The Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA), $50,000, Monterey County, will provide training in organic agriculture, pesticide exposure, conservation farming and careers in sustainable agriculture for farmworkers in Salinas Valley. ALBA will provide intensive land-based organic agriculture education to 100 aspiring farmer-entrepreneurs, agriculture professionals and field workers to build a stronger and healthier agricultural workforce and community. Organic agriculture eliminates the use of toxic synthetic pesticides in food production and reduces pesticide exposure which has proven harmful not only to field laborers, but to their families and communities. ALBA will provide intensive education and assistance to 50 start-up organic farms, 25 of their workers and an additional 25 aspiring organic agriculture professionals. The project will directly support the next generation of farmers and agricultural workers who will have the tools to create a healthier workplace, community, rural economy and environment.
The Asian Pacific Self-Development and Residential Association (APSARA), $50,000, San Joaquin County, will build the capacity of Southeast Asians (primarily Cambodian, Hmong, Laotian, and Vietnamese) in Stockton to participate in environmental decision-making processes. APSARA will also survey the community’s initial priorities for green infrastructure projects to be included in the state’s Transformative Climate Communities Program, led by the California Strategic Growth Council. APSARA will conduct small group planning sessions to determine which Southeast Asian priorities for green infrastructure projects will be included in the SNP and train the community on the technical and procedural aspects of environmental decision-making. APSARA will help the community develop a final SNP and build a strategy for implementation for the plan. APSARA and partners will also develop low literacy educational materials such as posters and fact sheets in Cambodian, Hmong, and Lao languages. APSARA will distribute 3,000 one-page educational flyers to inform residents of their opportunity for training and co-creation of the SNP. APSARA’s small group planning sessions will convene 10 to 15 Southeast Asian residents. APSARA will conduct 10 interactive community workshops to train at least 300 Stockton residents.
The Cahto Tribe of Laytonville Rancheria, $30,000, Mendocino County, in partnership with nearby community residents, will further investigate and research Mendocino County’s landfill in Laytonville (Laytonville Landfill). The Laytonville Landfill is bordered on the north by Branscomb Road and on the east and south by the Laytonville Rancheria. The Laytonville Landfill began operation in 1967, closed in September 1993, and was capped in 1997. This project will further investigate and provide a response to tribal concerns regarding potential contaminant exposure to the Cahto Tribe and the surrounding environment as a result of contaminant sources originating at the Laytonville Landfill. The Cahto Tribe will conduct water quality monitoring and sampling, identify the types of illnesses, diseases, and their relationship with known contamination sites, identify public health concerns and/or threats, conduct education and outreach on the Laytonville Landfill contamination, and will host three community meetings.
The California Indian Environmental Alliance (CIEA), $50,000, San Francisco and San Joaquin Counties, will provide support to 86 Northern California Tribes to regionally designate traditionally used water bodies with the new statewide beneficial uses definitions: ”Tribal Subsistence Fishing” and “Tribal Cultural Uses.” Tribes will work collaboratively to prepare for and to establish numerical water quality objectives by consensus through the Triennial Reviews of the North Coast, San Francisco Bay, Central Valley and Pacific Ocean Basin Plan Amendments. CIEA will work with Tribes to identify traditional fishing locations, rates of fish consumption, and exposure to toxins through cultural practices, share strategies, and promote participation in regional water board hearings. CIEA will be guided by a Tribal Advisory Committee made up of, at minimum, two Tribes from each of the four regions.
The California Indian Museum and Cultural Center (CIMCC), $50,000, Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino Counties, through ten of its American Indian and Alaska Native member youth (native youth) from Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino counties, will produce an interactive, digital map guide that depicts locations where traditional foods may be gathered in the region, overlaid with pesticides, toxins, and/or pollutants that may also be present. The CIMCC map guide or “Bah-ah ted’-doo: Managing Ancestral Places (MAP),” will be enriched with culturally relevant information about the pesticides, toxins, and pollutants to educate traditional food gatherers and other interested stakeholders about their risks to human and environmental health. MAP will cover the 6,400 square mile tri-county region of Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino counties in Northern California, which also contains Pomo and Miwok ancestral lands. It will target about 28,000 native people who are members of or descended from the 24 California federally recognized and non-recognized tribes in this region. CIMCC will work with Tribal Youth Ambassadors (TYA) interns and Tribal Culture Bearers to incorporate more perspectives to the project. Through continuous outreach, community meetings, and with feedback from community members, CIMCC will ensure that native people and tribes will be able to be more informed about risks in places where they practice their traditional food ways, better protect their own health, and advocate for diverse land use practices to reduce pesticide/toxin use and clean up pollutants.
