Summer 2024 RCE Membership Meeting: EPA TCTAC
Here’s to another successful Quarterly Meeting! Thank you to everyone who attended our Summer Quarterly Meeting on May 29, 2024. We welcomed around 120 attendees to the VICARS Community Center to learn from the EPA Region 4 about their new Thriving Communities Technical Assistance (TCTAC) program. These meetings continue to draw a large crowd and are a great opportunity to engage in the network, meet new people, and catch up. A huge thank you to VICARS Community Center for hosting us in their space, and to everyone who helped set up or clean up. Thanks also to the TCTAC folks for leading the meeting, including the presenters Christina Fuller, Sheryl Good, and Jill Gambill. We appreciate you all!
This quarterly focused on the Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Centers (TCTACs), established by the EPA to provide training and technical support to communities working on environmental justice issues and seeking funding. Go to REACT4EJ.org for more information. After presentations from the Georgia TCTAC team– all slides and materials from the meeting can be found on our Linktree– we went into breakout groups for a productive back and forth on topics like how to get funds, grant-writing support, and more. The valuable feedback given from members of community-based organizations, academics, or other affiliations will be taken into account as the TCTACs improve how they serve communities and build their programs.
We encourage you to look into the Thriving Communities Grantmakers Program that the EPA has established to address environmental issues in underserved and disadvantaged communities. RTI International will be representing Region 4 for this program and will be giving out $40 million in grants to organizations in AL, FL, GA, KY, MS, NC, SC, and TN. The program summary available on the Linktree describes the types of grants that will be available. The application period is expected to open sometime this fall and proposals will be accepted until fall 2026. They are also looking for people to serve on the Community Advisory Board that will be reviewing proposals and selecting which projects are funded. These will be paid positions, and you can still apply for a grant if you are on the board. If you are interested in being a board member, please email thrivingcommunities@selcnc.org or call Melissa Harrison at 919-967-1450.
In addition to being a productive meeting, we also had a great time seeing RCE members! Gathering in person and having share-outs at the end remind us how many great people are involved. See the full June newsletter for many of the events that RCE members shared at the end of the meeting. Continue to stay active in the RCE through some of our projects:
- Please consider applying to be a mentor or a mentee, this is a great RCE program that pairs college students interested in SDG-related careers with professionals in the field.
- The RCE has a Community of Practice focused on Community-Academic Partnerships. It was created to support stronger and more effective relationships between community partners and colleges, universities, and K-12 institutions to enable all of us to better leverage the resources and network of the RCE Greater Atlanta.
If you might be interested in hosting the Fall meeting (date TBD), please contact Jenny Hirsch, RCE Lead Coordinator, at jennifer.hirsch@gatech.edu. Thank you again to everyone who attended, we’ll see you at the next one!