Christopher DeVoe, a master’s student in public health at the Colorado School of Public Health at CU Anschutz, developed an innovative app aimed at assisting communities residing in heavily polluted areas to access federal grant money earmarked for environmental justice community initiatives.
He presented his pioneering work thanks to the vision, guidance and support from GreenLatinos and the support of the Latino Research & Policy Center
DeVoe’s project focuses on developing a bilingual user-friendly map that enhances public awareness of available grants related to environmental justice issues. This tool not only provides valuable insights into pollution levels and environmental hazards at the neighborhood level but most of all facilitates community empowerment by connecting people and non-profit organizations with federal grants dedicated to addressing these challenges.
Throughout our conversation, DeVoe underscored the inspiration behind his initiative, citing GreenLatinos’ steadfast commitment to environmental justice advocacy. DeVoe’s insights shed light on the intricate intersection of technical skill and social justice in environmental initiatives.
His advice for graduating students to leverage their skills and collaborate with organizations to effect tangible change resonates deeply with the ethos of community-driven action.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
🎙️La Ciudad: Congratulations! You just presented your final graduation project. Please tell us more about this experience.
Christopher DeVoe: I’m a master’s student in public health at CU Anschutz. I’ve been interning with GreenLatinos here in Colorado to launch a map to have the public better understand the grants available related to environmental justice issues.
(There are) communities that are disproportionately impacted by pollution, by traffic, (and) maybe don’t have enough trees in the neighborhood. Those are just a few of the different challenges that these communities face, and there’s new federal grant money out there to address these challenges.
🎙️La Ciudad: After listening to your presentation today, it’s almost like a bilingual app that you can easily access on your phone. You can put your address and find out if you are exposed to toxins and levels of pollution in the area you reside, but then it also connects you with the grants available to address those issues and see if you are eligible to apply.
It will also provide a history of who has applied for the resources you might need.
When you decided to develop this, what inspired you?
DeVoe: Environment. They have a whole team of people working to evaluate communities throughout the state, and how they’re impacted in different ways, whether that’s low income, higher rates of asthma, higher rates of pollution, or higher exposure to traffic emissions.
They’ve done a lot of work to evaluate what communities are facing. I took some of that information looking at communities that have higher exposure to air toxics,or maybe a higher flood risk, higher risk of wildfires, higher exposure to diesel particulate emissions. Then also I wanted to make sure it linked to these federal grants so through the map you can learn a little bit about your neighborhood.
To learn more, I would definitely recommend the Enviroscreen. I can’t replicate that myself. They’ve done a lot of good work there and they’re also developing their second version of the product. But yeah our app is a portal to the different grants that are available and will continue to be available.
🎙️La Ciudad: Explain the difference between the tool you just created and the Colorado EnviroScreen tool that Colorado State University developed for the community.
DeVoe: The Colorado EnviroScreen is by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. They have a whole team of people working to evaluate communities throughout the state, and how they’re impacted in different ways, whether that’s low income, higher rates of asthma, higher rates of pollution, or higher exposure to traffic emissions.
They’ve done a lot of work to evaluate what communities are facing. I took some of that information looking at communities that have higher exposure to air toxics,or maybe a higher flood risk, higher risk of wildfires, higher exposure to diesel particulate emissions. Then also I wanted to make sure it linked to these federal grants so through the map you can learn a little bit about your neighborhood.
To learn more, I would definitely recommend the Enviroscreen. I can’t replicate that myself. They’ve done a lot of good work there and they’re also developing their second version of the product. But yeah our app is a portal to the different grants that are available and will continue to be available.
🎙️La Ciudad: What were the findings that you would like to highlight so our communities empower themselves and, in a way, find the grants?
DeVoe: There’s already a lot of work done about environmental justice; and communities that are facing higher rates of pollution, historically. It is a long process to address these issues. Suncor, the refinery in the middle of Denver, is in a community of people of color or are low income, and there’s no reason that those people should experience the pollution from Suncor more than any other people.
I learned a lot from GreenLatinos, but this map just emphasized that these communities show up on these metrics. They are exposed to more air toxics. They’re exposed to more diesel emissions.
But then I find that there’s hope through this map.
We know that there are these different exposures but now there’s billions of dollars available now to mitigate some of those issues: to get money for planting trees, to get money for parks in your neighborhood, for better public transportation, or even for better broadband internet to better understand these issues.
I’m really inspired by what the federal government is doing in this administration to bring attention to these issues, and to really put the money where their mouth is.
🎙️La Ciudad: What are the barriers that you normally see when communities try to access funds?
DeVoe: That’s a great question. I’m an English speaker. I don’t speak a lot of Spanish, but I didn’t find a lot of resources in Spanish. I find Colorado seems to be ahead of the federal government for at least having bilingual or Spanish-speaking websites. But in trying to find the grants out there, I was having trouble. I don’t know if I was missing them, but I know language is definitely a barrier. Even as a tech-savvy English speaker, there are so many grants out there, so hopefully this app makes it a little easier to better understand what is out there.
🎙️La Ciudad: You’re going to be graduating, and this app has been your thesis in a way. What would you like to advise other students who are just graduating and are inspired by what you have created?
DeVoe: Everything we do takes teams. I like maps, but it took Ean Tafoya’s vision and GreenLatinos’ support to really make this possible. So I just want anyone out there to know to reach out to these organizations.
GreenLatinos and other nonprofits are doing amazing work. Don’t be shy. I didn’t know how important these skills were, but I took my knowledge base and I asked, how can I help? How can I lend a hand? And through this experience working with GreenLatinos and the Latino Research & Policy Center, I’ve learned a lot about how these projects happen, and the steps we need to take to bring environmental health to everyone.
🎙️La Ciudad: What does the Latino Research & Policy Center do?
DeVoe: So the center here at CU Denver brings together researchers throughout different departments to bring attention and research to issues in the Latino community.
🎙️La Ciudad: How can people access your tool?
DeVoe: Type in any web browser: bit.ly/ejgrantsmapcolorado
And, that should at least bring you to the first map, and you’ll be able to find information from there.
🎙️La Ciudad: Any final thoughts?
DeVoe: I just want to thank GreenLatinos and the Latino Research & Policy Center for all the work they do. For anyone looking to get involved, it is a long process. These are all important issues to work on; I’m glad to be joining them at this time. Thank you so much.
This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Christopher DeVoe’s name and the link on the Latino Research & Policy Center at CU Denver.
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