Environmental Justice Video Challenge for Students

EJ Video Challenge graphic

On this page:

View the Phase 1 Winners of the EJ Video Challenge for Students. 

View the Phase 2 Winners of the EJ Video Challenge for Students.

Challenge Description

Background

Many communities face greater environmental exposures and public health risks due to a history of inequitable environmental policies and access to the decision-making process. Environmental justice (EJ) is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. 

EPA and co-sponsors launched the Environmental Justice (EJ) Video Challenge for Students to enhance communities’ capacity to address environmental inequities using data and tools. The goals of the challenge are to: 

  1. Inspire students at accredited colleges and universities in the United States and its territories to work directly with communities in the identification and characterization of EJ challenges using data and publicly available tools, and
  2. Help communities (including residents and other stakeholders) address EJ challenges and/or vulnerabilities to environmental and public health hazards using data and publicly available tools. 

The Challenge

The EJ Video Challenge for Students is structured in two separate phases, each with their own timelines. A brief description of each phase is noted below.

Phase 1 - Innovative Approaches to Identify EJ Concerns - Complete

The goal of Phase 1 was for students to create a video that demonstrated innovative approaches to identify and characterize an EJ issue(s) in a select community using data and publicly available tools. Phase I has been completed. View the Phase 1 Winners of the EJ Video Challenge for Students. 

Phase 2 - Enhancing Community Capacity

The focus for Phase 2 was enhancing communities’ capacity to address the EJ issue identified in Phase 1 of the challenge. Students worked collaboratively with community-based organizations to develop a proposed strategy that demonstrates effective community engagement and advocacy to address the previously identified EJ issue. Phase 2 submissions included a community capacity building strategy and a brief video summarizing the proposed ideas as well as any use of data/tools to track or measure the success of strategy implementation. 

Students were strongly encouraged to work in teams and identify and collaborate with at least one community organization that will bring important understanding and perspective to the EJ challenge(s) the community is facing, as well as the Phase 2 community capacity building strategy.  View the Phase 2 Winners of the EJ Video Challenge for Students.

Challenge Co-Sponsors

The below organizations are co-sponsoring this challenge.

  • American Public Health Association (APHA)
  • Educational Partnerships for Innovation in Communities – Network (EPIC-N)
  • Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)
  • Environmental Justice (peer-reviewed journal)
  • Groundwork USA

Eligibility

The eligibility criteria for Phase 2 of the EJ Video Challenge are noted below.

  • All participating students must be college/university undergraduate or graduate students (18 years old and older) enrolled in an accredited institution of higher education (including community colleges) across the United States and its territories. 
    • Note: International college students meeting the above criteria are also eligible under the authority of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) 102(2)(F).
  • Students who submitted eligible videos in Phase 1 are invited to participate in Phase 2 of the challenge.
  • For continuity between the two phases of the challenge, there must be at least one (1) student on each Phase 2 team who also participated in Phase 1  of the Challenge.
    • Note: Students do not need to have a winning entry in Phase 1 to participate in Phase 2.
  • Students are strongly encouraged to work in teams.
  • At least one (1) faculty advisor is required to serve as a mentor to student(s) participating in the Challenge.
  • At least one (1) community-based organization is required to be a part of the student team.

Prizes - Phase 2

The winning student(s) and associated community organization(s) will receive monetary prizes from a prize package totaling $175,000 for Phase 2! All the winning videos will also receive public recognition from EPA and challenge co-sponsors.

Prize Distribution for Phase 2 Winners

  • First Place Prize of $60,000 [$10,000 Student(s) + $50,000 Community Organization(s)]
  • Second Place Prize of $50,000 [$8,000 Student(s) + $42,000 Community Organization(s)]
  • Third Place Prize of $40,000 [$6,000 Student(s) + $34,000 Community Organization(s)]
  • Up to (5) Honorable Mentions of $5,000 each [$1,000 Student(s) + $4,000 Community Organization(s)]

Note: Prize amounts shown are a minimum amount to be awarded, and the amounts may be adjusted based on the number of submissions received.

