Silicon Valley Community Foundation has awarded more than $800,000 in grants to help the regional planning efforts to improve the California community.

Among the goals that the foundation hopes to achieve with the funding is to reduce the community’s traffic and air pollution, create affordable housing units and mixed use developments close to transportation. According to the foundation, the San Francisco Bay area could see an increase of 2 million residents looking for jobs and housing.

The Western New York Environmental Alliance is a collective effort that wants to increase the impact of local environmental efforts.

The health and enhancement of our regions natural assets is crucial to the revitalization of this area and to the well-being of its residents, said Clotilde Perez-Bode Dedecker, president and chief executive of the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, which helped convene the 150 groups.

The priorities are to preserve and restore the regions natural resources through collaborative work; educate and engage the public, as well as elected officials, on regional environmental issues; and strengthen the ability of environmental organizations.

Citing Blueprint Buffalo, environmental officials also said with 30,000 vacant houses, the city has the third-highest home vacancy rate in the country, and Buffalos recycling rate is at 6.5 percent, lower than the 27 percent national average.

Too often we see groups working at their goals in their own way in isolation, said Katherine Kit Kennedy, deputy state attorney general for environmental protection.

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What are the most important pieces of Santa Cruz County land to protect from development? The Land Trust of Santa Cruz County will seek to answer that question as it develops a 20-year conservation blueprint, the group announced Wednesday.

The 18-month endeavor is being made possible with a $488,000 grant provided by the San Francisco-based Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County has chipped in $15,000 for a series of public forms in the fall.

Reversing the blight has been a mission of the Hill Youth Action Team (HYAT) since the summer of 2006 when they scanned 40 local properties for abandoned houses, litter and vacant lots on the streets where they live. Their banner message “Save Our Society” still hangs over Howard Avenue and Minor Streets to remind everyone to get involved.

Donors to The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven provided funding for the project (more…)

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks is pleased to announce that the Upper White River Basin Foundation has successfully reached its fund raising goal for CFO’s Stewardship Ozark Initiative. Dr. John Moore, executive director of the Upper White River Basin Foundation, reported that his foundation had raised $100,000 for its organizational endowment and will receive a $100,000 matching grant from the Stewardship Ozarks Initiative. (more…)

Energy policy is by far the most important issue in this year's presidential election, one that transcends partisan politics and dwarfs the nation's current economic crisis, according to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy, an environmental activist and attorney, addressed a crowd of nearly 700 people Tuesday at Grant High School. His visit was part of the Fremont Area Community Foundation (MI)'s Speaker Series.

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