USCAN Member Catalyzing Grants Awardees

The USCAN Member Catalyzing Grants are an important standing program to meet the mission of USCAN. The Member Catalyzing Grants address the disparity of funding in the environmental justice movement, where few resources are going to the work of building grassroots power, led by people of color.  Increased funding for the member-led Catalyzing Grants, along with the networking, structural support, and resources USCAN provides members, significantly impacts the climate, environmental and racial justice work the member organizations are doing in their communities. These grants provide funding to frontline leaders and organizations, increasing access to funding for the communities experiencing the greatest inequities and elevating the voices of leaders of color in the climate space who are typically overlooked for other grants. Through these grants, USCAN members receive the money needed to support special projects and their daily work, and they also receive knowledge and resources from other organizations who have done similar projects - member organizations can utilize all the benefits of our network.To ensure this program is equitable, transparent and broadly supported, key decisions are overseen and decided by a Review Committee of USCAN members drawn from faith, environmental justice (EJ), youth, & green groups.
Summary of Awarded Grants

Grant period October 2022 - 2023

Funded 15 grants

Total Amount in Grants Funded: $700,000.00 (budget amount)

Total number of applications submitted: 24

Total amount of funding requested: $1,365,000.00 (this is the need)

  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • Agricultural Missions, Inc 
  • Title of Grant: Increasing People of Color Membership on Boards
Brief Description: This work will promote energy democratization in the local Electric Power Association space by engaging in advocacy and education of marginalized People of Color communities. This will lead to more grassroots led energy policy that will increase emphasis on and access to clean energy generating sources, mainly solar. This work will translate to other spheres where anti-democratic governance and inequities exist.
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • Black Women Rising
  • Title of Grant: Black Appalachian Coalition (BLAC)
Brief Description: Black Appalachian Coalition (BLAC) amplifies black voices, dismantles the colonized narrative of Appalachia, and uses story-based strategies and solutions that center the voices and lived experience of Black Appalachians. We connect and amplify voices through our listening sessions, BLAC Paper, “story map” on our website, and policy summit. We also are developing new leaders and increasing outreach through our Fellows Program. Our newest project is developing a toolkit to help people learn more about the issues and how to most effectively share their stories.
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • Care About Climate
  • Title of Grant: Empowering Young People to Be Their Best Advocates in Climate Policy Spaces
Brief Description: We hold governments accountable for implementing the Paris Agreement and prioritizing youth inclusion through our research and capacity-building work on Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). In particular, our NDC Project offers the only youth-led intergenerational and gender justice analysis of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to the Paris Agreement. Through training, mentorship, and education, the NDC project empowers young people to communicate the needs of their communities using data-driven analysis towards the improvement of their NDC.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Creation Justice Ministries
  • Title of Grant: Centering People and Climate Impacts in Faith Communities
  • Partners on Grant: North Carolina Interfaith Power and Light, Virginia Interfaith Power and Light,  Interfaith Power and Light (DC.MD.NoVA), Union of Concerned Scientists - unfunded partner
Brief Description: Through Centering People and Climate Impacts in Faith Communities, we partnered to strengthen the work of climate resilience in faith communities in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. Our approach is three-fold: strengthen grassroots relationships in the states, deepen our understanding of community-based climate resilience through research and peer learning, and set up structures for sustainable, ongoing engagement with these communities
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • EcoEquity
  • Title of Grant: US Fair Share Collaborative
  • Partners on Grant: The People’s Justice Council,  ActionAid USA (unfunded partner), Climate Nexus (unfunded partner),  NC Interfaith Power & Light (unfunded partner),  Southeast Climate & Energy Network (SCEN) (unfunded partner), Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO)(unfunded partner)
Brief Description: The US Fair Share Collaborative aims to engage US climate and climate justice groups much more closely with the rapidly evolving international climate equity and fair shares debates, with the specific goal of putting the US fair share in the emergency international climate effort firmly onto the movement agenda. Such a strategy is needed to shift the conversation from what is considered “possible” to what is actually necessary, both as a moral mandate and in frank acceptance of the scale of the climate crisis. Only when the movement clearly articulates an international fair shares politics as part of an overall justice forward analysis will we be able to mobilize at scale.
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • EFC West
  • Title of Grant: Southwest Tribal Adaptation Menu
Brief Description: This work will serve to recruit volunteers and develop content for a Tribal Adaptation Menu through meetings and interviews with Southwestern Tribes on their adaptation needs and local and regional impacts from climate change. This climate "road trip" will collect data and visually record climate impacts, adaptation and mitigation measures that can be integrated into an eventual Adaptation Menu, specifically designed for Southwestern Tribes.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Elders Climate Action
  • Title of Grant: Breathe Again Collaborative: Healthy Air Is Health Care
  • Partners on Grant: Mothers and Others for Clean Air, United Women in Faith,, The People's Justice Council,  NC Interfaith Power & Light, GA Interfaith Power & Light, GASP, Moms Clean Air Force and Climate Nexus
Brief Description: The Breathe Again Collaborative provides in-depth, research-based education and action opportunities that focus on the health costs of air pollution and the connection between climate change, air pollution, and environmental injustice. In the second year of this grant, we will explore how working with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can help improve the health of our communities. This includes learning about and educating others about the role of the local & regional EPA offices, connecting the community to EPA tools, resources, and funding, and advocating to the EPA through public comment and testimony. In addition to our work with the EPA, we will also focus on partnering with local organizations, like Arm and Arm, to take direct action that will address the impacts of air pollution and protect communities.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Mt. Zion Community Outreach
  • Title of Grant: Living in the Shadows of Nuclear! 
  • Partners on Grant: Kingdom Living Temple,  Mt. Zion Community Outreach, Inc., The Imani Group, Inc., Whitney M. Slater Foundation, 
Brief Description: The "Living Under the Shadows of Nuclear" will empower and educate frontline communities living in the shadows of commercial and/or federal nuclear facilities. We will interface with management and/or representatives from those facilities, teach community members how to create their own emergency preparedness kits and response initiatives, and how to develop Community Benefits Agreements with these industries. We will train these community members that "you can not get ready, but you have to be ready"!
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • Newark Water Coalition
  • Title of Grant: The Newark Water Coalition Training Center
Brief Description: The Newark Water Coalition established a training center in order to build power from the grassroots up. The training center will certify Newark residents and all residents of the North Jersey area with the knowledge they need in order to seek out lead assessment certifications. This training center gives both community members a new avenue in workforce development as well as creating a self-sufficient way to fund the service work of the Newark Water Coalition.
