Boston Non-Profit Group Awarded $50,000 EPA Grant

The Committee for Boston Public Housing, Inc., of Boston, Mass. is one of twenty community-based organizations to receive a $50,000 grant for projects in low-income communities on environmental and public health issues.

The organization’s project aims to reduce the exposure of children to the air toxins associated with the use of the pesticides, insecticides, fungicides, and rodenticides commonly used by public housing residents. This will be achieved by conducting in-home training on Integrated Pest Management (IPM).

IPM focuses on using safer pest elimination methods and reducing and/or eliminating the number of pesticides used in the homes, as well as its relationship to asthma exacerbation. The program will offer a pesticide exchange program and replace commercial pesticides with Home Safe kits and with input from residents, create a public health campaign about the dangers of pesticide use.

“Educating asthmatic public housing residents about how the use of pesticides and insecticides can trigger asthma symptoms will help people to improve their indoor environment,” said Mae Bradley, Executive Director of the Committee for Boston Public Housing.

Financial assistance under the environmental justice small grants program is available to all non-profit organizations designated by the IRS or recognized by the state, territory, commonwealth or tribe in which it is located. The funding is to assist affected communities in developing strategic solutions to their environmental justice issues and to achieve community health and sustainability.

Since 1994, EPA has provided over $31 million in funding to more than 1,100 community-based organizations.