EPA Community Change Grant on Hold

Just months after Friends of the Chicago River and seven community partners began implementing our $2.7 million Community Change grant we received from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2024, EPA put the grant on hold in an attempt to unlawfully terminate it. Friends of the Chicago River was amongst many organizations that received termination notices this past May, with $3 billion in grant funding towards climate and environmental programs in disadvantaged communities being withdrawn from the United States economy.

The Community Change Grants program, which was part of the Inflation Reduction Act, focuses on community-driven initiatives in disadvantaged areas disproportionately impacted by climate change and pollution. The purpose of the grant was to more fully support community-led organizations in advancing river-related initiatives in partnership with government agencies and nonprofits through Chicago’s River Ecology and Governance Task Force. Friends was pivotal in establishing the Task Force in 2019.

Unfortunately, EPA abruptly rescinded this vital funding, a move that Friends is challenging through administrative action. Friends was co-leading the grant with the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) and the Calumet Collaborative, and the initiative brought together and provided significant funding for five community partners deeply rooted in river work. They include the Chi-Nations Youth Council, Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community, McKinley Park Development Council, People for Community Recovery, and the Southeast Environmental Task Force, with six more organizations slated for funding in the future. Grant funded activities are presently on hold.

Before the grant’s cancellation, Friends co-hosted a workshop in April with MPC, Calumet Collaborative, and the community-based organizations. The session focused on building a collective work plan for locally driven river investment. Participants identified aligned goals across neighborhoods, mapped current initiatives along the river, and explored ways to strengthen local economies, support small businesses, and foster deeper physical, cultural, and emotional connections between communities and their riverfronts. The group also identified policy gaps and governance challenges affecting different parts of the river system that we can all work on together.

“While the indiscriminate withdrawal of this grant jeopardizes the momentum of this important work,” Friends said in a statement, “Friends and our partners remain steadfast. We are more committed than ever to advancing this work, and are seeking to reinstate the grant and secure other funding sources to carry on.”