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • Organized Uplifting Resources & Strategies
  • Title of Grant: Rooted Phase 2
Brief Description: The work of the proposed grant will be phase 2 of the ROOTED project. In this phase of the grant we are looking to secure land to serve as the hub for the edible organic landscape and demonstration site. This will be a multipurpose educational center and serve as home to Farm OURS. This will house all of the programs in one location and people will be able to come and receive training through hands-on learning and education. We will also be able to provide some type of stipend for participants' travel, training, and other opportunities.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania
  • Title of Grants: Climate Resilience, Environmental Justice, and Community Health: Protecting Frontline Communities from Radioactive Pollution
  • Partners on Grant: Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania, Georgia WAND, Imani Group, Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS)
Brief Description: Frontline energy communities are impacted by both the impacts of climate change and high levels of toxic pollution, with devastating health impacts. This project will develop public education materials and strategies for communities impacted by radioactive pollution from fracking and nuclear industries in Pennsylvania and Georgia, which are disproportionately Black, Brown, Indigenous, rural, and low-wealth, with poor access to healthcare and the economic and political clout to hold energy corporations, policymakers, and regulators accountable. In order to survive the hardships of the climate crisis, these communities and those like them must be informed and organized to hold polluters, policymakers, and regulators accountable for environmental cleanup, reparations for the harm they suffer, and resources for public health protection and medical care, as described in the Vision for Equitable Climate Action (VECA).
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • Sol Nation
  • Title of Grant: Sol Nation is Closing the Green Gap
Brief Description: Sol Nation is a small yet mighty team of fierce advocates, organizing around real, community-led solutions, rather than just the issues alone, in order to change the lives of Black and brown people and build a world where people and the earth are in harmony. We exist to identify and close the green gap between the desire of communities of color to live in regenerative and sustainable communities, and their access to power, infrastructure, resources, and education. We are mobilizing intergenerational communities directly impacted by environmental injustice through art, music, and culture, ushering in the next generation of environmental justice leaders by giving them access to knowledge and resources.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • South Carolina Interfaith Power & Light
  • Title of Grant: 2022-2023 Climate Justice and Resilience Project
  • Partners on Grant: Creation Justice Ministries, North Carolina Interfaith Power and Light, Georgia Interfaith Power and Light, South Carolina Interfaith Power and Light, and The People’s Justice Council. These organizations comprise a collective organizing body known as Southeast Faith Leaders Network.
Brief Description: The Southeast Faith Leaders Network (SFLN) is a collaborative effort building long-term grassroots power and capacity among faith communities and frontline communities across the southeast region. Through this project, we are building on the success of our 2022 “Resilient Democracy” campaign by educating faith communities about the importance of participating in local advocacy and decision making processes while building a powerful movement that votes ahead of the 2024 election cycle. Given the significant role South Carolina and other SFLN states play in shaping national elections, SFLN will communicate the direct relationships of climate disasters, community resilience and democracy to voters.
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • Sustaining Way
  • Title of Grant: Voices of New Washington Heights
Brief Description: This project will amplify the narratives of community activists in New Washington Heights, a predominantly Black neighborhood in Greenville, South Carolina, through interviews with residents on their experiences with environmental racism and how they want to stop it/repair existing damages. Stories will be collected by local youth, and published in an anthology as well as incorporated visually into a living mural in a community garden. This will alert the general public about injustices Black residents face and empower the community as they work to make systemic changes in city policies.
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • Kentucky Conservation Committee
  • Title of Grant: Advancing Energy Democracy Through Public Engagement/State Utility Reform
Brief Description: The goal of the project is to provide resources to help citizens to understand how public agencies such as their Public Utility Commission/Public Service Commission provides oversight for utilities, and provide best practices and messaging for citizens to help balance the dynamic between the utility and the customer so that it puts the needs of the customers first. This will entail growing our base of allies in each state focused on how their utilities are regulated in order to make it easier for consumers to engage in the public process, and expand advocacy for lower bills, diversified, reliable energy choices, a just and equitable transition, and better climate resiliency. We intend to develop and pilot public education strategies and grassroots campaigns for energy democracy and utility reforms that give the public greater access to regulatory, legal, and democratic processes in order to accelerate implementation of climate and energy policy, emissions reductions, and a just and equitable transition to 100% renewable energy and share this work among the collaborating states.
Grant period October 2021-2022
Funded 19 grants
Total Funding $650,000.00
Total number of applications submitted: 26
Total amount of funding requested: $1,129,964.00
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Agricultural Missions, Inc 
  • Partnering with:  Kingdom Living Temple, Pee Dee Indian Tribe, The Whitney M Slater Foundation
  • Title of Grant: Implementing a Strategy of Awareness
Brief Description: Building on the achievements of the past year, this work will engage additional frontline BIPOC communities/groups in addressing both the impacts and causes of climate change; to build resilience and advocate for policy changes to promote the use of alternative energy sources. Specific emphasis on building locally controlled food systems through community based food production and the building networks and relationships with local farmers, where appropriate. Participating frontline communities will be engaged in awareness building and advocacy activities aimed at addressing the root causes of climate change and achieving a just transition. There will be deliberate efforts to engage youth in the planning and implementation of activities.
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • Agricultural Missions, Inc
  • Title of Grant: Increasing People of Color (POC) Membership on Boards and Committees of Electric dPower Associations (EPAs) in Mississippi.
