EPA Supports New Funding Opportunity from the Pesticide Educational Resources Collaborative for Pesticide Safety in Agricultural Communities
Released on May 31, 2022
Through a cooperative agreement funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Pesticide Educational Resources Collaborative (PERC) is making $200,000 in funding available for 2022-2023 to non-profit organizations for community-based projects. These grants will help fund efforts supporting the health and safety of farmworkers, agricultural pesticide handlers, their families and communities.
PERC is funded through a cooperative agreement between EPA and the University of California Davis in partnership with Oregon State University to help increase the reach and scope of pesticide safety educational materials to farmworkers and their families in rural agricultural areas. A new initiative in this five-year cooperative agreement includes “administering subawards to nonprofit organizations for the implementation of community-based projects that provide an “on-the-ground" expertise and perspective to develop effective and audience-appropriate pesticide education and training materials”. EPA funds several projects that advance pesticide safety education and support the implementation of the Worker Protection Standard and Certification of Pesticide Applicators regulations, including PERC. PERC coordinates the development of nationwide pesticide-related educational resources including multilingual manuals, pamphlets, webpages, videos and guides for different targeted audiences on how to work with or around pesticides safely. See a complete list of PERC’s projects.
Through this new opportunity, PERC anticipates funding two to four agricultural community-based projects. The outreach projects are to be carried out at local and/or regional levels and tailored to the target audience within the agricultural community to enhance pesticide safety protections. The desired outcomes include educating farmworkers and/or agricultural pesticide handlers on the safe use of pesticides, enhancing the capabilities of partners to develop and implement programs/activities that prevent and reduce pesticide risks to farmworker communities, and protecting human health and ecosystems from exposure to pesticides.
Applications are currently being accepted and must be submitted to PERC no later than 8:00 p.m. EDT on July 1, 2022.
This announcement was updated on November 6, 2023, to remove links to PERC webpages that are no longer available.