The Community Stormwater Solutions Grant Program provides funding for innovative and community-centered projects that improve the District's waterways. Another goal is to create new community partners and strengthen existing relationships with community-based organizations and small businesses. This program supports community-oriented and inspired projects designed to increase knowledge and change behavior around watershed and stormwater-related issues. Since 2016, DOEE has awarded 87 grants totaling $2,400,310. The program is currently administered through a partnership with the Chesapeake Bay Trust.
Project areas include environmental justice, environmental education, green infrastructure, green jobs, habitat restoration, litter and pollution reduction, and out-of-school time programming. Applicants are encouraged to think outside of the box and create projects that involve creativity as a viable tool for affecting change and establishing or deepening participants’ connection to the environment. All projects should be inspired and led or supported by the priority community within the District.
UPDATE: The 2024-2025 Request for Applications (RFA) for the Community Stormwater Solutions Grant Program is open now through March 13, 2025. This program is currently administered through a partnership with the Chesapeake Bay Trust. Learn more about the grant and apply on the Trust’s website.
2024 Community Stormwater Solutions Grantees
9 grants totaling $281,606
Friends of Anacostia Park - $35,000: The Friends of Anacostia Park will expand the Ward 8 community-led stormwater management campaign for Anacostia Park and Anacostia River to other high-need areas of the national park. This effort will focus more intentionally on training the Friends Corps, a green job training program. Corps members will gain high-leverage conservation skills.
Urban Learning and Teaching Center - $32,324: The Urban Learning and Teaching Center will take children in grades 1-8 outdoors to photograph in three local spaces in the Anacostia watershed to learn about the art of photography, how to use a digital camera, and how to frame and document subjects in nature. This work, which will take place during existing outdoor learning programs, will result in two collections: (1) a web-based photo exhibit that will be available to thousands of viewers around the world; and (2) a collection of 10 photographs that will be hung and displayed at Project Create's gallery space in Ward 8.
The Green Scheme - $32,800: The Green Scheme will run DC Water Watchers, a water quality education program to teach families about their watershed and ways to preserve their natural resources. The project aims to empower Ward 7 and 8 residents to use their knowledge, skills, and love of nature to take action to improve the health of Oxon Run and Watts Branch while learning about the natural world around them.
Potomac Riverkeeper Network - $35,000: The Potomac Riverkeeper Network will build upon the success and urgent need of the Earth Day River Cleanup at Oxon Cove. The project will partner with community groups in the neighborhoods near Oxon Run to deepen relationships and create ongoing stewardship opportunities for local residents to learn about and address the specific water quality and environmental justice challenges facing Oxon Run, Oxon Cove, and the adjacent neighborhood.
After School All Stars - $35,000: The After School All Stars will deliver an environmental justice project with 35 middle school students. The students will explore how ecologically healthy practices foster healthy waterways and how local actions influence environmental justice and a better environment for all. The project will be a mix of historical exploration, environmental science, art expression for messaging, and civic engagement.
Ward 8 Woods Conservancy - $34,985: The Ward 8 Woods Conservancy will maintain the strips of forest and shrubbery flanking I-295 and DC 295. By removing 25,000 pounds of accumulated trash and freeing 150 trees of invasive vines, the project will reduce the flow of trash and contaminated stormwater into the Anacostia River. To reduce littering, 4,000 car trash bags will be distributed to East of the River residents. The project will also enhance the green jobs skills of staff through Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professionals Program.
Wake the 8 DC - $35,000: Wake the 8 DC will provide assistive access for people living with deafness and/or blindness, wheelchair users, and other people with disabilities to Oxon Run Park. Participants will complete the walk with increased awareness of the history, landscape, flora, and wildlife of the park.
Living Classrooms Foundation - $34,997: Living Classrooms will create a field trip fund that will increase the environmental literacy of District students, specifically for Title 1 schools in under-resourced communities, and K-3 and middle school grades. The fund will provide equitable access to outdoor environmental education programming at Kingman and Heritage Islands Conservation Area in the Anacostia River.
Potomac Boat Club - $6,500: Potomac Boat Club will install a rainwater collection system at the landmark 1908 boathouse and 1960 addition at the Potomac Boat Club, an historic Washington, DC institution founded in 1869. The collected rainwater will reduce demand on the city's potable water supply and slow the flush of urban stormwater runoff into the River.
Program Contacts:
Department of Energy and Environment
Marissa O’Neill | 202-497-3029
[email protected]
Chesapeake Bay Trust
Marylin Veiman-Echeverria
[email protected]
The Grant Writing Workshop Series guidance materials are attached below.
