Long Beach Latino Civic Association, Starflower Experiences awarded state grants

Two Long Island nonprofits have received state grants for projects ranging from educating the community on "sustainable" living to assessing the impact of various forms of pollution and seeking ways to reduce it.

The Long Beach Latino Civic Association and Wyandanch-based Starflower Experiences were two Long Island recipients among 21 community-based organizations around the state that have received the state Department of Environmental Conservation's Environmental Justice Community Impact Grants, the department announced last week.

“DEC’s Community Impact Grants support the crucial work of people on the ground working tirelessly to lift up their communities and provide a healthier, more sustainable future,” DEC acting Commissioner Amanda Lefton said in a statement.

The Long Beach group was awarded  $100,000 over four years and Starflower Experiences will receive $70,100.

"We're working on a community-led project that will test water, air and soil," said Helen Dorado Alessi, the Long Beach group's executive director. She said a section of Long Beach called North Park, an "environmental justice area," is where there was once an incinerator and there are concerns about the potential for a higher risk of cancer, asthma and diabetes.

The Long Beach project also seeks to conduct health screenings and provide support services and education to residents to improve public health.

"We're going to be doing the testing," Alessi said in an interview. "We will have a company come out and test the soils."

Some community members will also be trained to conduct testing, she said. 

Alessi said the community "will be involved in the very beginning" and queried about their questions and concerns. She said the grant will cover not only the testing but surveying of residents. Educating residents is also part of the program, called Pollution Mitigation Leads to Health Benefits.

Educating young people is a goal of Starflower Experiences' Sustainable Wyandanch Interns program, executive director Laurie Farber said.

"We're an education organization focusing on our relationship with the Earth. By recruiting primarily teens ... we'll be meeting with them and putting them in educational workshops about what sustainability is, environmental kinds of things," Farber said.

Farber said the first group comprises 13 young people, ages 15 to 18.

"I will take older young folks, some in college, maybe even some adults." The end goal, she said, "was to have a group of trained people to do this community service and take on some tasks we like to see happening in this community," such as establishing more community gardens, composting and finding ways to reduce food waste. 

She said Wyandanch is "downwind of a heavy industrial area," citing concerns about pollution affecting asthma rates.

Valeria Romera, 18, a senior at Wyandanch High School, is one of the sustainability interns. In an interview, she said, "Not enough people know how bad it really is — the throwing away of plastics, the contamination of water, climate change and all of that. I feel like it's not talked about enough and we're not educated in school about it either."

By Olivia Winslow

olivia.winslow@newsday.com@newsollie