BACKGROUND & EJ COLLABORATIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING MODEL Clause Samples

BACKGROUND & EJ COLLABORATIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING MODEL. In 2003, the Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ) initiated the first solicitation for the Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Cooperative Agreement Program. To find the latest information about the EJCPS Program visit: ▇▇▇▇▇://▇▇▇.▇▇▇.▇▇▇/environmental- justice/environmental-justice-collaborative-problem-solving-cooperative-agreement-0 The purpose of the EJCPS Program is for EPA to provide financial assistance to support community-based organizations to collaborate and partner with other stakeholders (e.g., local businesses and industry, local government, medical service providers, academia, etc.) to develop and implement solutions that will significantly address environmental and/or public health issue(s) at the local level. The program’s objective is to support projects that demonstrate the utility of the Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Model. Because this program requires substantial involvement and interaction between the applicant and EPA, these awards will be made in the form of cooperative agreements. See Section II.A.ii of this solicitation for more details on cooperative agreements. For the purposes of the EJCPS Program, collaborative problem-solving is defined as an effort to bring together groups and resources (e.g., information, labor, money) by three or more stakeholders to solve a set of problems that any single entity cannot solve individually. Collaborative problem- solving builds upon existing community understanding to establish and maintain partnerships capable of producing meaningful environmental and/or public health results. To provide a systematic approach towards collaborative problem-solving, OEJ has developed a Collaborative Problem-Solving Model (Model). Such a Model is intended to assist vulnerable and underserved communities in developing proactive, strategic, and visionary approaches to address their environmental justice issues and achieve community health and sustainability. Collaborative problem-solving also involves developing and implementing a well-designed strategic plan with a built-in evaluation component to measure and achieve results on local environmental and/or public health issues and to sustain the partnerships. These elements are cross-cutting and interdependent and should be utilized in a proactive, strategic, and iterative manner. Determining which elements to undertake, and in what order, can vary greatly, however, depending upon the unique facts and circumstances surrou...