EPA's Role in the Collaboration to Support Community-Based Environmental Health Initiatives

This presentation will describe EPA's experiences that have led us to the collaboration to support community-based environmental health initiatives. In particular, it will describe EPA's new CARE (Community Action for a Renewed Environment) Program that has allowed the Agency to begin integrating its programs so that they can better meet community needs. The CARE program has fostered change in the Agency, breaking down stove pipes and creating cross-program teams that allow us to view problems from a more holistic community perspective. This allows us to better answer basic community questions such as: What is impacting us, where do we need to focus our efforts, and how can we reduce our risks? The presentation will describe the ongoing internal Agency transformation that is required to improve support for community-based initiatives. It will also describe how this approach to helping communities led naturally to the work we are doing to help build a broad collaboration to support community-based initiatives. This collaboration is based on the recognition that no single government or organization has the legal authorization, skills, or resources to address the complex environmental health needs of communities. The presentation will also describe EPA's vision for this collaboration and explain our view that this collaboration and community-based initiatives have the potential to significantly contribute to the work to meet national goals and address the long-standing requests for help from Environmental Justice communities. Proposals for broadening and strengthening the collaboration will also be presented for consideration by the panelists and audience.