Climate Justice Initiative Spring 2024 Cycle
Advancing Equitable and Just Climate Resilience in Marin County
OVERVIEW
MCF’s Climate Justice Initiative recognizes that climate change and social justice are profoundly intertwined. Communities that have long endured chronic stressors, including poverty and racial segregation, are more vulnerable to the health, economic, and environmental impacts of climate change. These same communities are deeply rooted in social and cultural strength, but their capacity to build resilience in the face of unprecedented climate disruption is limited without additional financial and political capital.
Recent federal and state legislation has made available hundreds of billions of dollars for infrastructure projects, renewables deployment, and other approaches to reduce climate risks and create healthier communities. These unprecedented public funds present an immediate opportunity to center community voice in advancing equitable and just climate solutions while laying the groundwork to ensure progress that is made continues beyond this immediate windfall.
**This funding opportunity is now closed. Please see below to read about the grantees awarded through this fund and learn about their work**
GOAL and STRATEGIES
The primary goal of MCF’s Climate Justice Initiative is to leverage significant public and private climate investments that provide near-term opportunities and long-term benefits for low-income communities and communities of color in Marin County, California.
Through three aligned strategies, we aim to distribute, shape, and secure significant resources for community-led, equitable climate resilience that improve and protect health and prosperity for all:
- Build local capacity to advance local equitable climate resilience processes and projects
- Expand and amplify climate justice advocacy at the local, regional, state, and federal levels
- Catalyze climate action through partnerships, collaboratives, and coalitions
This Spring 2024 Climate Justice RFP welcomed proposals that address one or more of these strategies, with particular interest in the first and third.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
The Climate Justice Initiative is guided by the following principles:
- Seek multisolving approaches that lead to long-term and near-term benefits for community well-being.
- Embrace targeted universalism by centering local populations and communities that are at most risk from the impacts of climate change.
- Build local capacity to advance culturally relevant, affirmative strategies that increase both human and ecological health.
- Invest in partnerships and collaborations that cultivate mutual trust and balance of power.
- Support innovation, iteration, evaluation, and learning.
Additionally, we have adopted this definition of climate resilience:[1]
Climate Change Mitigation + Adaptation + Deep Democracy = Resilience
- Mitigation is about reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
- Adaptation is about planning and shifting our built environment and practices to account for current and anticipated effects.
- Deep democracy is about fostering social cohesion, inclusion, power, and participation — especially in communities that are already confronting new climate realities.
- To be effective, climate resilience must incorporate all of these elements; it is a broad, multidimensional response to the causes of climate change and the potential solutions.
Climate Justice Initiative Spring Awards 2024
Awards from the Spring 2024 Climate Justice Initiative are being distributed to the following grantees:
Aliados Health: to support Marin's health centers to become more climate resilient.
Canal Alliance: to provide support for Collaborative Community Vision Planning in the Canal
City of San Rafael: to create a fixed term Climate Justice and Engagement Manager position to manage community projects involving the Canal neighborhood and other priority areas.
Ecological Workforce Initiative: to establish landscape restoration career pathways in Marin through coordinated advocacy efforts and increased local, regional, and statewide partnerships.
ExtraFood: to engage in state policy advocacy to increase resources for food recovery efforts; to strengthen local food distribution networks in priority communities; and to provide disaster preparedness resources to food recipients.
Innovative Health Solutions: to expand West Marin Food Systems' food waste prevention and food recovery efforts.
Marin City Climate Resilience: to provide support for Collaborative Community Vision Planning in Marin City, and for organizational capacity
Marin Clean Energy: to expand local decarbonization workforce programs in Marin County in partnership with the LIME Foundation, Strategic Energy Innovations, Association for Energy Affordability and others.
Marin County Fire Department: to provide housing and other wrap-around supports to local recruits to the Fire Foundry program.
Multicultural Center of Marin: to support the inaugural year of the Lifting Up Leaders initiative.
North Marin Community Services: to increase capacity and utilize NMCS' Promotores network to engage the Latine community in climate justice advocacy in Novato.
Raíces del Canal: to support the Cultivando Nuestras Raices Environmental Justice program to develop leadership skills of Canal Latino youth and families through hands-on, collaborative environmental projects.
Sustainable Marin Schools: to expand SMS' sustainability programs in Novato Unified School District's seven Title I schools and three majority-minority schools, and to add Decarbonization to its program offerings.
CONTACTS:
Content questions: Patti D’Angelo Juachon, Program Director for the Environment: pjuachon@marincf.org or 415.464.2547
Technical questions: Renee Lazzareschi, Program Assistant for the Environment: rlazzareschi@marincf.org or 415.464.2509
[1] Rosa Gonzalez, Lead Author, Movement Strategy Center, and National Association of Climate Resilience Planners, 2017. Community Driven Climate Resilience Planning Framework 2.0
