United States Office of Enforcement and June 2006 

Environmental Protection Agency Compliance Assurance 

Office of Environmental Justice (2201A) 

http://www.epa.gov/compliance/environmentaljustice/grants/ej-cps-grants.html 

Environmental Justice Collaborative ProblemSolving Cooperative Agreement Program 

 FACT SHEET 

Background 

For the first time in 2003, the Office of Environmental 

Justice (OEJ) launched the Environmental Justice 

Collaborative Problem-Solving Cooperative Agreement 

(EJ CPS) program. To find out the latest information on 

the EJ CPS program visit: 

http://www.epa.gov/compliance/environmentaljustice/gr 

ants/ej-cps-grants.html. This website also provides a 

description of the current projects that have been 

awarded. 

The EJ CPS program requires selected applicants, or 

recipients, to use the Environmental Justice 

Collaborative Problem-Solving Model (EJ CPS Model) 

as part of their projects. The purpose of the EJ CPS 

Model is to assist affected communities so that they 

can develop proactive, strategic, and visionary 

approaches to address their environmental justice 

issues and to achieve community health and 

sustainability. 

The key elements of the EJ CPS Model are: 

• Issue Identification, Visioning, and Strategic GoalSetting; 

• Community Capacity-Building and Leadership 

Development; 

• Development of Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships and 

Leveraging of Resources; 

• Consensus Building and Dispute Resolution; 

• Constructive Engagement with Other Stakeholders; 

• Sound Management and Implementation; and 

• Evaluation. 

The New Request for Applications period will be

open from June 22, 2006 to 11:59pm October 23,

2006. 

Request for Applications 

On February 1, 2006, OEJ released the Request for 

Applications (RFA) for the EJ CPS Program. The EJ 

CPS Program is of a national scope, and therefore, the 

purpose of the RFA was to make one assistance 

agreement award per region. The RFA closed on March 

31, 2006; however, the EJ CPS program was cancelled 

and no awards were made because OEJ did not receive 

enough applications to meet its national program 

objectives. 

On June 22, 2006, a new announcement for the 

EJ CPS will be released. Significant changes to the 

RFA have been made in an effort to solicit more 

applications. Some of these changes include: 

• The definition of “eligible applicant” 

• The contents of the application package 

• The format of the workplan 

• The Threshold Eligibility Criteria 

Any organization that applied under the earlier RFA

must submit a new application. 

Eligible Applicants 

An eligible applicant MUST BE either: 

(1) a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization as designated by 

the Internal Revenue Service; OR 

(2) a non-profit organization, recognized by the state, 

territory, commonwealth, or tribe in which it is located. 

In addition, an eligible applicant must be able to 

demonstrate that it has worked directly with, or provided 

services to, the affected community. An “affected 

community,” for the purposes of this assistance 

agreement program, is a community that is 

disproportionately impacted by environmental harms and 

risks and has a local environmental and/or public health 

issue that is identified in the proposal. 
A “non-profit organization,” means any corporation, 

trust, association, cooperative, or other organization 

that: 

(1) is operated primarily for scientific, educational, 

service, charitable, or similar purposes in the public 

interest; 

(2) is not organized primarily for profit; and 

(3) uses its net proceeds to maintain, improve, and/or 

expand its operations. 

The focus of this assistance agreement program is to 

build the capacity of community-based organizations to 

address environmental and/or public health issues at 

the local level. Therefore, for this assistance 

agreement program, the term “non-profit organization” 

EXCLUDES: 

• colleges and universities; 

• hospitals; 

• state and local governments and federallyrecognized Indian tribal governments; 

• quasi-governmental entities (e.g., water districts, 

utilities)*; 

• national-, multi-state-, or state-wide- organizations 

with chapters; 

• non-profit organizations that engage in lobbying 

activities as defined in Section 3 of the Lobbying 

Disclosure Act of 1995; and 

• those non-profit organizations which are excluded 

from coverage under paragraph 5 of OMB Circular 

A-122 (see OMB Circular A-122, paragraph 5 at 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars/a122/a12 

2_2004.html 

* Generally, a quasi-governmental entity is one that: (1) has a close 

association with the government agency, but is not considered a part 

of the government agency; (2) was created by the government 

agency but is exempt from certain legal and administrative 

requirements imposed on government agencies; or (3) was not 

created by the government agency but performs a public purpose and 

is significantly supported financially by the government agency. 

For More Information

If you would like more information about the EJ

Collaborative Problem-Solving Program, please call the

Office of Environmental Justice’s 24-hour hotline (1-800-

962-6215) or visit the website at:

http://www.epa.gov/compliance/environmentaljustice/gra

nts/ej-cps-grants.html 

EPA's Commitment to Environmental 

Justice 

On November 4, 2005, United States Environmental 

Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen L. 

Johnson issued a memorandum reaffirming EPA's 

commitment to environmental justice for all people, 

regardless of race, color, national origin, or income. 

Environmental justice means not only protecting 

human health and the environment for everyone, but 

also ensuring that all people are treated fairly and are 

given the opportunity to participate meaningfully in 

the development, implementation, and enforcement 

of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. 

Because minority and/or low-income communities 

frequently may be exposed disproportionately to 

environmental harms and risks, EPA works to protect 

these and other burdened communities from adverse 

human health and environmental effects of its 

programs, consistent with existing environmental and 

civil rights laws and regulations, as well as through 

the implementation of Executive Order 12898 

("Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in 

Minority Populations and/or Low-Income 

Populations," Feb. 11, 1994). 

The memorandum identified eight national 

environmental justice priorities and directed the 

integration of environmental justice considerations 

into EPA's planning and budgeting processes, 

including into the Agency's Strategic Plan for Fiscal 

Years 2006-2011. This cooperative agreement 

program (Program) focuses on one of those eight 

priorities, which is the use of collaborative problemsolving to address local environmental and/or public 

health issues. Each remaining priority involves a 

specific issue, including: (1) reducing asthma 

attacks; (2) reducing exposure to air toxics; (3) 

increasing compliance with regulations; (4) reducing 

the incidence of elevated blood lead levels; (5) 

ensuring that fish and shellfish are safe to eat; (6) 

ensuring that water is safe to drink; and (7) 

revitalizing contaminated sites (please note that this 

Program cannot be used to fund Brownfields 

projects). 

EPA will continue to fully implement its programs, 

policies, and activities to ensure that they do not 

adversely affect populations with critical 

environmental and/or public health issues, including 

minority and/or low-income communities.