Sustainable Communties Capacity Building Grants Announced

Last week, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded $5.65 million in Capacity Building Grants to eight organizations. As part of the Sustainable Communities initiative, these funds will be used to help existing grantees create more housing choices, make transportation more affordable and support vibrant and healthy communities for families. These award recipients will help to build a national coalition and network of existing and future Sustainable Communities grantees, which will allow for an exchange of ideas, resources, successful strategies and lessons learned.

The eight organizations awarded Capacity Building Grants are:

• The Institute for Sustainable Communities (Montpelier, VT) will create a National Sustainability Learning Network;
• The University of Louisville Research Foundation, Inc. (Louisville, KY) will address the need for incorporating water infrastructure planning and investments with other planning efforts;
• The Coalition for Utah’s Future/Project 2000 (Salt Lake City, UT) will work to build skills in Scenario Planning techniques and tools;
• Reconnecting America (Washington, DC) will develop effective implementation strategies for economic development and local and regional plans;
• PolicyLink (Oakland, CA) and Place Matters, Inc. (Denver, CO) will work with communities to advance social equity in planning, participation, and decision making; and
• The NADO Research Foundation (Washington, DC) and the Minnesota Housing Partnership (St. Paul, MN) will target their efforts in strengthening sustainability practices for tribes, small towns, and rural places.

Click here for more information about the Sustainable Communities Capacity Building Grant competition.