On February 22nd, 2025, the Region 3 TCTAC (Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center) received a Termination Letter from its grantor, the Environmental Protection Agency. As a result, we are stopping Region 3 TCTAC work to comply with the federal notice from the Environmental Protection Agency. Please stay tuned for any updates.
Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center Programs
The Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy have selected the National Wildlife Federation, the University of Maryland’s (UMD) T.H.E. E.J. Lab (formerly the Center for Community Engagement, Environmental Justice and Health) and Environmental Finance Center (EFC), and several community-based partners to serve as 1 of 16 Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Centers (EJ TCTAC) across the country, receiving $12 million to help overburdened and underserved communities in EPA Region 3 (Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia and the District of Columbia).
Our Mission
Core partners NWF, UMD T.H.E. E.J. Lab, and UMD EFC, will lead a Mid-Atlantic Thriving Communities Hub (MATCH) to be an Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center for EPA Region 3, serving the states of DE, MD, PA, VA, and WV and DC. We will work closely with multiple community-based partners as core partners selected due to their experience and expertise in environmental and energy justice work. Using a ‘hub’ approach, the core partners will act as ‘core hubs’, and the community-based ‘hubs’ will allow for service delivery to be more accessible to potential program participants, both geographically as well as culturally, due to their on-the-ground community presence.
Our Goals
The goals of the Region III EJ TCTAC are to:
Provide outreach to underserved, overburdened, rural, and capacity constrained communities in Region III to receive technical assistance;
Deliver technical assistance to increase the capacity of Hubs and communities of concern in Region III to assess environmental and energy justice concerns;
Deliver training and technical assistance to increase the capacity of underserved, overburdened, rural, and capacity constrained communities in Region III to obtain funding to address environmental and energy justice issues; and
Deliver technical assistance to increase hub and community capacity to engage policymakers, government agencies, and industry in projects, programs, and initiatives that will address local environmental and energy justice issues in Region III. We will also work in partnership with TCTACs around the country to assist as needed.
