The Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program (RCPGP) provides funding to eligible state and local governments to close known preparedness capability gaps, encourage innovative regional solutions to issues related to catastrophic incidents, and build on existing regional preparedness efforts. This document outlines key changes for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 RCPGP.
Strategic Priorities
Housing is added as a strategic priority for the FY 2023 RCPGP to accompany Equity, Climate Resilience, and Readiness, which are carried over from last year. The FY 2023 RCPGP requires that applicants develop and deliver one planning project that addresses specific capability gaps based on relevant Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment/Stakeholder Preparedness Review results. This project must focus on housing, community resilience, and long-term vulnerability reduction, with an emphasis on disadvantaged communities within the strategic priorities of equity, climate resilience, readiness, and housing.
Disadvantaged Communities and Equity Considerations
Priority will also be given to projects that address the needs of disadvantaged communities who might be at special risk as a result of current and/or future hazards, including those associated with climate change. This priority is guided by the Justice40 Initiative, which commits the federal government to delivering 40% of the overall benefits of climate and other federal investments to disadvantaged communities that have been historically marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution. For FY 2023 in support of this priority, recipients are expected to involve representatives of disadvantaged communities in the development of local/community preparedness and readiness plans and integration of those plans into broader whole-of-government efforts.
In support of the above, FY 2023 applicants are directed to use the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) to identify disadvantaged communities. The CEJST replaces the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Social Vulnerability Index , which was previously used as the data standard in FY 2022 to identify disadvantaged communities.
As part of the required project narrative, applicants must provide a list of all disadvantaged communities that will be involved and will directly benefit from the proposed RCPGP project, including the Census tract numbers associated with each community. Like in FY 2022, bonus points will be added to projects that support a relatively large number of disadvantaged communities based on CEJST data. Additional details on how bonus points will be applied can be found in Appendix C: Evaluation Criteria and Scoring of the FY 2023 RCPGP Notice of Funding Opportunity.