NOAH Receives Major Grant

The East Boston Neighborhood of Affordable Housing (NOAH) recently held a ceremonial ribbon cutting to celebrate a major grant from the Kresge Foundation.

NOAH announced the local non-profit was awarded a Kresge Foundation urban opportunities and resilience implementation funding, which over the next three years will support continued climate adaptation planning and implementation work through NOAH’s ClimateCARE programs.

Building on a long history of successful community engagement work in Eastie, NOAH’s Community Building and Environment Department’s proposal was one of only 17 out of 300 applicants selected for a planning grant last year.

“This is a big win for the community’, said NOAH’s Director of Community Building and Environment Chris Marchi. “What separates our process from other planning work around climate change is community engagement. After 50 years of dealing with technical airport issues, we on East Boston have learned a thing or two about how to support busy residents in technical conversations.”

The grant amounts to over $600,000 over the next three years. NOAH’s aims to use the grant to further educate and support community residents and meet climate resiliency goals by helping people with real world climate change problems they are facing now.

‘We know that people are experiencing problems with the cost of heating and cooling their homes right now’. said Marchi. ‘We know that people want information about what they can do to achieve better comfort at home, while saving money. And we know that everybody wants to help the environment.’

NOAH’s three year grant for ClimateCARE will be to form a strong partnership between the city of Boston, residents and resiliency planners through a working group which will include residents

“We will also conduct a  door to door resiliency climate pact canvass offering education and helping residents manage climate impacts such as extreme weather, flood prone areas and high energy costs,” said Marchi. “As well as useful tips and handy money saving ideas that will help residents lead lower energy using but higher quality urban lifestyles.”

Marchi added that NOAH is really looking for what’s next.

“We know that nobody wants to take a step backwards,” said Marchi. “That’s not what East Boston is all about. We’re about trying to make progress. So we’re looking for ways that people can get ready for climate change; prepare to survive and thrive with extreme heat or cold and floods, if they live in those areas, more comfortably and on a budget they can handle.”

With climate change being a big issue and resiliency planning an emerging field, NOAH’s Executive Director Phil Giffee said there is no place better than in Eastie to innovate new approaches to getting people engaged in rolling up their sleeves and getting to work in tackling the issue.

“We are grateful to announce our ClimateCARE initiative, a new project generously funded by the Kresge Foundation which aims to increase the resiliency of East Boston and mitigate the harmful effects of climate change on our coastal community.” said Giffee. “Our ClimateCARE team is a group of dedicated individuals organizing city residents and stakeholders to create more livable and resilient communities.”

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