The Bright Cities program provides grants of up to $35,000 to city governments and community-based partners to equitably reduce their community’s exposures to neurotoxic chemicals that interfere with all babies’ brain development.
We work with city leaders to equitably safeguard all children's futures. Cities have worked to mitigate air pollution, trained childcare providers and parents to reduce toxic exposures at childcare centers, hosted healthy cooking demonstrations, and more.
The Bright Cities program provides grants of up to $35,000 to city governments and community-based partners to equitably reduce their community’s exposures to neurotoxic chemicals that interfere with all babies’ brain development.
We work with city leaders to equitably safeguard all children's futures. Cities have worked to mitigate air pollution, trained childcare providers and parents to reduce toxic exposures at childcare centers, hosted healthy cooking demonstrations, and more.
A Bright City works to lessen the harm of neurotoxic chemicals in ways that are tailored for each community. Benefits to being a Bright City extend beyond reducing neurotoxic exposures. Being a Bright City elicits positive responses from city residents. It provides an opportunity to leverage national funding and set the stage for sustainable equitable change. And it provides a fresh opportunity for cities to ensure that all babies have equitable, just and healthy environments.
PAST PROJECTS:
Public Health. Increasing screening of blood lead levels in pregnant women and infants or bolstering policies to reduce exposures to mercury and PCBs in locally caught fish and shellfish.
Air & Water Quality. Reducing emissions through no-idle policies, reducing lead, arsenic and perchlorate levels in drinking water or replacing lead service lines in water distribution systems.
Built Environment, Housing & Facilities. Restricting the use of toxic pesticides on lawns, parks and pets, implementing pest management in public buildings and housing, replacing lead painted windows.
Early Childhood Education. Helping child care facilities avoid products containing mercury, flame retardants, pesticides, phthalates, lead and arsenic; and setting performance measures to track reductions in exposures to these chemicals.
Food. Testing soil in community gardens and playgrounds and remediating as needed; promoting breastfeeding; and increasing access to food grown without harmful pesticides.
Watch the Bright Cities Webinars
Fostering Equitable, Sustainable Change Amidst A Devastating Pandemic, with speakers Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, Detroit’s former Health Commissioner; Dr. Kent Key, Health Disparities Researcher, Michigan State University; and Lauren Kuby, Councilmember, Tempe, AZ.
The Two for One Opportunity, with speakers Freddy Collier, Jr., Director of City Planning, Cleveland OH; Jacques Colon, City of Tacoma; and Mayor Marita Garrett, Wilkinsburg, PA.
The Nuts & Bolts of Using Resilience Planning to Ensure Healthier Futures, with speakers Kristin Baja, Climate Resilience Officer, Urban Sustainability Director Network; Grant Ervin, Chief Resilience Officer and Assistant Director for the Department of City Planning in Pittsburgh PA; and Lottie Ferguson, Chief Resilience Officer, Flint, MI.
Steps to Transform into a Bright City for All Babies.
Bright Cities works collaboratively with cities and local nonprofit partners to develop the most effective strategies to lower exposures to harmful chemicals that cause developmental delays and provides resources to implement those strategies - especially for babies disproportionately impacted by structural injustice and environmental inequalities. The chemicals we work to reduce are arsenic, flame retardants, lead, mercury, organophosphate pesticides, combustion byproducts called PAHs, the banned industrial chemicals PCBs, plastic additives called phthalates, and a rocket fuel component and fertilizer contaminant called perchlorate.
We provide data-driven recommendations, technical and media support, peer-learning opportunities and funding to help your city successfully and pragmatically integrate strategies that reduce neurotoxic exposures into existing programs. Read more about what Bright Cities have done. Or, view the PDF to apply today.
“Our children deserve to live in safe and vibrant communities that allow them to thrive. By partnering with Healthy Babies Bright Futures, we are ensuring that every child in Providence has the opportunity to realize their full potential.”
Mayor Jorge O. Elorza, Providence RI
“As a city that focuses part of its strategic platform on the health and safety of every citizen, we recognize that Mississippi has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the nation. As we look to make radical change to address our concerns, we must recognize that our most precious resource is our children. We will do all that we can to protect them.”
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, Jackson MS
“The link between health and sustainability is at the very core of Bright Cities. With one outstanding program, we were able to positively impact two of our City’s priorities: the health of our babies and a clean environment.”
Mayor Steve Benjamin, Columbia, SC
We loved getting veggies with the kids at the Mack Park Farmers Market this summer. My neighbors and I were impressed! I’m happy Mayor Driscoll (Salem, MA) supported this great program - providing free, organically-grown produce in a beautiful park really helps nurture our community!”
- Claudia Paraschiv, Salem, MA, resident and mother of a toddler and newborn
We invite concise proposals from US cities to apply for a $20,000 grant for projects that equitably reduce air pollution, lead, or other neurotoxic exposures that harm children’s brain development, have resilience co-benefits, and leverage bipartisan infrastructure law (BIL) funds when possible.
In tandem with community-led and citywide initiatives, Providence staff were determined to lead by example in city-owned schools and facilities. They embarked on an internal audit to determine what actions the city could take to reduce pollution and foster healthy green spaces.
Learn how the city of San Francisco is keeping children safe by ridding spaces from toxic chemicals and training childcare providers on how to reduce toxic chemical exposures.
The National League of Cities partnered with Bright Cities to convene local and state leaders for a conversation about strategies to equitably reduce exposures that harm the developing brain while providing climate adaptation co-benefits, and the impact on children’s ability to grow and thrive in their communities.
City staff and partners implemented a pilot project that transitioned three neighborhoods to chemical-free turf maintenance, inherently making the community safer for its smallest residents.
Pine Bluff staff implemented projects to support healthy brain development in children like planting trees, increasing access to organic produce, and reducing lead exposures.
