On May 20th, the board of the Harbor Community Benefit Foundation approved funding for 10 projects totaling $1 million. Broadly speaking, two-thirds went to programs dealing with public health, with the remainder split roughly evenly between education and the environment.
The largest grant, $199,680, went to the Wilmington Community Clinic to provide healthcare services for residents with health conditions linked to environmental exposure. Other familiar organizations that received grants include POLA High School, the LA Maritime Institute, the International Bird Rescue, and Long Beach Alliance for Children with Asthma.
“The purpose of the community grants is to improve the quality of life of people in the Harbor Area and reduce the impacts from freight movement associated with the Port of Los Angeles,” explained board member Richard Havenick, who served on the three-person committee that evaluated the proposed grants, along with Jayme Wilson and Erika Velazquez, with staff support from Meghan Reese, former HCBF executive director, now in charge of grant administration and foundation management.
For this round, HCBF issued a request for proposals (RFP) on March 2, with April 17 as the response deadline.
“In that RFP was the definition of what we were requesting and suggestions for context of a grant, what would be within the realm of categories we would support,” Havenick said. “Categories included health programs, health mitigations, health improvement, quality-of-life improvements, as well as community engagement, educational seminars, informational seminars.”
They received 29 proposals, with a total request of $6.6 million. “We hope to try to complete with two more rounds of about $1 million each over the next subsequent years. … That total, well exceeded our amount that we could award this time. … So then becomes a difficult task of ranking them.”
Subcommittee members studied them individually, and then came together to discuss which ones fit within the RFP awarding criteria, “and then discussing specific background related to each, with some investigation of each into their experience or track record, their means of other support, their longevity and their delivery in real terms to the community,” Havenick explained.
In case they had too much difficulty, Reese created “some possible paths we could go to support each one of those with the grantees while staying within the million dollars from the total $6.6 million that had been requested.”
Beyond what was spelled out in the RFP, two things influenced their decisions. First, “There was actually a wish list of ones of grantees we wanted to award on this round, with the compromise position in our minds, at least a logic that for grantees that we wanted to award this time that wouldn’t get awarded this time, they might get awarded the next time,” Havenick said. “So a ‘no’ this time isn’t a flat ‘no,’ it’s just with the limited resources available, as defined in RFP right now, these are the ones that are most expedient in their urgency, that appear to be aligned most directly with the RFP.”
Second, “Some of the applications would have been better served from the Zero Emissions EPA clean ports grant, which was another consideration.” Funding from that grant, made at the end of the Joe Biden administration, though delayed for some time, is expected to become available later this year. So the question was should they award grants from the original funds HCBF was established to administer, resulting from settlements with Trapac, xxx and xxx, or was it more appropriate to draw on the EPA grant. “If the proposal was more suited to the zero emission EPA program, we responded to the applicant. ‘We hope you will submit on the zero emission EPA grant program, that’s where the money is more suited as a benefit source for your program.’”
The approved programs, listed below, are largely self-explanatory continuations of past work, with one notable exception. As Havenick explained, water quality has long been a community concern, citing as examples the Port Community Advisory Committee with its Aesthetic Mitigation Committee, and the Wilmington Youth Sailing Center championed by Donna Ethington. But the project proposed by Braid Theory Impact would bring new water quality monitoring technology to an old concern. It “would at full implementation result in being able to more quickly and timely diagnose or recognize problems, potential problems, degradation of water quality and resulting from what then might be impacting animal, plant life, plankton,” Havenick explained.
The recommended grants were all approved by HCBF’s board, and the next day Reese submitted a memo with them to port staff to move the process ASAP, stating, “We hope these items are placed on an upcoming BOHC agenda (following Fleet Week).”
Here is a complete list of grant recipients, the focus of their project and a brief description:
- Braid Theory Impact: marine ecology / water quality. The project installs biomimetic reef structures and monitoring systems to restore ecological function in industrialized marine environments. Grant: $120,000.
- International Bird Rescue: wildlife protection / marine ecology. The program provides rescue and rehabilitation for wildlife impacted by pollution, oil spills and environmental hazards associated with port operations. Grant: $62,860.
- Wilmington Community Clinic: public health / healthcare access. The program expands healthcare services for residents experiencing health conditions linked to environmental exposure. Grant: $199,680.
- Memorial Medical Center Foundation (Long Beach Alliance For Children With Asthma): public health / pediatric care. The program expands access to healthcare services for children and families affected by respiratory and environmental health conditions. Grant: $125,000
- St. Mary Medical Center Foundation: public health / community wellness. The program expands healthcare services and community wellness initiatives for residents impacted by environmental conditions. Grant: $90,000.
- California Benefits Support Center: public health / healthcare access. The program provides financial assistance and navigation support to help Wilmington residents access medical care for conditions worsened by environmental exposure. Grant: $155,100.
- CHOICE Health Network: public health / asthma intervention. The program delivers community-based asthma education, home visits, environmental interventions and care coordination for high-risk residents. Grant: $97,000.
- Los Angeles Maritime Institute: environmental education / workforce development. The CAMP MIT program provides hands-on maritime training and environmental education for youth, including real-time learning related to air quality, water quality and marine ecosystems. Grant: $72,860.
- Port of Los Angeles High School: education / workforce development. The program supports student learning and career readiness connected to maritime industries and environmental sustainability. Grant: $29,000.
- Think Earth Environmental Education Foundation: environmental education. The program delivers environmental education to students and communities, focusing on sustainability, pollution prevention and responsible environmental practices. Grant: $48,500.