CIVIC-FA Track A: Kickstarting A Youth-Centered Green Economy For The Environmental Justice Community Of East Boston

CIVIC-FA 轨道 A：为东波士顿环境正义社区启动以青年为中心的绿色经济

• 批准号: 2322178
• 负责人: Kannan Thiruvengadam
• 金额: $ 100万
• 依托单位: EASTIE FARM, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2322178&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CIVIC; FA; Track; Kickstarting; Youth

This research involves understanding how underserved communities get actively engaged in making the transition to a vibrant green economy with improved environmental conditions and community resilience to climate change. To accomplish this goal, the research engages local youth in constructive and productive activities involving urban farming, coastal restoration, and social science-driven community engagement via a non-profit community entity (Eastie Farm). Youth centered activities include financial support to help youth make a living while they learn urban agricultural science and implementation via experimenting, documenting, and examining the best means and species of plants for local coastal wetland restoration that is designed to reduce coastal flooding and remobilization of industrial pollutants in wetland soils at the verge of their community. Youth-driven community surveys, overseen by university social science teams, and data collection and its analysis help youth learn how they can make positive and major differences in their community. University researchers, community members, and the community-based Eastie Farm are working together on this pilot to understand how low income and environmentally impacted communities can meet the challenges of climate change through nature-based solutions. Broader impacts of the project include youth empowerment and mentoring, focused on developing a robust understanding of how to make communities resilient to climate change and improve resident's quality of life. It creates a model that can be scaled and translated to other low-income, environmentally compromised, urban, coastal communities. The project also provides youth in low-income, traditionally underserved, urban communities with expertise and training in green careers as well as learning and realization of the power of youth-driven actions that have the potential to change a community and improve the lives of its residents.The CIVIC Innovation Challenge is a collaboration with Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, and the National Science Foundation. Through the Eastie's Farm pilot program, youth are actively engaged in and learn social, climate, and biological science. In this project, 40 youth in a low income community in East Boston will be engaged in a program focused on building a green future for themselves and their community by learning green job skills; proper plant identification, selection, propagation, and installation; the amending and monitoring of environmental conditions to minimize and mitigate coastal flooding and the transport of industrial pollutants in marine wetlands while working closely with scientists and experts in bioscience and social science. They will also collect and analyze data on the barriers that keep families in their community from adopting approaches that help mitigate and provide resilience to climate change impacts and that are beneficial, both ecologically and economically, to themselves and their communities. In addition, the program exposes youth to experiential activities that help them understand the power of the scientific process and how to develop an entrepreneurial mind-set by involving them in experimentation and installation trials. The program includes field trips to talk to and interact with experts in the green energy and economy. Additional program impacts include connection of involved youth with providers of green jobs, from agriculture to solar and energy audits to jobs in education and green finance; all of which can help them kickstart a green economy in their own community, laying a pathway for a better sustainable future.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这项研究涉及了解服务不足的社区如何积极参与向充满活力的绿色经济过渡，改善环境条件和社区对气候变化的适应能力。为了实现这一目标，该研究通过一个非营利社区实体（Eastie Farm），让当地青年参与建设性和富有成效的活动，包括城市农业，海岸恢复和社会科学驱动的社区参与。以青年为中心的活动包括财政支持，以帮助青年谋生，同时他们通过实验，记录和检查当地沿海湿地恢复的最佳方法和植物种类来学习城市农业科学和实施，旨在减少沿海洪水和湿地土壤中工业污染物的再活化。由大学社会科学小组监督的青年推动的社区调查以及数据收集和分析有助于青年了解他们如何能够在社区中发挥积极和重大的作用。大学研究人员，社区成员和社区为基础的Eastie农场正在共同努力，这个试点，以了解如何低收入和环境影响的社区可以通过基于自然的解决方案，以应对气候变化的挑战。该项目的更广泛影响包括青年赋权和辅导，重点是深入了解如何使社区能够适应气候变化和提高居民的生活质量。它创造了一个可以扩展和转化为其他低收入，环境受损，城市，沿海社区的模式。该项目还为低收入、传统上服务不足的城市社区的青年提供绿色职业的专业知识和培训，以及学习和认识青年驱动的行动的力量，这些行动有可能改变社区并改善其居民的生活。CIVIC创新挑战赛是与能源部、国土安全部和国家科学基金会合作举办的。通过Eastie的农场试点计划，青年积极参与和学习社会，气候和生物科学。在这个项目中，东波士顿低收入社区的40名青年将参与一个项目，该项目的重点是通过学习绿色工作技能、正确的植物识别、选择、繁殖和安装，为他们自己和他们的社区建设一个绿色未来。修改和监测环境条件，以尽量减少和减轻沿海洪水和海洋湿地工业污染物的运输，同时密切合作，与生物科学和社会科学领域的科学家和专家进行交流。他们还将收集和分析有关阻碍社区家庭采取有助于减轻气候变化影响并提供应对能力的方法的障碍的数据，这些方法在生态和经济方面对他们自己和社区都有利。此外，该计划让年轻人参与体验活动，帮助他们了解科学过程的力量，以及如何通过让他们参与实验和安装试验来培养创业精神。该计划包括实地考察，与绿色能源和经济专家交谈和互动。其他方案影响包括将参与的青年与绿色工作提供者联系起来，从农业到太阳能和能源审计，再到教育和绿色金融工作;所有这些都可以帮助他们在自己的社区启动绿色经济，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。