Brief Description: In the state of Mississippi (MS) electricity distribution to rural communities is effected through seven EPAs throughout the state. In theory these EPAs operate as member owned cooperative associations where anyone with an electric meter is automatically a member of the specific EPA which provides the service. However, representation on the Boards of Directors and other committees of these EPAs by POC is not commensurate with their membership numbers. In order to achieve a just transition to renewable sources of electricity, it is necessary to increase the number of POC in leadership and decision making structures of these EPAs, primarily through engaging the 14 Farmers Cooperatives throughout the state.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Creation Justice Ministries
  • Partnering with: Wisconsin Green Muslims, Interfaith Power and Light-DC, MD, NoVa, United Methodist Women, Dayenu (non-founded), Green Faith (non-founded)
  • Title of Grant: BIPOC Faithful Climate Fellowship
Brief Description: Faith partners active in USCAN implemented a second year of the “Faithful BIPOC Climate Action Fellowship” for 25 BIPOC Christian, Jewish, and Muslim 18-26 year-olds across the U.S. Fellows receive training and make a commitment to the following climate justice priorities: to get published, create art, promote climate justice in their communities, engage in public speaking, or develop support resources for BIPOC climate movement emerging leaders.This year Black Climate Action Network in partnership with four other Black led Climate orgs (O.U.R.S, Black Women Rising, Sol Nation and People’s Justice Council) will work together to create space to build the capacity for Black Climate leaders and black led climate justice organizations to center ourselves in healing and liberation as we build towards climate justice.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Organized Uplifting Resources & Strategies (O.U.R.S)
  • Partnering with: Black Women Rising, Sol Nation, People’s Justice Council, SCEN
  • Title of Grant: Black Folks Healing
Brief Description: This year Black Climate Action Network in partnership with four other Black led Climate orgs (O.U.R.S, Black Women Rising, Sol Nation and People’s Justice Council) will work together to create space to build the capacity for Black Climate leaders and Black led climate justice orgs to center healing and liberation as they work to build towards climate justice.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Southeast Climate and Energy Network (SCEN)
  • Partnering With: Imani Group, Power Shift Network (PSN), Organizing Uplifting Resources and Strategies (O.U.R.S), Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Center for American Progress (CAP), Climate Advocacy Lab, Care About Climate
  • Title of Grant: Beneficial Agreements for Effective JEDI Based Cross Climate Negotiations with Legislators
Brief Description: In recognition of the divergent tactics used within the climate community for legislative advocacy, and in recognition that this non-uniform code of advocacy has at times caused harm, leading to the discrediting of other climate movement organizations, Southeast Climate Energy Network (SCEN) and partners propose to meet and align by working out standard agreements around our interactions that are imbedded within a Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) framework. This climate legislative advocacy strategy will be non-partial due to the use of a third party mediator and a partnership that spans the broad spectrum of climate organizations. It will be effective due to consulting with political strategist and congressional staff member. The outcome will be a unified front where stakeholders do not have to undercut or exclude one another in negotiations, but instead collectively build momentum and enhance our impact with legislative officials.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Mothers & Others for Clean Air
  • Partnering With: Elders Climate Action, The People's Justice Council, United Methodist Women, NC Interfaith Power & Light, and GA Interfaith Power & Light.
  • Title of Grant: Healthy Air is Health Care Trainings
Brief Description: Provide in depth, research-based, virtual trainings with a focus on health effects and health costs of air pollution and climate change for USCAN members with a focus on those working in the Southeast. Training topics include the dire human health impacts and increased healthcare costs from both air pollution and climate change, which are both caused by the same thing: burning fossil and other fuels. Indoor air pollution will be one of the focuses to highlight that as solutions are pushed to reduce air pollution and address climate change, people need to ensure that they are not being sealed into environments with toxic air. 
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • EcoEquity
  • Partnering With: ActionAid USA, Care About Climate, NC Interfaith Power and Light, Center for Biological Diversity (non-funded), Friends of the Earth (non-funded), The People’s Justice Council (non-funded), Women’s Environmental and Development Organization (WEDO)
  • Title of Grant: US Fair Shares Collaborative
Brief Description: The Fair Shares Collaborative, which was spawned at USCAN’s last physical annual meeting (2019), has been absolutely pivotal in the global effort of mainstreaming the “fair shares” challenge, and in helping put international climate justice onto the movement agenda. Still, the surface has only been scratched. It’s crucial now to radically deepen the overall movement's understanding of the global climate justice challenge, and in particular to link the vision of a fair global climate transition to the Green New Deal vision.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Georgia Interfaith Power and Light (GIPL)
  • Partnering With: Creation Justice Ministries, North Carolina Council of Churches, North Carolina Interfaith Power and Light, Sustaining Way, South Carolina Interfaith Power and Light, Alabama Interfaith Power and Light
  • Title of Grant: 2022 GOTV and Resilience Efforts Across Southeastern Coastal Faith Communities
Brief Description: The Southeast Faith Leaders Network (SFLN) is a collaborative effort building long-term grassroots power and capacity among faith communities and vulnerable coastline communities across the southeast region. Through this project, SFLN are building on the successful coastal resilience pilot projects in Georgia and North Carolina, by extending these efforts to Alabama and South Carolina and joining with the power of each of these coastal faith communities to Get Out The Vote throughout the 2022 election cycle. SFLN will use the frame and lived experiences associated with coastal disasters and continued resilience as the primary motivator for these GOTV efforts.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • The Imani Group, Inc.
  • Partnering With: Black Women Rising, First Faith Baptist Church, Mt. Zion Community Outreach Inc, Healthy4Purpose (non-funded)
  • Title of Grant: The Black Church - The Green Movement
Brief Description: ​​The Black Church has been and continues to be the most impactful institutional voice in the Black community. It is not only a place where religious/spiritual practices take place, but it also serves as the Gatekeeper of knowledge and participation in larger society. However, far too many churches are unaware of the devastation that climate change and environmental injustice cause in the communities where they are located; but we will change that.
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • Kentucky Conservation
  • Title of Grant: Just Solar Transition/Clean Energy Reform
Brief Description: The Kentucky Conservation Committee works in a nonpartisan manner to ensure that our democracy works for all citizens, particularly those most affected by environmental issues. The vision is for Kentucky to be a responsible steward of the Commonwealth’s land, air, water and biota, and for Kentuckians to understand that the health of their families, communities and economy depends on the stewardship of these resources. Kentucky Conservation Committee’s work focuses in four primary environmental issue areas: Climate Change, Clean Energy, Land Conservation and Biodiversity since 1975. This "Just Solar Transition/Clean Energy Reform" project is a significant project for our organization and our allies.
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • United Parents Against Lead and Other Environmental Hazards (UPAL)
  • Title of Grant: Strengthening Resilient Communities
Brief Description: UPAL is building grassroots capacity by creating a Community Controlled Fund and increasing climate resiliency in The Heights community of Petersburg, Virginia through the transformation of an historic USO building, formerly used by "colored" army troops, into a solar powered Community Resiliency Hub. The Hub, the first of its kind in Virginia, will offer solar panel assembly and installation training, Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) and will serve as the Petersburg Arm in Arm Hub headquarters. UPAL is implementing and expanding sustainable climate solutions through the advancement of this 100% Clean and Renewable Energy program.
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • Organized Uplifting Resources & Strategies (O.U.R.S.)
  • Title of Grant: Rooted
Brief Description: In many rural areas there are very few stores and health options for long living. One benefit of living in a rural area is being able to live off the land. Rooted is O.U.R.S.’ gardening program where we teach people about sustainability through agriculture. The goal of O.U.R.S is to show people how to grow their own food to sustain themselves in a food desert.
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • GASP
  • Title of Grant: Green New Deal for Birmingham: Phase II
Brief Description: The goal of the campaign is to develop a people-driven, grassroots climate action plan for the City of Birmingham that includes specific, justice-forward legislation and policy recommendations that can be implemented now. GASP launched the Green New Deal for Birmingham campaign this year (with seed funding from USCAN's 2020 member grants), during which time we have collected data (e.g., laws, policies, reports, plans, etc.) and formed implementation committees (outreach, policy, and communications & art). Phase II of the plan will entail monthly implementation committee meetings, film screenings, art contests, base building, and report drafting.
