Project Director: Sharon Gauthe

Funding Organization: National Academies of Science, Engineering, Medicine: Gulf Research Program

Funding Cycles: Capacity Building 1

Description: BISCO’s mission is to build a powerful, multi-faith, multi-ethnic, multi-issue organization that serves as a voice for the people of Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes in southeastern Louisiana, as well as Grand Isle in southern Jefferson Parish. With this award, BISCO and its partners plan to train coastal Louisiana communities to use citizen science to monitor the environment for contaminants. They intend to pilot a training program designed to develop a citizen scientist network and create sustainable avenues for communication, collaboration, and knowledge exchange. Through community-led citizen science, BISCO and its partners hope to build BISCO’s capacity and enhance community health and resilience in ways that promote equitable cross-boundary collaboration, foster scientific literacy, and encourage community-based action around environmental risks.