This funding through the Community Resilience Centers Program will support communities in developing plans for neighborhood-level resource hubs to promote resilience during climate emergencies and year round
Sacramento, CA – The State of California today approved $5 million in grant funding to support communities across the state as they build resilience to climate change. Grants will help prepare communities to implement neighborhood-level Community Resilience Centers. The Centers will serve as emergency response facilities to alleviate the public health impacts of climate change and offer other community services throughout the year.
The California Strategic Growth Council, a State body comprised of three public members and the heads of seven State agencies, voted unanimously today to approve this funding through the new Community Resilience Centers Program. The awards the Council approved today consist of Planning Grants and will go to eleven low-income, disadvantaged, rural, unincorporated, and tribal communities across the state.
Established by Senate Bill 155, the Community Resilience Centers Program advances community resilience to climate impacts through: developing multi-benefit community serving spaces; providing services and programming to support communities both during disasters and year-round; supporting development of community-driven partnerships; expanding economic opportunities; and supporting grassroots engagement in local decision-making processes. The Program received 87 Planning Grant applications representing over $37 million dollars and nearly 200 applications across the Program’s grant types.
“The Community Resilience Centers Program is emerging as a promising model for meaningfully incorporating community members’ diverse perspectives into the decision-making process to address specific community needs,” said Lynn von Koch-Liebert, Executive Director of the Strategic Growth Council. “The amount of applicants for the first round of funding through this Program makes it clear these investments are vital to supporting the communities most vulnerable to climate change in leading equitable and sustainable development in their communities.”
With these awards, SGC has exceeded its commitments to fund priority populations and a geographically diverse set of projects through the Community Resilience Program. Of the 11 projects the Strategic Growth Council voted to award Planning Grants today, three are going to California Native American tribes. All of the projects are located in and benefit designated low-income communities, seven of the projects are located in and benefit disadvantaged communities, three are located in and benefit unincorporated communities, and four are located in and benefit rural communities. The eleven projects span five of the six Office of Emergency Services Fire and Rescue Mutual Aid regions.
“We are truly thankful and grateful for this opportunity to work in community toward a common goal of climate justice and climate resilience. The Community Resilience Center planning process here in Santa Ana will be guided by the principles, values, and culture of those most impacted by climate change,” said the Santa Ana Community Resilience Team, Community Resilience Centers Planning Grantee.
“Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation is excited to have the opportunity to move forward with the planning of its K’wee-lhin’-chu Resilience Center Project. In our homelands of the redwood forests, it is k’wee-lhin’-chu (frog) who is the most resilient creature of the ecosystem. And so it is with this as inspiration that the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation accepts this award, with gratitude, and happily begins to make preparations to provide its citizens and surrounding community with a center where a healthy and balanced environment is prioritized and that Dee-ni’ lifeways can be sustained,” stated the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation, Community Resilience Centers Planning Grantee.
Community Resilience Centers Planning Grant funding will support communities in developing plans for future implementation or operation of community resilience center facilities and related programming. Selected projects will address community-voiced goals of energy independence, workforce development, food security, emergency response, and tribal sovereignty. The Community Resilience Centers will work toward these community-identified priorities year-round, in addition to providing respite during climate and other emergencies.
“We are thrilled to receive a planning grant from the California Strategic Growth Council to develop Community Resilience Centers for three groups on the frontlines of climate change: low-wage home care workers, the medically vulnerable Californians we serve, and priority populations…including people with disabilities and seniors,” said Doug Moore, Executive Director of the United Domestic Workers of America/AFSCME Local 3930. “The planning grant will enable UDW and our project partners to plan for…facilities that continue to provide clean air and water, shelter, and power for medical devices …during grid outages and extreme weather events through features like solar-powered microgrids that offer local workforce opportunities.”
Community Resilience Centers Planning Grantees
$470,813.69 award to High Desert Community Resilience Center – Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice
$470,813.69 award to Mattole Resilience, Education, and Research Center Project – Mattole Restoration Council
$470,813.69 award to Helping At-Risk Regions Build for Organized Resilience (HARBOR) – United Domestic Workers of America/AFSCME Local 3930 (UDW)
$470,813.69 award to Ojai Valley Community Resilience Centers Project – Ojai Valley Fire Safe Council
$470,813.69 award to Əl Kulus (The Granary): A Community Resilience Center – Native Roots Network (NRN)
$291,863.10 award to Redding Day Resource Center – City of Redding
$470,813.69 award to Santa Ana Community Resilience Center – Santa Ana Building Healthy Communities, a fiscally sponsored project of Charitable Ventures
$470,813.69 award to Santa Clara County Resilience Hub Collaboration – Greenbelt Alliance
$470,813.69 award to Pasekinga (Place of Shade) Resilience Center Network (PRCN) – Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians (FTBMI)
$470,813.69 award to K’wee-Ihin’-chu Resilience Center Project – Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation
$470,813.69 award to Planning for Cahuilla Community Resilience and Education Center – Cahuilla Band of Indians
