2023 PREP Grant Projects
Total Funds Awarded: $349,312
In 2023, 10 grantees were provided funds to complete environmental projects. Read about each of the grantees and their projects below.
Community Ecology Institute
Project: Educating for Action: Connecting CEI’s programs to the County’s Climate Action Plan Goals for Land-Based Carbon Sequestration and Consumer Waste Reduction
The Community Ecology Institute (CEI) will offer experiential environmental education surrounding climate action through programing designed for community members across the lifespan, from the smallest learners (preschoolers with their caregivers in the Communities of Families in Nature program), to the teens and young adults that participate in the Green SEEDS Internship, to community members well into retirement who attend workshops and volunteer at Freetown Farm, and everyone in between.
The Communities of Families in Nature (CFIN) program will host three events per month, each incorporating climate education and trash removal. The PREP grant will support the development of field trips to Freetown Farm directed at 7th graders. For high school and college students, CEI’s Green SEEDS internship sessions will meet twice a week with a mix of prepared curriculum and independent study opportunities.
Focusing on land-based carbon sequestration, the PREP grant will support the installation and associated training surrounding at least eight Nourishing Gardens that transform lawns into ecologically beneficial gardens on a combination of public and private spaces. CEI will also review Marker Space workshops to further develop the framework for offerings related to climate action areas.
The PREP grant supports staffing and supplies for programming including Community of Families in Nature, Roots & Wings, Green SEEDS internships, Nourishing Gardens and Maker Space.
Howard Community College
Project: Composting at HCC
Howard Community College (HCC) returns to the PREP program in the 2023 grant cycle to expand the college’s composting program.
The expanded program will have a goal of collecting an additional ton of compostable material every month during the grant period. Compostable serving utensils, dishes, plates and cups will be provided to all participating food preparation and serving areas.
Signage, training and educational programs will encourage all members of the college community to participate in composting as well as recycling. The program will follow all Howard County Green Bin policies and procedures so that county-wide participation in the program will be increased.
The PREP grant helps with compost collection service fees, compostable supplies and equipment for compost collection.
Howard County Chinese school
Project: Youth Plastic Reduction & Environmental Protection Program
Howard County Chinese School (HCCS) is building off its 2022 grant project and will organize a Seven Day Challenge through its Student Government Association during the school’s “Green Week” in spring 2024. Students and their adult mentors will create seven different environment-themed challenges and measure the results. The PREP 2023 grant also will support a series of environmental sustainability seminars, monthly cleanups at an “Adopt-a-Road” location, two stream cleanups and two field trips to potential locations such as the Alpha Ridge Landfill and a water treatment plant. HCCS will create an innovation competition surrounding reuse of plastic items and maintain two youth gardens as part of its “Grow Together Garden,” donating resulting organic vegetables to the Howard County Foodbank. The school plans to start a “no-sew” t-shirt bag making project to replace the use of single use plastic bags. Video footage of all activities will be made public and the school will participate in the Howard County GreenFest to share the results of their efforts.
The PREP grant will assist with staff wages for program coordinators, communications and marketing costs, office supplies, gardening and project materials, travel and overhead.
Howard County Conservancy
Project: Watershed Report Card (WRC) and Youth Climate Institute (YCI)
In its third year as a PREP grantee, Howard County Conservancy is continuing its Watershed Report Card and Youth Climate Institute programs.
The Watershed Report Card program celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2024, publishing its Watershed Report Card utilizing data from 26 offsite stream surveys and 14 schoolyard assessments with Howard County Public School System students. The PREP grant also supported two teacher trainings and two volunteer naturalist trainings. A student summit with local VIPs provided the opportunity for student advocacy at the conclusion of the program.
During the 2023-2024 school year, the Youth Climate Institute engaged 140 Howard County students through 10 chapters and created a broader and stronger network of expert speakers, advisors and mentors. The program offered an honors level certification with graduation cords/pins and a YCI “digital badge.” The grant supported the development of an online membership portal with resources for students, as well as an additional college scholarship program to encourage STEM careers and raise the visibility of YCI.
The PREP grant helps with wages, honorariums for speakers, project materials, incentives, and refreshments, marketing and outreach, travel, technology and scholarships.
Howard Ecoworks
Project: EcoAmbassadors Year Three
As a third-year recipient of PREP grant funding, Howard Ecoworks (HEW) continued to develop, refine and implement year three of its EcoAmbassadors program, which moved to a summer program format in 2024. Fifteen students from Howard County public and private high schools participated during the summer of 2024. Each EcoAmbassador received a stipend, training, and support from EcoWorks to conduct outreach, education, and behavior change projects while being empowered as changemakers for their schools and communities.
The PREP grant funded EcoAmbassador stipends, supplies and materials, staff wages, and administrative overhead.
View a slideshow of EcoAmbassador highlights from the summer 2024 program.
