been disbursed through the Climate and Health Adaptation Initiative (CHAI) Community Capacity Building Grant Program and the Healthy Environment for All (HEAL) Act Capacity Grant. Both grants were made in collaboration with community members; CHAI had community members evaluate grant applications, while the grant application, process, and evaluation were conducted by a community advisory committee.

Through CHAI, $750,000 was awarded to eight local organizations and tribes to support grassroots climate justice projects throughout Washington State, including three in Seattle:

• African Community Housing and Development (South King County)
• Duwamish River Community Coalition (South Seattle)
• Fourth Plain Forward (Vancouver)
• Latino Community Fund (Yakima County)
• Gonzaga University Institute for Climate, Water, and Environment and The Carl Maxey Center (Spokane)
• Our Valley, Our Future (Wenatchee)
• Suquamish Tribe (Suquamish)
• Young Women Empowered (South Seattle)

Through HEAL, $13.3 million has been awarded to 27 community organizations and six tribes. The funds will help build capacity and offer guidance to the State's environmental justice as well as State agencies.

HEAL is still accepting grant applications for federally recognized tribes through Oct. 31, 2024. Tribes that are already grant recipients include:

• Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation: $750,000 for education, advocacy, and engagement around first foods and first foods access.
• Samish Indian Nation: $350,000 to hire an environmental policy analyst to engage with State agencies and make environmental policy recommendations for the tribe.
• Suquamish Tribe: $403,450 to increase capacity, hold community meetings, and conduct an environmental health and justice assessment.
• Snoqualmie Indian Tribe: $638,495 to increase capacity, hire environmental health staff, engage with the tribal community around environmental health issues, and conduct an assessment of contaminants in fish inside the Snoqualmie River.
• Swinomish Indian Tribal Community: $347,240.39 to update an existing community health assessment through community engagement, workshops, and community interviews.
• Squaxin Island Museum Library and Research Center in partnership with the Squaxin Island Tribe and Deschutes Estuary Restoration Team: $75,510.15 to hold the Festival of the st""as (Steh-Chass), which honors Squaxin and Coast Salish culture and history, advocates for healthy waterways, and educates the public on Indigenous ecological knowledge and environmental science.

Recipient community organizations include:

• African Community Housing & Development: $448,567.53 to host 10 community conversations across Pierce, King, and Snohomish Counties to invite African Diaspora immigrant and refugee communities to increase knowledge about environmental issues.
• Alimentando al Pueblo: $204,100 to create embajadores de justicia alimentaria (food justice ambassadors) who will develop knowledge around environmental racism and its relationship to food systems, then host a public event.
• Asians for Collective Liberation in Spokane: $269,540 to engage in environmental justice work and engage with community partners, especially young people, to envision healthy environments.
• Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition/Technical Advisory Group (Duwamish River Community Coalition): $198,250 to develop environmental justice curriculum for its youth engagement program, Duwamish Valley Youth Corps.
• Duwamish Valley Sustainability Association (fiscally sponsored by Seattle Parks Foundation): $323,070 to work with residents to identify environmental justice needs, jointly propose solutions, and create bilingual educational materials.
• ECOSS (formerly known as Environmental Coalition of South Seattle): $410,381.91 to build capacity within immigrant and refugee communities through the establishment of a cohort that will help ensure their voices are not left out of the implementation of the HEAL Act.
• Empowering Latina Leadership and Action: $499,200 to educate and engage Lower Yakima Valley communities about environmental justice issues, including trainings for community members on advocacy to help resolve ongoing environmental contamination issues and health disparities.
• Khmer Community of Seattle King County: $175,000 to host in-person, hands-on, intergenerational workshops to educate the community around Khmer culture and language, as well as environmental justice and the HEAL Act.
• Latinos en Spokane: $306,328 to promote environmental justice by addressing systemic inequalities around housing insecurity and the well-being of workers in high-risk occupations.
• Mother Africa: $500,000 to hire environmental justice promoters to help increase capacity to serve diverse communities, as well as host community workshops, educational sessions, and listening circles.
• New Americans Alliance for Policy and Research: $500,000 to help establish a policy council with leaders from immigrant and refugee groups who will convene monthly and eventually create a policy agenda and action plan centered on HEAL Act implementation.
• Nuestras Races Centro Comunitario: $406,164 to raise awareness and identify issues related to environmental justice issues that affect Hispanic/Latine community across the state.
• Pacific Islander Health Board of Washington: $267,406 to educate Pacific Islanders statewide about environmental impacts that may affect them, both present and future.
• Puget Sound Sage: $350,000 to conduct community outreach and engagement that elevates community-driven climate policy solutions, through community conversations, multilingual materials, and ongoing opportunities for communities to interact with State agencies about environmental justice priorities.
• Semillero de Ideas: $248,400 to engage with Eastern Washington farmworkers to identify challenges and propose policy solutions related to those challenges.
• Serve Ethiopians Washington: $294,480 to build organizational capacity, which will uplift policy priorities of East African immigrant communities to local governments, as well as extend the organization's reach around existing environmental justice or sustainability work.
• Surge Reproductive Justice: $300,000 to develop a reproductive leadership cohort that will provide recommendations around the impact of environmental racism on reproductive health and justice.
• Unkitawa: $486,529.16 to conduct an Environmental Justice Community Needs Assessment on First Foods, as well as host Traditional Ecological Knowledge internships around Indigenous gathering practices and traditional medicine.
• Villa Comunitaria: $270,340 to engage, train, and support up to five Spanish-language promotoras for environmental justice engagement and advocacy in South King County and the Duwamish Valley.
• Wakulima USA: $250,000 to work with Swahili-speaking East African immigrant farmers to adopt sustainable farming practices and promote environmental health, as well as create a network of environmental justice-oriented members.

