HHS Environmental Justice Community Innovator Challenge

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The HHS Environmental Justice Community Innovator Challenge is designed to find community-led strategies and tools to address health disparities in communities disproportionately impacted by environmental risks and hazards, including those related to climate change.

The challenge intends to achieve its desired outcomes by providing support to community-based and tribal organizations in the areas of:

• Development or implementation of innovative and effective community-driven strategies to address health disparities in communities that are disproportionately impacted by environmental hazards including those related to climate change, and the cumulative impacts of environmental and other stressors
• Application of publicly available data tools (Environmental Justice Index, Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, Environmental Justice Screen) to identify signals or patterns of an inequity in the distribution of environmental and climate change-related hazards, support measures of community resilience and research around the effectiveness of exposure mitigation efforts on human health
• Effective partnerships between community-based or tribal organizations and other civil organizations, such as faith-based, healthcare and public health and educational organizations, to address environmental and climate change-related hazards and support community resilience
• Innovative approaches to building capacity in community-based or tribal organizations on project planning, needs assessment, budgeting, engagement with community members, and grant application writing, to address environmental and climate change-related hazards as drivers of health disparities
• Novel approaches to addressing the mental health impacts of environmental and climate change-related hazards and other cumulative stressors, especially among children and youth

Phase 1 may include the design of an innovative concept to enhance community-driven efforts to mitigate environmental health disparities and advance environmental health equity within a specific population or the development of an effective approach (pilot project) to support a previously developed innovative concept.

Phase 2 will test dissemination and uptake of winning approaches at a small scale/community level.

Eligibility and participation rules

Phase 1 will select up to 12 finalists who will each be awarded a prize of up to $25,000. Phase 1 finalists will be invited to participate in Phase 2 of the challenge.

Phase 2 will then select up to 10 winners who will each be awarded prizes of up to $70,000.

Follow the instructions on the how to enter page.