InTerfaith partners for the Chesapeake
Project: Engaging the Faith Community in Waste Reduction – Howard County
Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake will engage its partner congregations in Howard County in waste reduction activities and develop a step-by-step action kit for the partners to use in carrying out their initiatives. Partners will be encouraged to promote the use of reusable grocery bags, participate in a waste reduction event featuring the showing of The Story of Plastic documentary, host a lunch & learn about recycling and waste reduction, participate in a stream cleanup and build and support congregational “green teams.”
The PREP grant supports staffing, licensing fees for “The Story of Plastic” and the costs of reusable bags and handouts.
Murray Hill Homeowners Association, Inc
Project: Community Cleanliness Project
As a third year returning grantee, Murray Hill Homeowners Association continued to engage and educate community youth on anti-littering through weekly paid community clean-ups involving litter removal and changing community trash bins. Murray Hill HOA hosted a volunteer cleanup event in September 2024 and conducted community-based trash education in Murray Hill.
The PREP grant helps with student wages for litter cleanups and trash collection, trashcans and supplies for weekly cleanups.
See photos here.
Oakland Mills Interfaith
Project: Greening of Oakland Mills Interfaith
In its second year of PREP grant funding, Oakland Mills Interfaith’s (OMII) will build on its environmental education, waste minimization and stormwater management programs. The five-congregation, interdenominational house of worship in Columbia hosts an ongoing monthly speaker series on environmental topics that featured author and University of Delaware professor Doug Tallamy in December 2023, drawing an audience of more than 300 for a talk on environmental stewardship.
PREP funding also enabled OMII to purchase and distribute more than 3,000 reusable shopping bags through the Oakland Mills Interfaith Food Drive. The bags featured a bilingual insert from OMII explaining the environmental goal of the bags.
In addition to these efforts, OMII is utilizing funding to enhance composting activities, host an environmental fair on May 5, 2024, replace grass with native plants and maintain its stormwater management practices.
The PREP grant helps with composting supplies, signage, plants/trees, landscaping materials and tools, reusable bags, speaker fees and instructional materials.
Patapsco Heritage Greenway
Project: Water Quality Monitoring Programs
Patapsco Heritage Greenway (PHG), a PREP grant recipient since 2021, expanded its robust volunteer-based water quality monitoring program to 12 stations in the non-tidal Patapsco River Watershed and one in the Patuxent Watershed during the 2023 grant term. The results of the monitoring program are shared in the annual Non-Tidal Patapsco River Report Card released in July 2024. This report card has been highlighted as a model example within the Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative network (CMC Fall Newsletter, Nov 2024).
PHG’s water monitoring project engaged nearly 400 volunteers and connects with its existing Howard County community environmental programs, including clean-ups, tree plantings, and invasive removal that engage residents in environmental quality issues and projects. The project has also been used to help launch a Salt Watch program where community members can obtain free kits to monitor chloride levels in their local waterways and upload data to a national database. The PHG YouTube Channel offers free and educational water quality monitoring videos for volunteers and interested residents.
In spring 2024, PHG housed an intern from the University of Maryland School of Social Work who completed a pilot project exploring both ethnographic use of the river and comparing existing bacterial culturing methodologies with newer technologies (webinar available here).
Discussion of data trends and observations is worked into formal and informal public water quality presentations given by PHG staff all over the region. Audiences range from elementary school groups to Maryland State Park Senior Rangers to scientific professionals. In May 2024, PHG presented a water quality monitoring and vernal pool exploration field trip to over 25 professionals at the Choose Clean Water Conference at the Turf Valley Resort. In May and again in October 2024, PHG ran a Family Day where families came out to enjoy learning about the history and nature of the Patapsco Valley, including a stream-side macroinvertebrate discovery station. Other audiences for macroinvertebrate discovery programming include the Young African Leaders Initiative through UMBC (for the second year), the Chesapeake Conservation and Climate Corps interns, and Spanish-speaking families through a partnership with the Lakeland Community and STEAM Center.
The PREP grant helps with water quality monitoring supplies and wages for a program coordinator and program assistant.
Upcycled
Project: Waste to Wonder
A PREP grant recipient since 2021, Upcycled works to raise awareness about the plastics crisis, reduce landfill waste, and transform single-use plastics into durable building materials for local use. During the 2023 PREP grant period, Upcycled successfully upcycled more than 3,800 pounds of plastic from its new workshop in Clarksville and donated 2,000 pounds of upcycled lumber to schools and community spaces across Howard County, enhancing public spaces and promoting environmental stewardship.
During summer 2024, Upcycled’s internship program engaged local youth to provide a hands-on experience in manufacturing and upcycling. Also in the 2023 grant cycle, Upcycled introduced an educational program offering students the opportunity to learn about sustainability, recycling, and the upcycling process.
Upcycled collection bins are available at Freetown Farm in Columbia. The group also organizes bottle cap drives at local schools, allowing students and families to actively participate in the effort.
The PREP grant helps cover operational costs such as wages (for directors and high school employees through the Waste Warrior program), overhead costs (such as rent), and materials for project installations.