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power & Light
  • Title of Grant: Building Bridges, Building Power
Brief Description: Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power & Light (WAIPL) forms relationships, educates people of faith, and builds power in spiritual communities to advocate for climate justice. In this project, Earth Ministry will support tribally-led climate campaigns including halting the spread of fossil fuel infrastructure in the region and restoring salmon in climate-warmed waters. Following the strategies of Northwest Native nations, Earth Ministry/WAIPL will engage religious leaders in response to specific requests from tribal leadership and oppose climate-damaging fossil fuel projects that have imperiled Native fishing areas, treaty rights, and sacred sites.
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • The People’s Justice Council (PJC)
  • Title of Grant: The People’s Justice Council: Supporting Frontline Fighters
Brief Description: The People's Justice Council (PJC), including the PJC program Alabama Interfaith Power and Light (ALIPL), is a Black-led organization whose vision is to create a world that is equitable, sustainable, and just. PJC engages and equips communities with tools to build power from the grassroots up for change at the policy level. The major thrust of PJC’s work is related to energy justice; specifically, reducing the energy burden of folks in historic redline communities in our backyard (Birmingham, AL), throughout the South, and beyond, helping our most vulnerable keep their lights on, heat/AC running, and roofs over their heads (i.e., no shutoffs/no evictions) under institutional racism and economic Apartheid made worse by COVID-19. PJC likewise works on the long-term policy and systemic/structural changes necessary to bring about lasting, regenerative change. The People’s Justice Council does this through practical implementation and policy advocacy.
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • Environmental Finance Center West (EFCWest)
  • Title of Grant: Assessing Climate Vulnerability in the Rural Deep South
Brief Description: EFCWest will work with four other Southeast Climate Energy Network (SCEN) organizations to capture local climate vulnerability knowledge in the deep rural south. The team will be conducting a series of assessments of three counties located in the states of Florida, Alabama, and Georgia with the purpose of learning about vulnerabilities related to climate variability alongside these communities and to improve their climate resilience.
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • South Carolina Interfaith Power & Light (SCIPL)
  • Title of Grant: Mobilizing South Carolina’s Faith Community
Brief Description: South Carolina Interfaith Power & Light (SCIPL) is positioned to rapidly expand its reach and impact, and to carry out its mission of empowering faith communities to create a just and sustainable future. Funding from USCAN will allow SCIPL to immediately expand our annual Congregational Energy Efficiency Challenge program from three to five congregations, and almost double the number of graduates from our Civic Engagement Academy, growing from 17 to 30.
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • Sustaining Way
  • Title of Grant: The Power of the People
Brief Description: Sustaining Way uses education, collaboration and advocacy to create sustainable, caring and equitable communities for current and future generations. Sustaining Way’s work focuses on bringing equity and environmental justice to marginalized communities through a unique, holistic approach that includes leadership development, youth education, community education centering around sustainable practices, the development of a comprehensive network of partnerships to bring needed resources into the community, and more recently, infrastructure building to further enable the community to advocate for themselves. To address climate change, environmental hazards, gentrification and racism in the historically African American communities in Greenville, SC, Sustaining Way will employ asset based community building, participatory leadership training, climate and sustainability education and technical assistance, and policy advocacy.
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • Georgia Interfaith Power & Light (GIPL)
  • Title of Grant: Drawdown GA for Congregations: Practical Climate Solutions for All
Brief Description: Over the next two years, GIPL will expand its practical climate solutions programming to provide congregations accessible pathways to implement the 20 high-impact solutions identified by Drawdown GA. GIPL will expand its base of congregations and Green Teams through statewide outreach in order to broaden the implementation of these climate solutions. Additionally, GIPL will educate and equip these congregations to take part in local, state, and federal advocacy to advance the implementation and accessibility of these solutions across the state and to ensure that the most impacted communities in Georgia receive the benefits of these solutions.
Grant period October 2020 to 2021 
Funded 16 grantsTotal Funding $550,000.00
Total number of applications submitted: 28
Total amount of funding requested: $1,266,382.00
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Creation Justice Ministries
  • BIPOC Young Adult Faithful Climate Action Fellowship, Implementation
  • Partnering with: Wisconsin Green Muslims, GreenFaith, United Methodist Women, Interfaith Power and Light - DC, MD, VA
Faith partners active in the US CAN “Building Power from the Grassroots Up” Action Team implemented a second year of the “Faithful Climate Action Fellowship” for 20 BIPOC Christian and Muslim 18-26 year-olds in the Midwest and Southeast. Fellows receive training and make a commitment to the following climate justice priorities: to get published, engage in public speaking, help their respective communities to participate in the Building Power from the Grassroots Up Action Team’s Asset Mapping project, and develop support resources for BIPOC climate movement emerging leaders.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • United Parents Against Lead & Other Environmental Hazards (UPAL)
  • Building Capacity through Environmental Justice Leadership in the Southeast, Peer Learning
  • Partnering with: Partnership for Southern Equity (PSE),  Virginia Interfaith Power and Light (VAIPL), Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN)
Peer learning across states and regions equips us with the leadership development tools and community capacity building skills we all need to better address the climate crisis collectively and powerfully through a racial equity lens. This multi-state peer learning project will increase Arm in Arm membership by providing disruptive humanitarianism training and resistance strategies that offer alternatives to the status quo. Fighting for Environmental and Climate Justice in the Southeastern U.S. through peer learning and information sharing is essential to our survival.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Georgia Interfaith Power and Light
  • Building Grassroots Power: A Revised and Re-aligned Network Strategy and Network Steering Committee, Implementation
  • Partnering with: Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power and Light, DC/Maryland/Northern Virginia Interfaith Power and Light, Virginia Interfaith Power and Light, National Interfaith Power and Light (non-funded), Faith in Place (non-funded), Arkansas Interfaith Power and Light (non-funded)
The Interfaith Power & Light network mobilizes a unique and powerful constituency of people of faith in calling for equitable climate action. This project will support four USCAN members organizations elected to serve on a new IPL Network Steering Committee, whose goal is to broaden shared leadership and provide strategic guidance to improve the efficacy and impact of the IPL network. Modeled after USCAN's effective approach, the NSC will build capacity for climate action in states across the nation, provide mentorship to IPL affiliates based on measures of organizational health, and continue to create a network culture and practical framework for mobilizing the faith community for a just and equitable climate vision at the local, state, regional, and federal levels.
