OCS DCL-2023-07 Earth Day FY 2023

Office of Community Services

Dear Colleague Letter

DCL#: OCS DCL-2023-07

DATE: April 21, 2023

TO: OCS Grant Recipients

SUBJECT: Earth Day FY2023

ATTACHMENT(S): N/A

Dear Colleagues,

The Office of Community Services (OCS) is proud to celebrate Earth Day, and the hard work of our partners and colleagues across the country to support environmental justice and address the causes and consequences of climate change. At OCS, we recognize that vulnerable populations, including people with low incomes, are disproportionately affected by climate-related emergencies and disasters, as well as environmental injustices.

In celebration of Earth Day, we are excited to share our Earth Day webpage that demonstrates how OCS advances environmental justice, racial equity, and economic mobility. The webpage provides several materials on OCS’s programs and their connections to Earth Day, including:

• Information on the Justice40 Initiative
• Spotlight videos and infographics for OCS’ Justice40 programs
• Updates to OCS’ Extreme Heat Dashboard and Disaster Flexibilities Hub
• A social media toolkit that can be used year-round to spread the word about environmental justice

OCS and Justice40

The Justice40 Initiative , part of President Biden’s Executive Order 14008 on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, was created to address persistent inequity, especially with regards to the causes and consequences of climate change. Using a whole-of-government approach, the Justice40 Initiative aims to advance environmental, racial, and economic justice, particularly in low-income areas overburdened by pollution and environmental hazards.

Justice40 directs covered federal programs — namely, those that address climate change, legacy pollution, energy burden, and other related areas — to ensure that 40% of the benefits of such programs go to disadvantaged communities.

OCS has a long history of deep investment in low-income communities, and five programs within OCS are covered by the Justice40 Initiative: the Community Economic Development (CED) program, the Community Social Services Block Grant (CSBG) program, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), the Low Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP), and the Rural Community Development (RCD) program.

Earth Day Landing Page

To tell the story of how OCS’ Justice40 programs are advancing environmental justice, we developed an Earth Day landing page that showcases the impacts of these programs. There, you will find:

• Infographics for each Justice40 covered program (CED, CSBG, LIHEAP, LIHWAP, and RCD) that demonstrate the scope and scale of each program.
• Spotlight videos featuring CED, CSBG, LIHEAP, LIHWAP, and RCD projects that showcase how each program is advancing environmental justice in low-income communities.
• An updated Disaster Flexibilities Hub feature new data, and provides guidance to our grant recipients on disaster preparedness and response to events such as hurricanes, flooding, and tornadoes. The Hub also includes a new feature on dealing with the impacts of  smoke.
• An updated version of the Heat Stress Dashboard includes new data, including information on extreme heat over time, the health impacts of extreme heat, and data visualizations on how LIHEAP can alleviate extreme heat stress for vulnerable populations. The updated version includes resources on urban heat islands , which occur when lack of green space in cities absorb and retain heat.

We encourage you to follow us on Twitter @OCS_ACFgov for more Earth Day celebrations and OCS updates. We also encourage grant recipients to share stories across your platforms about the importance of Earth Day, climate change, environmental justice, and racial equity in your community using #earthday2023.

Thank you for your attention to these matters. OCS looks forward to continuing to provide high-quality services to OCS partners.

/s/
Dr. Lanikque Howard
Director
Office of Community Services