Additional Benefits for Phase 2 Winners

Winning teams will also receive the following benefits:

  • The winning videos will be posted on EPA’s EJ Video Challenge for Students webpage. Additionally, winning videos will be shared on EPA social media channels and other communications channels.
  • If an EPA tool developed by the Office of Research and Development was used in the Phase 2 submission, winners and their community organization partner(s) will have the opportunity to speak with an EPA employee who works on the tool used for Phase 2.

Additional Information on Phase 2 Prizes:

  • All prize awards are subject to EPA verification of the winners’ identity, eligibility, and participation in the Challenge. 
  • Prizes will be distributed evenly among student team members and community organizations if more than one student or community organization participates in one team. 
  • Prizes will be distributed via electronic funds transfer and may be subject to federal income taxes.
  • EPA will comply with the IRS 1099 withholding and reporting requirements, where applicable.
  • Winners are responsible for reporting and paying all applicable taxes in their jurisdiction of residence (federal, state/provincial/territorial and local). 
  • Winners will be required to provide information to facilitate receipt of the award, including completing and submitting any tax or other forms necessary for compliance with applicable withholding and reporting requirements.

Important Dates

  • September 27, 2022 - Phase 2 Opens
  • October 27, 2022 - Phase 2 Informational Webinar
  • February 3, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. ET - Phase 2 Closes
  • Spring 2023 - Phase 2 Winners Announced

How to Enter

Note: Challenge submissions are due by February 3, 2023 by 11:59 p.m. ET.  

To enter this Challenge, student(s) must complete the following steps as noted below.

  1. Post your summary video to YouTube as an unlisted video.
  2. Upload a copy of your video file in the proper file format (see Video Specifications) to Dropbox, WeTransfer, or Google Drive.
  3. Complete and submit the EJ Video Challenge for Students - Phase 2 Online Entry Form, including all of the "Required Documentation" as listed below. 
    1. EJ Video Challenge for Students - Phase 2 Online Entry Form

      1. Note: We recommend using the entry form template below to draft your submission before completing and submitting the online entry form linked above since you cannot save your work in the online form. 

        1. Entry Form Template (docx) (296.42 KB)

Required Documentation for Online Entry Form

You must submit the following documents as part of your Online Entry Form: 

Community Capacity Building Strategy

A detailed strategy (no more than 5 pages long, single-spaced with ¾ inch margins in size 11 Calibri/Times New Roman font) that demonstrates effective community engagement and advocacy to address the EJ issue identified in Phase 1 must be provided using the template listed above in the "Required Documents" section. Remember, this challenge is meant to generate ideas that can address challenging EJ issues even if the ideas may require a significant amount of resources (e.g., funding, people, etc.) to implement. Therefore, we encourage you to THINK BIG and to allow yourselves to be creative in order to generate the innovative solutions needed to reduce or even eliminate the EJ issue! 

Note: All strategies must be original (i.e., developed by the student(s) in collaboration with at least one community-based organization) and not a summary or highlight of any existing or awarded/funded contract, grant, or cooperative agreement plans. Strategies may include, but are not limited to community education efforts, policy recommendations, remediation plans, etc., or a combination of these proposed solutions (as applicable) to the EJ issue at hand.

Summary Video Requirements

Each submission should include a summary video that meets the following content requirements and video specifications.