Recipient organizations that will receive pass-through funds — which means organizations that are regranted and then pass their HEAL funds to additional organizations — include:

• Asia Pacific Cultural Center: $650,000 to use a community participatory budgeting process that will grant pass-through funding to community-based organizations in King, Snohomish, Pierce, Clark, and Thurston County that work on environmental health issues that affect frontline AA&NH/PI communities.
• For the People: $650,000 to help "amplify the voices of harder to reach communities" across the state, including a focus around clean drinking water, stormwater management issues, and protection of the Salish Sea.
• Front and Centered: $400,000 to help create a HEAL Community Center that is a hybrid virtual and place-based resource that promotes co-governance through community convenings, integrates policy analysis through co-learning and co-creation, and more.
• Latino Community Fund of Washington: $650,000 to invest in community leaders and build organizational capacity.
• Na'ah Illahee Fund: $1,000,000 to help strengthen the organization's existing role as an intermediary and incubator for Native-led organizations across the state.
• Southwest Washington Regional Health Alliance (doing business as the Southwest Washington Accountable Community of Health): $405,568.50 to support Southwest Washington organizations committed to environmental justice.
• Washington State Coalition of African Community Leaders: $650,000 to support 150 African-descent community organizations and members across Washington State, with funds to educate communities around the connection between environmental justice issues in the United States and in Africa.

More information about all CCA-related programs and grants can be found at Climate.WA.gov.

Gov. Jay Inslee's Office Seeks Community Representative for the State's Environmental Justice Council

The office of Gov. Jay Inslee is seeking a community representative for the State's 16-member Environmental Justice Council (EJC). Representatives on the EJC advise the governor and Legislature on the implementation of environmental justice throughout Washington State. The term the selected EJC representative would serve would last through the end of July 2025, after which they will be invited to reapply for another term.

Applications are due on Friday, Sept. 13, and can be filled out via the governor's website. Applicants will be asked to provide information, such as their availability for meetings, the reason they desire to serve on the EJC, their work history, and references.

Any questions related to the EJC or on serving on Washington State boards or commissions in general can be directed to the following individuals: Jerry Rivero, Jerry.Rivero@gov.wa.gov, Environmental Justice and HEAL Implementation Coordinator; or Ambar Algera, Ambar.Algera@gov.wa.gov, Director of Boards and Commissions in the Governor's Office.

Social Justice Fund Is Open for 2024 Base-Building Grant

Grassroots organizations located in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming are now invited to apply for the Social Justice Fund (SJF) 2024 Fund 4 the Frontlines Base-Building Grant. The grant offers $100,000 over two years, with disbursal at $50,000 per year. It is centered around organizations that do base building — which SJF defines as a "community organizing tactic that grows the breadth and depth of people who share a vision for social justice, and who develop and execute the organizing strategies to make that vision a reality."

Specifically, SJF is looking for organizations that fit its community organizing framework and can speak to the following points: Collective Power, Widening the Base, Leadership Development, and Strategy and Long-Term Planning.

Priority consideration will be given to BIPOC-led organizations, organizations that primarily work with Native American organizations, and those that work in rural and small towns, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Applications are due on Thursday, Sept. 12. A prerecorded informational session can now be viewed online via Google Drive, and any questions can be directed to Grants@SocialJusticeFund.org.

📸 Featured Image: Mount Rainier National Park. (Photo: Jaidev Vella)

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