SCDES Hosts First Environmental Justice PREP Meeting with Community Partners, Plans Impactful Use of $1 Million EPA Grant Funding

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 
Oct. 16, 2024 

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Today, the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services (SCDES) welcomed community partners from around the state to the first EJ Strong PREP meeting, which is a new Environmental Justice (EJ) partnership building off the agency's previous and ongoing EJ initiatives.  

EJ Strong PREP aims to better prepare communities for potential environmental impacts, such as natural disasters, and to also empower residents to take part in local decision-making about environmental topics that could impact their daily lives. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently awarded $1 million in grant funding to the agency’s EJ program to expand its successful efforts. 

“Environmental Justice is focused on ensuring all people have the equal right to be protected from environmental pollution and natural disasters, no matter where they live,” said Keisha Long, SCDES’s Environmental Justice Coordinator. “Our work, which is supported by these federal grants, is driven by that principle ― that no community or neighborhood should be left behind when it comes to environmental impacts.”  

SCDES Interim Director Myra Reece and SCDES Environmental Justice (EJ) staff were joined by partner organizations from around the state at the first EJ Strong PREP meeting. The initiative will use $1 million in federal funding to build upon EJ initiatives that help underserved neighborhoods be prepared for environmental impacts like natural disasters and pollution. From left to right are Dr. Daniel Kilpatrick (UofSC Arnold School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences), Robert Reese (Lower Richland, Hopkins), Michael Brown (Sustaining Way, Greenville), SCDES Interim Director Myra Reece, SCDES EJ Coordinator Keisha Long, Herbert Fraser Rahim (LAMC, North Charleston), Rodly Millet (Executive Director of LAMC, North Charleston), and Shanteisha Crabtree Roper (Board Vice Chair of LAMC – North Charleston).

SCDES and its EJ partners will use the EPA grant funding to support additional opportunities to educate under-served communities about the principles of Community-Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CDMRR) training in the form of field practicums. Community members taking part in the CDMRR training will take the information they learn in a classroom setting and apply it to a real-world situation during the field practicums. The overall goals are to empower EJ communities to develop disaster resiliency plans and build capacity to better prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters.    

“EJ Strong PREP is an initiative the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health is very pleased to be a part of,” said Dr. Dan Kilpatrick, Clinical Assistant Professor with the University of South Carolina: Arnold School of Public Health. “We have partnered with SCDES on EJ Strong since its inception and are excited to see the successes created over the past four years be sustained and new ones created over the next three years.” 

"Lowcountry Alliance for Model Communities is excited about the opportunity this $1 million dollar grant brings to the state of South Carolina. I also want to thank the S.C. Department of Environmental Services for their efforts in obtaining the EPA grant," said Rodly Millet, Executive Director of Lowcountry Alliance for Model Communities (LAMC). "LAMC also looks forward to working closely with our EJ Strong partners on future initiatives to support the residents in South Carolina that are dealing with environmental issues in their communities."

The federal grant partners that SCDES works closely with on its EJ trainings include the Lowcountry Alliance for Model Communities; Clemson University: College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences; College of Charleston: Center for Coastal Environmental & Human Health; and the University of South Carolina: Arnold School of Public Health. 

Learn more about EJ Strong PREP and other EJ efforts at des.sc.gov/community/environmentaljustice. 

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