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • Lowcountry Alliance for Model Communities (LAMC)
  • Charleston Climate Community Forums,
The Lowcountry Alliance for Model Communities work to build healthy families by creating opportunities. We create opportunities through home ownership which is a wealth building tool, close the educational and economic gaps by reducing the barriers to participation and addressing legacy pollution in our communities through education, advocacy and policy changes. Our goal is to engage our residents in meaningful ways to educate them; educate them to empower them and empower them to become the advocates for the change they seek.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Southeast Climate and Energy Network
  • Leveraging Grassroots Power through Resource-Sharing & Power Mapping, Implementation
  • Partnering With: Care About Climate, Southeast Climate & Energy Network (SCEN), Sustaining Way, The People's Justice Council
The year 2020 has been full of immense social transformation coupled with a pandemic and an intensifying climate crisis. This highlights the opportunity and necessity for SCEN and USCAN to transform as networking organizations by strengthening communication among all members through the sharing of mutually valuable resources digitally. Leveraging Grassroots Power through Resource-Sharing & Power Mapping supports the evolution of our respective networks’ capacity infrastructure by aligning strategically to develop community-led solutions. Building on two years of previous pilot work, this year we will launch a user friendly platform for asset and power mapping within the USCAN and SCEN networks; allowing members to expand their work by sharing resources, increasing organizational capacity, enhancing relationship building and developing opportunities to coalesce around joint campaigns through power-mapping.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Wisconsin Green Muslims
  • Multisolving for Equitable Community Climate Solutions: Connecting Systems Thinking and Simulations with Virtual Education at a Time of Multi-crises, Peer Learning
  • Partnering with: Climate Generation (Minnesota), Climate Interactive (National/Global), RE-AMP (Midwest), 
How can we solve for multiple social challenges through equitable climate solutions? Multi Solving is a concept developed by Climate Interactive that provides an approach for finding systematic solutions that protect the climate while also improving health, equity, and well-being. At a time of fragmented society and overlapping crises, multi solving explorations and learnings can help us find equitable and just community climate solutions that solve multiple problems with interconnected interventions. Our proposed work combines the concept of multi solving with virtual, shared learning and developing real world solutions using the power of networks.
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • GASP
  • People’s Green New Deal for Birmingham, Frontlines/Grassroots
The main goal of this project is to develop a People’s Green New Deal for the City of Birmingham. Building on our base-building work and expanding it to encompass bottom-up organizing for policy change, the People’s Green New Deal for Birmingham will result in actionable sustainability and climate plans for the City of Birmingham. The deliverable will be in the form of a report containing policy recommendations offered to the City of Birmingham as a comprehensive Municipal Green New Deal that can be adopted by the City Council and implemented by the Mayor.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Agricultural Missions, Inc.
  • Planning for a Just, Equitable and Sustainable Recovery of the Local Food System in the South, Peer Learning
  • Partnering with: Agricultural Missions, Inc., Kingdom Living Temple, Whitney M Slater Foundation, Pee Dee Indian Tribe, More listed as non-members
Improved access to healthy food and nutrition education can address, in a direct way, the systemic injustices that lead poor health, access to fresh, healthy food, and lack of economic opportunities for the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) community. The current Coronavirus pandemic presents a situation where the current food system is challenged as never before and one of the ways to address the problem of food insecurity in the long term is to work with families, local organizations, farmers and communities to develop a regional food system that involves direct collaboration and participation of and between farmers, consumers and distributors where necessary. By working together collaboratively to strategize and plan, we can build on the systems already put in place during the pandemic to build infrastructure, advocacy and actions that ensure just and equitable policies, practices, and economic opportunities in relief, recovery and rebuilding efforts of the food system in the South.
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • The Whitney M. Slater Foundation
  • Reclaiming Our Vote, grassroots/frontline
The Slater Foundation works in areas of health, climate change, environmental justice and equity. We work primarily with people of color and low income communities to educate and empower them to make systemic and policy changes.
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • Colorado Farm & Food Alliance
  • Securing Rural Prosperity and Frontline Climate Action, grassroots/frontline
The Colorado Farm & Food Alliance (COFFA) envisions a Colorado where a strong local food movement supports rural communities that are economically secure, socially equitable, and ecologically resilient.  We advocate and take action for a livable climate--that allows agriculture to flourish--and for policies that protect healthy, productive lands and abundant, clean water.  We support a thriving farm and local food economy that supports producers and workers, that strengthens community, and that increases food security; and, we work to ensure that quality and nutritious local food is available and affordable for all Coloradans.
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • Sol Nation
  • Sol Nation Frontline Grant
Sol Nation is closing the green gap. We are supporting the work that will expose the green gaps in their many forms related to power, infrastructure, resources, and education. Our work amplifies and provides direct pathways to close these gaps to support the communities we serve.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • NC Interfaith Power and Light
  • Southeast Faith Leaders Network (SFLN) Collaborative Implementation
  • Partnering with: Creation Justice Ministries, Georgia Interfaith Power & Light (Codi), North Carolina Interfaith Power & Light, Southeast Climate & Energy Network
The Southeast Faith Leaders Network (SFLN) is a collaborative effort building long-term grassroots power lifting up the principles and values of a just transition as we convene faith leaders throughout the Southeast region. As active member organizations of USCAN, we are putting our “Faith into Action” to address the causes and consequences of climate change as a moral imperative and to serve as visionaries in creating beloved communities.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • GASP
  • Southern Communities for a Green New Deal (GND), Implementation
  • Partnering with: Dogwood Alliance - non-funded partner, GASP, Kingdom Living Temple, Southeast Climate & Energy Network (SCEN)
The main goal of Phase Two of the Southern Communities for a Green New Deal (SC4GND) project is for project partners to build broad national, regional and state level support for the SC4GND platform, which reflect the issues and needs from communities in the South. This project builds upon our multi-state methodology to address under-investments and lack of attention toward southern communities in the context of the impact of the global climate crisis. We will disseminate and promote policy recommendations found in the concepts document that our collaborative networks have developed over the past year as the main tool to engage a wide set of national and regional stakeholders. The idea is that SC4GND informs the development of climate policy at both the state and federal level.
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • The Imani Group
  • The Black Church - The Green Movement, implementation
The Black Church has been and continues to be the most impactful institutional voice in the Black community. It is not only a place where religious/spiritual practices take place but it also serves as the Gatekeeper of knowledge and participation in larger society. However, far too many churches are unaware of the devastation that climate change and environmental injustice cause in the communities where they are located; but we will change that.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • EcoEquity
  • US Fair Share - USCAN Collaborative Implementation Initiative, implementation
  • Partnering with: Action Aid, Center for Biological Diversity, EcoEquity, Friends of the Earth, North Carolina Interfaith Power & Light
The IPCC has made it clear that humanity has to go everything possible to hold the warming to 1.5C, or as low as possible. This means that, in addition to its domestic challenges, the US climate movement must take on the challenge of defining, and socializing the US fair share in the larger global effort. That is the gap which this US Fair Shares Initiative is attempting to fill.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Environmental Finance Center West (EFCWest)
  • Using Root Cause Analysis for DEI and Systemic Issues, peer learning
  • Partnering with: Care About Climate, Southeast Climate & Energy Network (SCEN), Sustaining Way, The People's Justice Council
This proposal seeks to support partner organizations and USCAN efforts to identify strategic targets, policies and leverage points for systems level change. The project will involve four USCAN organizations in virtual root cause exercises to help them identify opportunities to address the complexity and intersectionality of race, equity, diversity and climate justice.
