Environmental Awareness Program
    Carver Community Organization is proud to announce that we have been awarded a $20,000 Environmental Protection Agency-Environmental Justice Small Grant for the expansion of our Environmental Awareness Program (EAP) from local schools into Evansville's African-American community.

    The grant will be used to develop and implement a year's worth of coordinated programs to promote environmental awareness in minority neighborhoods, which traditionally have not been well informed about local environmental hazards.   However, residents of these communities have a critical need for more information about the local environment because they have higher cancer and infant mortality rates than other groups, along with problems with lead poisoning and other environmentally-induced illnesses in children.

    The EAP will be centered in the neighborhood around St. John's Parish, where we have recently established an after-school outreach program.   This neighborhood has a predominantly Black population, with 32 percent in poverty and 45 percent with no high school diploma.   This area also contains some of Evansville's oldest housing, which presents the problem of lead poisoning.   The Evansville/Vanderburgh County area also has documented problems with air and water quality, but no comprehensive strategy exists for informing the minority community of any of these hazards.

    Carver Community Organization is uniquely suited to implement the EAP in this area.   We are already linked with many community organizations, such as the YMCA, Minority Health Coalition, Evansville Housing Authority, 4-H Club, Izaak Walton League, service organizations, and local churches.   We also have established positive relationships with the community-at-large and with more than 1,000 youth and families in the area.

    Carver will work in conjunction with EnviroKinetics, Inc., an African American environmental firm, to conduct the EAP.   Our primary goal is to protect the local environment; secondarily, we will involve the minority community in activities that will reduce their risk from environmental hazards.   The programs, to be held in informal settings, will cover lead detection, prevention and abatement techniques and impacts of ozone and air pollution, pollution prevention, conservation, and recycling, among other topics.

    With this grant, Carver will be able to serve as the central clearinghouse for environmental programs to Evansville's low income and minority populations.   One of our major goals is to create environmental resource activists in our community who have the knowledge and training to work for environmental quality on an ongoing basis.   Furthermore, the expanded EAP will give the residents the opportunity to make a positive change right where they live.   As participants become educated on environmental issues, they will bring leadership, heightened public awareness, responsibility, and cooperation to their neighborhoods.   In addition, by informing parents about environmental issues and empowering them to avoid or remedy potential hazards, we will ensure that efforts to protect public health and reduce environmental hazards will continue long after this project has ended.