About

EPA’s Environmental Justice Small Grants program provides funding of up to $30,000 per year for nonprofit and tribal organizations to work with stakeholders in industry, government, and academia to help communities understand and manage exposure to environmental hazards and risks.

In 2017, Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership was awarded funding to connect residents of Warren with information, models, and best practices regarding safe interaction with urban soil in a post-industrial environment currently experiencing near-constant demolition of vacant property. The prototypical small legacy city, Warren was, for over a century, home to various intensities of the industrial activity that was central to its economy, including the production of steel, auto and auto-related manufacturing, and various other localized industrial activities. Even with most of these industries long gone, there is still likelihood that remaining contaminants continue to be present in soil and harm the quality of life in residential neighborhoods. Additionally, a spike in much-needed concentrated demolition of derelict vacant property produced by several decades of disinvestment has increased lead and other contaminants that have been and continue to be dispersed across neighborhoods in Warren.