Video Content Requirements
  • Description of support by community organization(s) to inform strategies for effective community engagement and advocacy on the EJ issue(s)
  • Description of how data and publicly available tools have been or would be used to inform the implementation of the strategy. Information about the tool(s) and data used should include, but is not limited to:
    • Identification of the publicly available tool(s) and the source(s) of those tool(s) (e.g., EPA, State agency, etc.)
    • Identification of the data including source(s) of data (e.g., Federal or State databases; other data such as social and economic factors [e.g., education, employment/occupation, family and social support, social cohesion, social capital, community stressors such as crime and discrimination, income/poverty, race/ethnicity, gender/sex, etc.]; physical infrastructure of the community [e.g., housing, transportation, food access, parks, etc.])
  • Discussion of any resource needs and potential barriers for implementation of the innovative strategy
  • Description of how the intended approach will help to build capacity and/or address the EJ issue in the community 
  • Description of measures of success for implementation and the resulting benefit(s) to the community
Video Specifications
  • Video should be a maximum of 3 minutes in length.
  • Source video file must be one of the following formats: MPEG4, 3GPP, MOV, AVI or WMV
  • Aspect ratio of 16:9
  • At either 24 or 30 (29.9) frames per second
  • Frame size of 1920x1080 

Note: Each student/team is limited to submitting only one strategy and accompanying summary video for each phase of the Challenge. However, multiple submissions from the same university/college are permitted (e.g., more than one strategy/video submission from separate student(s)/teams may be submitted per university).

Terms and Conditions

Intellectual Property

  • Winning videos for Phase 2 will be posted on an EPA webpage and announced in Spring 2023.
  • Video entries may be used by EPA (e.g., on EPA social media accounts and webpages) in connection with this video challenge and the production, distribution, promotion, broadcast at public meetings/conferences, and online posting thereof. 
  • Student(s) will need to provide their video file to EPA in the file format specified under the Video Specifications section above.
  • All video entries must be accompanied with a signed License Agreement as well as Consent Form(s) (see Helpful Resources). 
    • Note: Each individual appearing and/or speaking on the video must sign a Consent Form.
  • Use of music within each video entry must follow EPA Music Licensing Guidance (see Helpful Resources).
  • Student(s) are responsible for complying with applicable copyright and intellectual property laws for any materials used in their video entries including giving credit for work as needed. “Fair use” rules may allow the use of copyrighted material in certain circumstances (e.g., see the fair use guidelines on YouTube). Participants should seek legal guidance if they have questions about using copyrighted materials.

Non-Endorsement

EPA does not endorse any product, service, or enterprise that may appear in submitted videos. Furthermore, by recognizing winning videos, EPA is not endorsing any products, services, or enterprises that may appear in those videos. 

Prohibited Use of Funding

Participants cannot use funding from the federal government (either through grants or contracts) to compete in the Challenge.

Judging - Phase 2

Judging Panel

Submissions will be judged by a panel of EPA and non-EPA judges with expertise in environmental justice and community capacity building. The judges will evaluate, score, and rank submissions based on the criteria listed below. The resulting judge’s scores will be provided to the EPA Office of Research and Development (ORD) leadership  who will make the final determination for all prize winners.

Phase 2 Judging Criteria

The judging panel will use a 5-point scale for each category to evaluate the challenge submissions. The scale will rank the extent to which the submission meets the following criteria, and an emphasis will be placed on each category through the weighting of those categories as noted by the percentages listed below.

  • Creativity/Innovation (5%) – The degree to which the community capacity building strategy and video shows an innovative approach to address the identified EJ issue(s) from Phase 1 in a select community.
  • Clarity/Completeness (10%) – The degree to which the community capacity building strategy and video has a clear message and includes the minimum content requirements described above.
  • Community Engagement (15%) – The degree to which student(s) clearly engaged with the community and/or community organizations (in their effort to develop strategies that demonstrate effective community engagement/advocacy on the EJ issue) is evident in both the summary video and community capacity building strategy.
  • Summary Video (20%) – The degree to which the video fulfills all of the expected video content requirements noted above.
  • Community Capacity Building Strategy (50%) – The degree to which the strategy fulfills all of the expected community capacity building strategy content requirements.

Helpful Resources

Example Tools and Data Resources

Challenge Submission Documents

Environmental Justice 

Capacity Building & Community Engagement 

Presentations

Questions?

EJ Video Challenge Phase 2 FAQs (pdf) (268.27 KB)

Any questions? Please contact us at EJVideoChallenge@epa.gov.

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Last updated on April 30, 2024