Environmental Literacy Program: Increasing community resilience to extreme weather & climate change | NOAA SEC OED 2022 2006995

Opportunity Information: Apply for NOAA SEC OED 2022 2006995

The Environmental Literacy Program: Increasing community resilience to extreme weather and climate change is a Department of Commerce (NOAA) discretionary funding opportunity designed to help communities strengthen their ability to understand, prepare for, and respond to climate-related hazards. The central idea is that resilience is not just about infrastructure or emergency response; it also depends on whether a community has enough shared knowledge, practical skills, and confidence to make informed choices together. This program frames that shared capacity as "collective environmental literacy" and emphasizes that strong environmental literacy should translate into real-world action that improves community health, reinforces social cohesion, and advances socio-economic equity.

Projects funded under this opportunity are expected to build environmental literacy through education experiences that can be formal (for example, K-12 classrooms, career and technical education, higher education) and/or informal (for example, community programs, museums, libraries, after-school initiatives, youth organizations, public workshops). The target audiences can include children, youth, and adults, and applicants need to show clearly how participants will develop the ability to reason about how human and natural systems interact at both local and global scales. A key requirement is acknowledging that climate and extreme weather vulnerabilities are not evenly distributed; some populations face higher exposure and have fewer resources to prepare, adapt, or recover. In practice, this means projects should address who is most at risk in a given location and why, and then design learning experiences that help reduce those risks in ways that are fair and inclusive.

Beyond content knowledge, the program strongly emphasizes civic participation and decision-making. Successful projects should help participants learn how to engage with civic processes, such as local planning, public meetings, community advisory groups, or resilience committees, and how to use scientific information alongside cultural knowledge and the values of diverse community members. The intent is to support climate-smart, inclusive choices that reduce current and future hazard risks while encouraging long-term stewardship of healthy ecosystems and supporting a transition toward a low-carbon economy. The education approach is expected to be active and social, meaning hands-on learning, group problem-solving, community-based projects, and activities that encourage collaboration rather than passive information delivery.

A major expectation is alignment with real resilience efforts already underway. Projects should leverage relevant state and local resilience plans and collaborate with the people and institutions developing or implementing those plans. That could include partnerships with local governments, emergency management, regional planning bodies, tribes, community-based organizations, schools, universities, extension programs, or environmental and public health groups. The program allows flexibility in scope: projects may focus on one community or multiple locations, and they may address a single hazard (such as flooding, hurricanes, heat waves, drought, wildfire smoke, sea level rise, or harmful algal blooms) or a set of hazards affecting the target community. Regardless of the hazard focus, projects are expected to be grounded in established scientific evidence about current and future climate and extreme weather risks and to incorporate local socioeconomic, cultural, and ecological conditions so the learning is practical and relevant to the place.

Equity is not treated as an add-on in this opportunity; it is a core design requirement. Projects should pay particular attention to community members who experience greater exposure to hazards and have fewer resources to manage impacts, and they should demonstrate how the work will support diversity, equity, inclusion, and climate justice across planning, partnerships, implementation, and evaluation. In other words, the program is looking for efforts that do not just educate broadly, but intentionally remove barriers to participation, share power with community partners, respect local and cultural expertise, and produce benefits that reach those most affected by climate and extreme weather.

From the provided source details, this opportunity was offered as a cooperative agreement (indicating substantial NOAA involvement during the project period) under CFDA 11.008. The funding opportunity number is NOAA SEC OED 2022 2006995. It was posted on September 15, 2021, with an original application closing date of March 17, 2022. The anticipated award ceiling is up to $500,000 per award, and NOAA expected to make approximately 12 awards. Eligibility is listed broadly as "Others" with additional clarification referenced in the original eligibility text, which typically signals that multiple organization types may be able to apply depending on the detailed requirements in the full notice.

• The Department of Commerce in the environment, natural resources, science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Environmental Literacy Program: Increasing community resilience to extreme weather & climate change" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 11.008.
• This funding opportunity was created on Sep 15, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Mar 17, 2022. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 12 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for NOAA SEC OED 2022 2006995

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