Community First: EPA’s $2 Billion Grants Program Targets Community-Based Organizations

By Anita Tillman, AMCorp International For too long, communities across America have suffered from pollution, impacts of extreme weather, unaffordable energy burdens, and disinvestment that erode quality of life and locks in decline. Rising waters endanger aging homes, and toxic sites sit neglected.  What could your hometown become if seniors in aging homes no longer…

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Gratitude for SSDN’s Growth & Planning Ahead for 2024

by Meg Jamison, Executive Director I started working with SSDN as a consultant in 2015 with one of SSDN’s founding members, Maggie Ullman. I helped organize our Annual Meeting in Atlanta where we gathered about 35 local government practitioners in Atlanta. At that point, SSDN had no network staff… only two consultants trying to build…

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SSDN Celebrates the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s Second Anniversary

On November 15, 2021, President Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, now more commonly known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This legislation, at the time, represented the largest investment in climate and clean energy via infrastructure projects. As you all know, less than a year later we saw the Inflation Reduction Act double…

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Refuse to Surrender: How an Underdog City Applied for a $10 Million Federal Grant

By Anita Tillman, AMCorp International Across the southeast, from Texas to Virginia, cities and towns overflow with ideas, hopes, needs, and dreams. Unfortunately, most find themselves wrestling with the realities of fragile infrastructure, an affordable housing crisis, population fluctuations, and little capacity to access the pots of federal funding at the end of the rainbow…

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Start Where Communities Are: How Local Infrastructure Hub Cohorts Build Local Capacity to Access Federal Funding

by Anita M. Tillman, AMCorp International Navigating the complex landscape of infrastructure needs and federal funding opportunities can often feel like you’re lost in an intricate maze without a map. You understand the corners and contours of your community, you’re attuned to its challenges and potential, and yet, transforming those needs into actionable projects feels…

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Celebrating Growth and Progress: A Rundown of SSDN’s Federal Funding Programs

We are excited to continue strengthening our capacity to support for local communities in accessing federal resources! Two years ago, SSDN launched the Southeast Sustainable Recovery Center (SSRC), a member-focused support program for local governments with the goal of increasing access to federal funding and resources to advance sustainability and equity.  Building on SSDN’s peer-to-peer…

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SSDN Launches Local Infrastructure Hub Cohorts Program to Deepen Support for Southeast Communities’ Access to Federal Funding

The Southeast Sustainability Directors Network has officially launched a new program as part of a broader effort to provide deeper support to communities who need additional capacity to access federal funding. The Local Infrastructure Hub (LIH) Regional Cohorts program provides direct support and technical assistance (TA) to local governments and their partners in the Midwest…

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Little Rock, Arkansas: Our First Annual Meeting West of the Mississippi!

SSDN has made a commitment to support the City of Little Rock’s recovery efforts in light of the devastating tornado that hit the city on March 31, 2023. Please consider donating here to the Little Rock Cares tornado relief fund.   “So many contacts, so many ideas, so many good vibes.” “SSDN is the best…

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The Race to Equitable and Inclusive Investment in Frontline Communities

Register here to Attend the Upcoming Collaborative Webinar with USDN and Justice40 Accelerator, EPN, and Anthropocene Alliance on March 2nd! Under the Biden-Harris Administration we are witnessing once-in-a-lifetime investment to improve America’s crumbling infrastructure, increase climate adaptation and resilience, and expand renewable energies, energy efficiency, and climate and environmental justice.  This unprecedented funding is being…

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Achieving our vision for community-driven climate work in the Southeast

by Meg Jamison, Executive Director In 2017, when SSDN set out to equip local governments to execute on a new program focus, we could not have known the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic would impose on our work – nor could we have imagined the creative ways our grantees and partners would overcome those challenges.…

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