Contacts:

Elizabeth Hornstein, Sustainable and Resilient Communities (SRC) Specialist, Suffolk County, E: eeh78@cornell.edu

Sarah Schaefer-Brown, SRC Specialist, Nassau County, E: scs292@cornell.edu 

Sara Powell, SRC Specialist, Westchester County, E: slp285@cornell.edu 


NOTE: See each opportunity — Long Island Sound Resilience Planning Support and Grant Writing Support — below for specific requirements and deadline for grant submissions.

Stony Brook, NY, October 1, 2024 — Need Help with Your Project? The Long Island Sound Study Sustainable and Resilient Communities Extension Professionals have established two Assistance Programs – the Long Island Sound Resilience Grant Writing Assistance Program and the Long Island Sound Resilience Planning Support Program to assist communities within the Long Island Sound (LIS) coastal boundary across New York (NY) and Connecticut (CT). These Programs address the main barriers we have heard to planning, designing, and implementing sustainability and resilience-focused projects – a lack of capacity, expertise, and resources to prepare and apply for funding and a lack of capacity and resources to identify, conceptualize and develop projects.

These opportunities — supported by funding from the US EPA through the Long Island Sound Study (LISS) and administered through New York Sea Grant (NYSG) and Connecticut Sea Grant (CTSG) — are intended to assist with the development of sustainability and resilience focused projects that will impact  communities within or partially within the Long Island Sound Coastal boundary (see map image below for LIS Coastal boundary in pink).



Grant Writing Assistance Program

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until all the available funding has been allocated

As of October 1st, 2024 a third round of the Long Island Sound Resilience Grant Writing Support Program is available for municipalities and community organizations.

The Program assists NY and CT communities within the LIS coastal boundary to hire a grant writing consultant to develop successful sustainability and resilience-focused project grant proposals and increase capacity within municipalities and community organizations to navigate the funding landscape. Up to $9,950 in funding is available per application and match is not required. The Program is open on a rolling basis until all the available funding has been allocated.

For more information, see the LIS SRC's Assistance Grants pages. Questions? Contact LISresilience@gmail.com.

Planning Support Program

Deadline to apply is February 7th, 2025

As of December 2024, a second round of the Long Island Sound Resilience Planning Support Program is available.

The Program assists NY and CT communities within the LIS coastal boundary to help identify and develop sustainability and resilience-focused projects. This program aims to help communities assess local climate risks, conceptualize project ideas, and conduct preliminary planning efforts/steps in order to be well positioned to access funding to design and implement successful sustainability and resilience-focused projects. At the conclusion of this Program, it is anticipated that awardees will be ready to seek funding for resilience-focused projects and can choose to utilize the Grant Writing Assistance Program.

In the first round of the Planning Support Program New York Sea Grant and Connecticut Sea Grant are supporting 15 projects across the watershed — see December 2024 announcement, "Over $1M Awarded to Support Climate Resilience Planning in 15 Long Island Sound Communities".

For more information, see the LIS SRC's Assistance Grants pages. Questions? Contact LISresilience@gmail.com.


More Info: Informational Webinars for Potential Resilience Assistance Applicants

During the 3rd Annual SRC Workshop in December 2024, LISS SRC hosted a session focused on the SRC Resilience Assistance Programs.

Below, you can watch the virtual information session in a playlist that also includes sessions held in November 2023 separately for the NY and CT support programs.

You can also visit LISS's SRC Assistance Programs site pages.

More Info: Sea Grant's LIS Specialists

In New York, three New York Sea Grant Sustainable and Resilient Communities (SRC) extension professionals are working to strengthen the network of sustainable and resilient communities along the Long Island Sound in Westchester, Nassau, and Suffolk Counties. Additionally, two outreach coordinators work in the Sound’s basin on Long Island, in New York City and into Westchester County.

These five specialists in New York, plus two SRC extension professionals in Connecticut (via Connecticut Sea Grant), support Long Island Sound Study efforts throughout the Sound's basin. The team represents a commitment to prepare for and mitigate the effects of environmental and economic challenges posed by the effects of climate change and to expand community engagement along the Long Island Sound.

For more, see "Long Island Sound Study Launches New Resilience Resource Hub Website". 


More Info: Long Island Sound Study

Long Island Sound is one of the 28 nationally designated estuaries under the National Estuary Program (NEP), which was established by Congress in 1987 to improve the quality of Long Island Sound and other places where rivers meet the sea. 

The Long Island Sound Study is a cooperative effort involving researchers, regulators, user groups and other concerned organizations and individuals, and is led by the Environmental Protection Agency and the states of New York and Connecticut. 

In recent years, LISS has experienced a period of rapid expansion attributed to the increased federal funding for the program, and to implement actions, objectives, and goals established under a Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan. The increase is grounded in the CCMP’s four overarching themes: Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds, Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife, Sustainable and Resilient Communities, and Sound Science and Inclusive Management.  Resilience to climate change, long-term sustainability, and environmental justice, are principles that connect to all four of the themes.

For more on what you can do to make a difference, click over to the "Get Involved" or "Stewardship" sections of the LISS's website. News on the LISS can also be found in NYSG's related archives.


More Info: New York Sea Grant

New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York (SUNY), is one of 34 university-based programs under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program.

Since 1971, NYSG has represented a statewide network of integrated research, education and extension services promoting coastal community economic vitality, environmental sustainability and citizen awareness and understanding about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources.

Through NYSG’s efforts, the combined talents of university scientists and extension specialists help develop and transfer science-based information to many coastal user groups—businesses and industries, federal, state and local government decision-makers and agency managers, educators, the media and the interested public.

The program maintains Great Lakes offices at Cornell University, SUNY Buffalo, Rochester Institute of Technology, SUNY Oswego, the Wayne County Cooperative Extension office in Newark, and in Watertown. In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook University and with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County on Long Island, in Queens, at Brooklyn College, with Cornell Cooperative Extension in NYC, in Bronx, with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County in Kingston, and with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Westchester County in Elmsford.

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, and YouTube links. NYSG offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/nycoastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which is published quarterly.