Grants
We have done two sessions that walk through grant opportunities related to your Climate Smart Communities work.
Video 1:
Jill Falchi-Henck has helped many towns with planning and grants guidance through her work at the Capital District Regional Planning Commission. CDRPC offers similar guidance and technical assistance to municipalities that Cornell Cooperative Extension does.
Jill will be joined by two Climate Smart Community Coordinators who not only got their towns certified, but also successfully received grants for CSC actions.
Speakers: Jill Falchi-Henck, Senior Planner at the Capital District Regional Planning Commission; Ellen Calves, Deputy Town Supervisor and CSC Task Force Coordinator for Bedford; Janelle Peotter, New Paltz CSC Task Force Coordinator, and Amanda Gotto, New Paltz CSC Task Force Member
Recorded on April 22, 2021
Video 2:
Kristen Wilson is with RUPCO, a Kingston based non-profit which works toward creating strong, vibrant and inclusive communities. Kristen joined RUPCO in 2021 as the Assistant Vice President for Community Development. Prior to joining RUPCO, Kristen worked as the Director of Grants Management for the City of Kingston and as Senior Resource Educator for the Healthy Communities Program of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County.
The DEC offers CSC grants, which municipalities can apply for. We know municipalities don’t necessarily have the financial means to undertake climate projects—small to large. This session is all about getting the lowdown from Kristen on how you can navigate the process of applying for grants and then, the often overlooked work load of managing them.
Speakers: Kristen Wilson
Recorded on October 4, 2022
Exercise #1
Interview your Town Clerk or Supervisor:
Is there a person in your Town government who writes and manages grants? Or is there a volunteer? Or do they “outsource” to a local engineering firm or grant-writer?
Has your Town applied for grants in the past? Why or why not? Is there a sense of what the burdens are? What the opportunities are? Best practices?
Does your Town have a Grants Gateway account? If so, can you be added—and with permissions to submit a grant or not? If no, send in the paper form Jill mentioned.
Exercise #2
Make note of any CSC actions that your Town would be interested in, but that you think may require money to get done. Bring these ideas to the Town official on your CSC Task Force.
Jill Falchi-Henck
Senior Planner at the Capital District Regional Planning Commission
Jill joined CDRPC in 2017 as a Sustainability Planner and works with communities around the region to implement the goals and objectives of the Clean Energy Communities program. CDRPC serves eight counties: Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Warren, Washington, Greene and Columbia.
Prior to joining CDPRC, she worked as a Planning Technician for a county in Colorado. She’s a graduate of Union College and the University of Colorado, Denver.
Kristen Wilson
Assistant Vice President for Community Development at RUPCO
Kristen Wilson is with RUPCO, a Kingston based non-profit which works toward creating strong, vibrant and inclusive communities. Kristen joined RUPCO in 2021 as the Assistant Vice President for Community Development. Prior to joining RUPCO, Kristen worked as the Director of Grants Management for the City of Kingston and as Senior Resource Educator for the Healthy Communities Program of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County.
Ellen Calves
Deputy Supervisor Town of Bedford & Bedford Climate Smart Communities Coordinator
A town board member since January 2020, Ellen has passed the NYStretch Code, subscribed the town to Community Solar, switched the municipality to 100% green energy supply, passed a new Climate Action Plan, and ensured heat pumps will replace the boiler in a major town building renovation. From 2015-2020 Ellen served as the Program Director at Bedford 2030, a nonprofit environmental organization that leads a community wide effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect natural resources in Bedford. During her time at Bedford 2030 Ellen led many campaigns and initiatives that contributed to Bedford’s 44% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. On the town’s reusable bag task force Ellen advocated to get a fee on paper and plastic bags and increased reusable bag use at local grocery stores to 85%. As a member of her church Energy Justice team she got free LED bulbs installed for residents in senior housing. As the Bedford Climate Smart Communities Coordinator, Ellen helped Bedford achieve bronze status to obtain a CSC grant to launch a food scrap recycling pilot program. Prior to her work in Bedford, Ellen worked as an environmental attorney, as a net zero carbon investment fund advisor, at an independent school, and is a mom of three.
Amanda Gotto
New Paltz, Climate Smart Communities Task Force Member
After spending more than 2 decades working in the pharmaceutical industry developing new drugs and managing multifaceted global projects, I decided to step away from the private sector and put my skills and experience to work in my local community. With a keen interest in ecology and the environment from the time I was in grade school, working on issues related to climate change was a goal of both logic and passion. Luckily for me, my home of New Paltz had taken the Climate Smart Community pledge and was in need of volunteers to help get a DEC grant-funded project up and running. That was in 2018 and I have been responsible for managing that grant and a second that we were awarded in 2020.
My duties with the grants include writing grant applications and submissions in the CFA portal; coordinating project activities; creating RFPs and coordinating selection of consultants; creating project timelines, deliverables, and budgets and then managing them within approved parameters; and writing quarterly reports for State Master Contracts. I also was involved in preparing and submitting the documentation for Climate Smart Bronze certifications for the Town and Village of New Paltz, both of which were awarded March 2020.