Grant period October 2019 to 2020 (2021 for two-year grants)
Funded 23 grants (2 one-year, 21 two-year)
Total number of applications submitted: 34
Total amount of funding requested: $1,844,399.00 (one-year grants $1,464,899.00; two-year grants 379,500.00)
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Agricultural Missions, Inc
  • Collaborative for Training, Consciousness Raising and Strategy Development, Peer Learning
  • Partnering With: Partnership for Southern Equity, Care About Climate, Climate Justice Lead, Christian Social Action, United Methodist Women
Consistent with USCAN’s priority of 100% Renewable Energy, the members of this cluster will organize and implement a program to train their own staff and leadership of front line partner organizations, in places and spaces where this is vitally necessary. This training, to be led by member organizations within the cluster, will focus on raising consciousness and awareness of equitable outreach and engagement on the issue of climate change and teaching strategies for racially diverse grassroots participation in 100% renewable energy advocacy targeting local and state level elected representatives. Through the use of the Training of Trainers (TOT) methodology, participants will then be able to train others in their organization's membership and communities and engage in organizing and advocacy on renewable energy.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Care About Climate
  • Finishing Up Asset Mapping, Collaborative Implementation
  • Partnering With: Sustaining Way, Georgia WAND, People’s Justice Council
We started the asset mapping for USCAN in 2018 and have not yet completed the work. This grant would allow us to complete the work with the extension of time and resources.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Creation Justice Ministries
  • Next Generation Rising, Peer Learning
  • Partnering With: Franciscan Action Network, Interfaith Power and Light of the DMV, Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, Our Children’s Trust, GreenFaith
In 2019-2020, US CAN equipped faith-based member organizations to tap into the existing strength of their young adult networks. They supported the Our Children’s Trust climate lawsuits and other youth-led climate justice initiatives with publicity and on-the-ground organizing support in the Washington, DC area.
  • Type of Grant: Frontlines/Grassroots Grant
  • Earth Ministry
  • Building Bridges, Building Power
Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power & Light plays a vital bridging role between Northwest faith, tribal, and environmental communities, forging relationships and building power in grassroots movements to support tribally-led climate justice efforts. In this project, Earth Ministry will work in partnership with and follow the strategies of Northwest Native nations to bring together these differing constituencies in support of tribally-led climate campaigns and engage religious leaders in response to specific requests from tribal leadership. The result of our capacity-building efforts will strengthen current Native-led campaigns such as halting the spread of fossil fuel infrastructure in the region and restoring salmon and climate-warmed waters, but also will be applicable to a wide range of environmental and social justice issues long into the futuagricu
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • EcoEquity
  • The US Fair Share in a Global Climate Emergency Mobilization - Building Civil Society Consensus, Collaborative Implementation
  • Partnering With: ActionAid, North Carolina Interfaith Power and Light, Center for Biological Diversity
The general goal of this collaboration is a much broader understanding, within both US climate and climate justice movements, of the ethical and political implications of global emergency climate mobilization in a starkly divided world.The specific goals are 1) a broad understanding of the importance of fairness and justice in the global response to the climate challenge, which must be seen as just if it is to be effective, and 2) agreement on a specific US fair share of a global mobilization that includes adaptation and loss & damage support as well as decarbonization, an agreement that can inform inputs into processes such as the drafting of the Green New Deal and policies that fall under that framework. Because limited resources and poor economic conditions reduce the resilience of tribes to climate change and increase the vulnerability of southwestern tribes in particular to climate change impacts, they are some of the most vulnerable frontline communities in the United States. In response, this project addresses climate adaptation challenges and builds grassroots power for Tribes in New Mexico and Arizona, through Tribally led trainings and culturally relevant tools to help these communities develop resiliency on their own terms.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Gasp
  • The Southeast Climate & Energy Podcast, Collaborative Implementation
  • Partnering With: Southeast Climate & Energy Network (SCEN), Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy, People’s Justice Council
The purpose of this project is to spread the word from environmental and climate justice activists, practitioners, clean and renewable energy advocates and the general public from communities in the South on environmental issues. We will do so by recording podcasts highlighting environmental leaders and the communities affected in the Southeastern U.S. where they will talk about their causes and how they have attained significant local, regional and national wins. This initiative evolves from a shared concern of lack of resources and attention for our regional work in the South. Participation will raise awareness of the most salient environmental and climate justice issues in the South, provide educational opportunities, enhance connections within our network while increasing the participation of the general public.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Georgia Interfaith Power and Light (GIPL)
  • Building Resilience: Alabama/Georgia Weatherization & Nuclear Protection Project, Collaborative Implementation
  • Partnering With: Georgia WAND, Partnership for Southern Equity, People’s Justice Council
Impacted and underserved neighborhoods such as North Birmingham, Alabama and Burke County, Georgia bear a double burden in paying disproportionately more for energy costs while at the same time suffering the health effects of nuclear/toxic waste and pollution generated by energy production. Weatherization offers immediate health and energy/cost-saving benefits, while offering the potential to mitigate some of the fallout effects of a major nuclear catastrophe. Funds will be used to support two efforts: 1) GIPL’s continued mobilization of congregations to engage at the local and state level to ensure the safe removal and storage of coal ash in Georgia communities, and 2) GIPL’s advancement and participation in the implementation of additional city-wide 100% clean energy plans, with a particular focus on the accessibility of clean energy for currently underserved markets, such as multi-family housing, affordable housing, and non-profits. Georgia WAND Education Fund (“Georgia WAND”) is an independent, grassroots, women-led organization that seeks to direct women's voices into a powerful movement for social change. We are working to become fully community-led, and we are collaborative and participatory in our approach. Our mission is to educate the public and opinion leaders about the need to end systemic violence and militarism and redirect excessive military spending to unmet human and environmental needs. To initiate a series of meetings and training sessions within Pitt and Northampton Counties, NC, minority communities addressing local, regional, and national environmental issues including climate change adaptations and environmental justice; those health issues particularly affecting minority communities; and social justice issues including educational limitations, employment, and minority male incarceration issues. The Kentucky Conservation Committee is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit with a 501(c)(3) affiliate, founded in 1975. We collectively empower the public, policymakers and advocates on critical environmental issues in Kentucky, in partnership with the greater conservation community. We are one of Kentucky's oldest state-based conservation collaboratives, providing resources to communities in need.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Kingdom Living Temple
