NATIONAL EJ TCTAC AWARD Recipient: International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Applicant Type: Not for Profit Award Amount: $10,000,000 Title: NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE THRIVING COMMUNITIES TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE CENTER (NATIONAL EJ TC TAC) Location: EPA Region 8 (CO, MT, ND, SD, UT, WY, and 28 Tribal Nations) and the National Geographic Area Partners: Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (academic, tribal) National League of Cities (elected officials, local government) National Forum for Black Public Administrators (local government) Urban Sustainability Directors Network (local government, community organizations) Goals and Description:
The role of the National EJ TCTACs in the EJ TCTAC network is two-fold: 1) to provide direct technical assistance and services to communities where there may be gaps in coverage and 2) identifying community-focused resources available nationwide (at the federal, state, local, and private levels) developing tools, databases, and clearinghouses connecting program participants to those resources. As the 2022-23 EJ TCTAC competition was the very first offering of this program, and despite the robust response of 70 applications, there was the expectation that there may be some gaps in coverage across the nation, at least initially.
Unfortunately, there was not a robust response of applications proposing to stand up an EJ TCTAC serving EPA Region 8 communities. That being the case, three National EJ TCTACs will collaborate to take on the initial role of serving EPA Region 8 communities with ICMA being the lead on that effort. ICMA has a long, demonstrated history of collaborations with cities and counties across the nation. Because of the higher proportion of local city and county management organizations in EPA Region 8, ICMA is well- positioned to provide direct technical assistance and support to these organizations throughout the Region.
The ICMA Team is proposing a vision for a National EJ TCTAC that focuses on local and tribal government stakeholders and the community organizations with which they frequently partner. The proposed approach includes leveraging the substantial training/education, outreach, technical assistance, content, and peer to peer capabilities and capacities in support of those small, rural, and underserved places. The approach includes in-person and virtual technical assistance-based training on environmental and energy justice topics including grant funding, community collaboration, and other related challenges and issues.
Our strategy will leverage the power of our membership bases and other professional networks to provide peer to peer technical assistance advisory services, one to one coaching, and on the ground and virtual support. In addition to marshalling our team’s existing assets in support of a National EJ TC TAC, a key strategy will be to seek out additional federal, philanthropic, and other resources to amplify EPA’s investment and as part of a longer-term sustainability strategy that goes beyond the period of anticipated federal funding.
Our objectives are to create meaningful programs, products, and services that will substantially elevate the capacity of small, rural, and traditionally under resourced communities during this transformative period of federal investment to right the wrongs of the past. As with all EJ TCTACs, it is the expectation that ICMA’s network of EJ TCTAC partners will grow to provide the assistance needed in the target area(s). EPA Region 8 staff will work closely with ICMA as they tailor and implement their programming for EPA Region 8 communities.