Midwest Environmental Justice Network & Partners Selected as Thriving Communities Regional Grantmaker
We are excited to announce that last month the Midwest Environmental Justice Network was selected as an EPA Thriving Communities Regional Grantmaker in 2024! Alongside our regional grantmaker partners, the NDN Collective, RE-AMP and The Minneapolis Foundation, we will be collaborating to administer $40 million in small grants to Tribes and grassroots Environmental Justice organizations throughout the EPA’s Region 5 (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin). Our goal is to ensure that these dollars reach as many Native, remote, rural and urban Environmental Justice communities as possible.
The Environmental Protection Agency has selected eleven grantmakers nationwide to administer $600 million to Tribes and local grassroots organizations working on environmental justice initiatives in each EPA region. The grantmakers program is part of the Biden-Harris administration’s larger goals in the Justice40 Initiative, and the Federal Interagency Thriving Communities Network.
As we enter 2024, we will be working with our collaborators to work out details with the EPA to ensure we launch the first round of grants by the summer of this year. To stay in touch with us and view updates on this grantmaking process, we have launched a new page on our website dedicated to the Thriving Communities program.
Lastly, we want to thank all of our partners and supporters across the region who wrote over 30 letters in support of our coalition becoming a Region 5 grantmaker. We are grateful and honored to take up this crucial work in the new year!
In solidarity,
The MWEJN Team