  • Justice First Campaigns - A Green New Deal from a Southern Perspective, Collaborative Implementation
  • Partnering With: Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy, Dogwood Alliance, Southeast Climate and Energy Network (SCEN)
The main goal of this project is to garner Southern recommendations to potential policies and federal climate legislation that result from the Green New Deal (GND), which reflect the issues and needs from communities in the South. Building upon the work of Gulf South for a Green New Deal (GSGND) initiative, we will apply a multi-state methodology to address under-investments and lack of attention in the context of the impact of the global climate crisis on some of the most unique communities in the US.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Kingdom Living Temple
  • South Carolina State Solar Initiative, Peer Learning
  • Partnering With: Low Country Alliance for Model Communities, The Whitney M. Slater Foundation, Restoration Outreach Ministries, Southeast Climate Energy Network (SCEN)
The purpose of the South Carolina State Solar Initiative is to have cities issue proclamations and resolutions to go 100% renewable by the year 2035. As part of the campaign, we will conduct an education program and mobilize the residents of each city to demand action at each respective city council meeting.The cities in South Carolina include Florence, Marion, Darlington, McCall, Bennettsville, Orangeburg, Georgetown, Dillon, and Aiken.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Michigan Interfaith Power and Light
  • Engaging the Unengaged: Enlisting Less-Involved Populations in Climate ConversationsI, Peer Learning
  • Partnering With: Minnesota IPL, Iowa IPL, Ohio IPL, Pennsylvania IPL 
As a swing region, the nation’s interior is a critically important geography for climate organizing ahead of the 2020 election.But because climate has become an intensely partisan “political” issue, it is sometimes avoided as a topic in communities -- including faith communities-- where consensus and harmony are highly valued. Yet traditional faith communities are often also the stewards of values central to our response to climate change: care for our Common Home; preservation of a livable world for future generations; and care for those most harmed through no action of their own.Together, our five Interfaith Power & Light state affiliates will bring heart-based, values-oriented “Climate Conversations” to congregations to grow and strengthen our base of climate advocates, while also working together to sharpen our approaches and make our efforts to build grassroots power among people of faith and conscience even more effective. Many of our inner-city schools, especially failing schools do not teach about climate change.They don’t see simple tasks as trash pickup to preserve that part of our environment.We must ask our middle school students, “how do we help save our planet?” and then teach them methods to achieve through guided listening and learning sessions within our organization utilizing members of the US Climate Action Network community and beyond. We will form a safe space and a welcoming open circle that can take place during aftercare with a developed curriculum / toolkit that moves our students on a path of not only understanding, but becoming partners in helping to preserve our environment.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Mt. Zion Community Outreach, Inc
  • Climate Justice Healing Conversation Circles
  • Partnering With: Wisconsin Green Muslims, The Imani Group, Inc., National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Environmental and Climate Justice Program 
Many of us have wounds that stem from the labors of our environmental and climate justice work that are in desperate need of healing. We must ask each other, “how are you healing?” and then listen to and learn from each other on those methods through guided listening and learning sessions within the US Climate Action Network community and beyond. We will form a safe space and a welcoming open circle that can be virtual (at online / zoom meetings) and perhaps physical (at certain in-person meetings) with a developed curriculum / toolkit that moves us together on the path of healing, rooted in our traditions, cultures, spiritualities, and philosophies.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • New Jersey Resource Project
  • Keep Our Communities Above Water: Working Together for Socially and Economically Just Adaptation and Mitigation, Collaborative Implementation
  • Partnering With: New Jersey Research Project, Anthropocene Alliance, MHAction, Sierra Club, Union of Concerned Scientists
We are working together to strengthen our organizing of frontline communities, strategize together, and share lessons to ensure that state-based HUD CDBG-DR disaster recovery and FEMA mitigation programs serve frontline families, and to shape federal programs like the National Flood Insurance Program so it puts our families and science first.Through addressing climate impacts in a socially and economically just manner, we will also work to connect climate-impacted communities to the climate justice movement.Our communities need their stories and struggles to matter, and our public programs and movements need to be responsive to the climate impacts that are already here and will keep coming.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • People’s Justice Council
  • Mapping the Equity and Environmental & Climate Justice Network of the American South, Collaborative Implementation
  • Partnering With: Southeast Climate and Energy Network (SCEN), Partnership for Southern Equity, Georgia WAND
The South is on the frontlines of struggles for climate justice, economic justice, racial justice, and inclusive democratic participation. Affected communities spanning from the Gulf Coast to Appalachia are advancing critical work on energy, climate and environmental justice. Resonance across strategic themes like racial equity and shared prosperity is building, yet the capacity to coordinate work rooted in the South is extremely limited. Given these conditions, Mapping the Equity, Environmental and Climate Justice Network of the American South supports intentional build out of the South’s community-based capacity infrastructure and strategic alignment to develop community-led solutions.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • SC Interfaith Power and Light
  • Southeast Climate Action Faith Leaders Network, Phase 2, Alignment Convening
  • Partnering With: North Carolina IPL, Georgia IPL, Alabama IPL, Alabama IPL, Creation Justice Ministries
The Southeast Climate Action Faith Leaders Network is a collaborative effort building long-term grassroots power lifting up the principles and values of a just transition as we convene faith leaders throughout the Southeast region. As active member organizations of USCAN, we are putting our “Faith into Action” to address the causes and consequences of climate change as a moral imperative and to serve as visionaries in creating beloved communities.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Texas Interfaith Center for Public Policy
  • All Our Little Lights: Convening Local Faith Communities for Climate Action, Collaborative Implementation
  • Partnering With: Interfaith Power and Light, United Methodist General Board of Church Society, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
US religious institutions of many faiths have been active NGO participants at every COP since the beginning, but that work has not been leveraged optimally to influence beliefs and behaviors for faithful Americans in local communities across the country. As global climate policymaking cascades into local and regional policy implementation, civil society—including the faith sector—will shoulder the responsibility for putting the Paris Agreement into action. This project will provide crucial missing links to connect local communities of many faiths to the policy goals of the COP—and help them identify actionable next steps for advocacy and implementation.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • The Whitney M. Slater Foundation
  • Fully Engaging Black USCAN Members for Action, Alignment Convening
  • Partnering With: Sol Nation, NAACP, Alabama IPL, United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society, Clean Air Coalition
Convening a space for black USCAN members and other black led organizations, for the purpose of alignment, education, peer learning, and intersection of issues. Participating black led organizations will have the opportunity to learn more about USCAN and pathways to membership.
