The Environmental Professionals Organization of Connecticut (EPOC) is pleased to announce our environmental grant awards for 2016 as follows (total amount of all awards is $9,000):

• Audubon Connecticut
  
  Audubon Connecticut, an operating unit of the National Audubon Society, is one of Connecticut's premier conservation and environmental education organizations. Their mission is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth's biological diversity. This grant will provide job training, mentoring, and seven weeks of summer employment in the field of conservation biology for 10 Bridgeport high school students as “WildLife Guards”.
  
  
• Housatonic Valley Association
  
  The Housatonic Valley Association is dedicated to protecting the Housatonic River and its entire 2,000 square-mile watershed stretching from western Massachusetts through western Connecticut and part of eastern New York State. EPOC’s grant is for staff time to manage a stewardship program for 70 students (ages 14-21) in Danbury area to work alongside conservation practitioners on stream and wetland restoration projects.
  
  
• Harbor Watch (a program of Earthplace, Inc.)
  
  The mission of Earthplace is to build a passion in our community for nature and the environment through education, experience, and action. Earthplace has been based in Westport, Connecticut since 1958, and has grown to include many mission-related resources including a state-licensed preschool, a natural history museum, and Harbor Watch, their renowned water quality research program. The EPOC grant will be used to measure water quality and track down pollution sources in the Norwalk River (bacteria and nutrient pollution from sewage & stormwater runoff).

On an annual basis, the EPOC Grant Program provides funding for local projects by non-profit and not-for-profit environmental advocacy groups, community based groups and environmental education organizations that benefit the environment . For further information, see our Grant Program page.