  • Type of Grant: Collaboration Grant 
  • Wisconsin Green Muslims
  • 100% Equitable Renewable Energy, Peer Learning
  • Partnering With: Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Environment America, Economic and Environmental Justice, United Methodist Women
Members of the US Climate Action Network 100% Renewable Energy action team will build trust and alignment planning an in-person strategy convening and contributing to an ongoing collaborative work on their agreed-upon priorities for 2019-2020. Also grant proposal partners will collectively be designing and executing a training to amplify best practices to move toward successful equitable 100% renewable energy policies and practices on the local and/or national levels.
Grant Period October 2017-2018 
Funded 19 grants
Total number of applications submitted: 23
Total amount of funding requested: 1,245,130.00
USCAN supports our members through Member Empowerment Grants each year, which are focused on work relating to the Member Alignment Areas voted on by members at our Annual Meetings!  We can’t wait to share the wins and accomplishments our grantees have had with you!
Last year Sunrise Movement, in partnership with Powershift Network, Sierra Student Coalition, Alliance for Climate Education, and more, used USCAN Collaborative Grant funds to create a “Climate Legacy Time Capsule” campaign. This campaign had a simple premise: all of us, rich or poor, black or white, rural or urban, stand to lose something we love to the climate crisis. Sunrise and their partners issued a call to folks across the country: what will our climate legacy be? In 25 cities, climate citizens brought objects, letters, and mementos to preserve in a time capsule. Sunrise and their partners built alliances with local groups, many of whom were faith organizations and high school clubs. Their project “seeded new Sunrise hubs across the country and laid the groundwork for explosive work in 2018!”
GreenLatinos used USCAN funds to work at both the local and federal levels and varied in scope through educational and advocacy programs. Their work supported Environmental Justice and USCAN members in priorities and urgent local on the ground efforts that connected to federal policy in what they determined were “Environmental Justice Hot spots.” They bolstered member driven campaigns through two of their core policy working groups, Environmental Justice and Civil Rights and Climate and Clean Air. One notable success was their participation in a successful litigation action, which resulted in the banning of a toxic chemical. Additionally, they had their largest Green Latinos Summit to date with 200 leaders! At this summit, there were member led breakouts, outdoor activities, panels, collaborative leadership trainings, and more! Thank you GreenLatinos for the amazing work you do!
Iowa IPL, in collaboration with Creation Justice Ministries, IA-NE NAACP, and Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, convened three workshops with the purpose of increasing awareness and advocacy around energy equity and environmental justice at both the grassroots and grasstops levels. Workshops were held in Sioux City, IA, Des Moines, IA, and in Waterloo, IA! The convenings engaged 84 Iowa clergy and church leaders on the topics of energy equity, environmental justice, community resilience, and collective moral action. These workshops have already resulted in positive follow through, and workshop participants’ have voiced desire to advocate for energy efficiency by taking part in REAMP Iowa State Table’s energy efficiency to learn about best practices for statewide programs!
Clean Air Coalition of Western New York (CACWNY) has used USCAN grant funds to continue to organize for the just transition of the NRG Huntley Coal plant in Tonawanda, NY and built power to create and grow accessible, generational green jobs in the Western NY Region. Their organizing has resulted in an application from NRG to remediate a portion of their site, and significant commitment from NY to transition the Town of Tonawanda towards a renewable energy future! Additionally, CACWNY has: collected 12 organizational sign-on letters demanding Erie County take action to remediate the site, created a coalition to explore a shared organizing strategy for workforce in the renewable sector made up of labor and clergy groups, held two press events calling for a transition of the site, facilitated five economic transition implementation meetings to coordinate resident organizing and town agencies on Tonawanda’s coal economic transition plan and more! Thank you for all your great work!
Sustaining Way used USCAN grant funds to support their workforce development program that builds grassroots power in Greenville, SC by transforming underutilized people into community leaders through extensive training and paid community development work! Sustaining Way added a new position to this program that focuses on food and landscape, as well as increased the number of people engaged in the program! In 2017, 7,400 people were engaged in their programs for a cumulative amount of 9,200 hours. Another accomplishment was the launch of Steward Fellows, which is part of Sustaining Way’s Youth Programming. Steward Fellows is for students in financial need to complete paid development work while receiving mentoring and training in personal, workforce, and leadership development; 19 students have completed this fellowship! They also learn about many aspects of sustainability through this fellowship.
Creation Justice Ministries, in collaboration with Franciscan Action Network, Pennsylvania Interfaith Power and Light, and North Carolina Interfaith Power and Light, used USCAN grant funds to build momentum from the 2017 State of Appalachia Conference. This momentum resulted in a 2018 State of Appalachia conference in Pipestem State Resort Park in March 2018! This conference included a just transition themed prayer service and a plenary discussion featuring Just Transition featuring thought leaders. Leading up to this conference, Creation Justice Ministries was able to hire a coordinator to be the planning team convener and logistical organizer of this conference and to ensure the implementation of this grant. Additionally, Creation Justice Ministries used the USCAN grant to engage in advocacy for just transition policies, in particular the RECLAIM Act, where they facilitated the release of a faith sign-on letter.
North Carolina IPL came together with USCAN members Kingdom Living Temple and Sustaining Way to participate in a Grassroots and Collaboration Grant.  They came together as leading grassroots environmental justice and resilience building organizations to create the Carolinas Faith Leaders Network to develop long term development of a Southeast Climate Action Faith Leaders Network.  Their work is designed to equip people of faith in the Carolinas to use their voices to address energy and climate issues. Their “Faith in Action” campaigns support faith leaders to develop their voices with goals to develop relationships with elected officials and participate in constructive and collaborative ways to influence energy policy and foster state wide resilience. 
New Jersey Resources Project used a grassroots grant to build on the work of the Socially and Economic Just Adaptation and Mitigation (SEJAM) User Group.  They were able to anchor frontline community leadership within USCAN, connect USCAN members that had a position on social and economically just policies to learn from each other and create alignment, and pe part of an in person conversation before the USCAN Annual Meeting to deepen their connections and shared work.  This grant allowed the SEJAM group to move forward collectively and center grassroots leadership.  One highlight was when Shana from Union of Concerned Scientists came to their first meeting and led two workshops for 75 directly impacted members and community leaders. 
Kingdom Living Temple received a frontlines/grassroots grant to support work such as implementing renewable energy, energy democracy, and just transitions through an environmental justice and democracy lens.  Among many events, one exciting moment was at the Climate Justice Summit in North Carolina where they discussed the negative environmental impacts of the biomass wood pelletizing facility that had been conducted in Hamlet, NC and the organizing against the plant.  They helped get a petition with over 12,000 individual signatures and 60 organizations. Kingdom Living Temple was able to attend 31 events over the course of their grant period to bring grassroots voices and perspectives.
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