The Central California Environmental Justice Network (CCEJN), $50,000, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Madera, Fresno, Kings, and Kern Counties, will engage youth from Stockton, Modesto, Madera, Fresno, Kettleman City and Delano, around the issues of environmental justice and climate change. CCEJN will work with six partner organizations: Little Manila Rising, Valley Improvement Project, Madera Coalition for Community Justice, Central Valley Quality Coalition and Young Fresnans for the Environment; People for Clean Air and Water of Kettleman City; and the Center for Race Poverty and Environment. With these organizations, CCEJN will work with high school students at the Center for Advance Research and Technology (CART) to document environmental justice problems in their communities. CCEJN students will interview a resident or decision maker, do a photo voice project, do a video that depicts an environmental justice problem in their community and provide recommendations for solutions. The CCEJN youth will feature their projects at a panel at CCEJN’s 20th Anniversary EJ Conference in January 2020.
Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), $49,988, Los Angeles County, will host a six-week Environmental Justice (EJ) Summer Training Institute to advance community leadership, technical skills, and civic engagement in EJ communities most impacted by fossil fuel industries and pollutants in Wilmington and the small municipalities of southeast Los Angeles. CBE will provide a summer training for youth and adult CBE members in Wilmington and in southeast Los Angeles to discuss environmental justice, explore climate adaptation tools, and share cultural resilience skills through intergenerational learning. The CBE training will include a foundation of historical and current social and environmental issues to discuss how issues are intersectional. CBE will also share technical data and tools around cumulative risks and climate change impacts. CBE will work with Youth for Environmental Justice (Youth EJ) and southeast Los Angeles community organizers to develop leadership and capacity building opportunities for youth and adult community members. CBE will also conduct a toxic and resiliency tour of both communities. The southeast Los Angeles training will include an art-based evaluation where CBE members create a mural in their community to depict the information and solutions gathered.
Community Water Center (CWC), $30,000, Monterey County, will provide education, outreach, and leadership development to low-income, predominantly Latino communities in the Central Coast. With CWC’s support, residents will have the tools to lead the development of community-driven solutions and to foster effective community participation in local, regional and statewide decision-making processes in pursuit of providing safe and affordable drinking water for all. Many of these communities are part of a farm-worker family, and many are either monolingual Spanish or limited English speakers that do not have access to safe, clean and affordable drinking water. CWC will connect residents with resources, such as replacement water programs and private well testing. CWC will also establish a regional coalition to address drinking water issues in the Central Coast.
The Cuyama Valley Family Resource Center (CVFRC), $50,000, Santa Barbara County, will inform and build capacity of community members in the Cuyama Valley community about the issues of groundwater, water quality and air quality. These issues are interconnected and will impact the Cuyama Valley through the implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) of 2015. The Cuyama Valley, which is entirely dependent on groundwater, is one of only 21 basins in California (out of 515 total basins) that is considered in “critical overdraft” and is at risk of severe impacts on the availability of water and compromised water quality and air quality. With the advent of SGMA, the Cuyama Valley community has the opportunity to become educated about fair and equitable groundwater management. The CVFRC will provide information, training, research, and networking opportunities to community members, with particular emphasis on the predominately low-income farmworker Latino community, to ensure that all voices are heard and the community can fully participate in the management of its groundwater. CVFRC will conduct four bilingual informational sessions about groundwater led by the Promotores de Cuyama and four bilingual town hall meetings to update the community on current SGMA developments. CVFRC will hold small support group meetings with the Promotores de Cuyama to support community member participation in the groundwater management decision-making process. The CVFRC will also help all current and new Promotores to attend the statewide Vision y Conpromiso Conference and provide 50 hours of training on advocacy and leadership to six to eight Promotores. The CVFRC will work with the Cuyama Joint Unified School District to establish a task force that will meet quarterly to help develop a children’s curriculum on groundwater management, and help produce a first annual “Cuyama Water/Aqua” Science Faire for elementary and high school students.
The Earth Team, $48,867, San Francisco County, will collaborate with San Lorenzo, Castro Valley, Arroyo, and Skyline High Schools in the East Bay to hire and train 150 high school students as afterschool paid interns to learn and help educate over 5,000 peers, family members, and community members in stormwater and nonpoint source pollution, its sources and impacts on human health. The effects of nonpoint source pollutants vary and are hard to assess fully. The Earth Team will develop a 120-hour curriculum that includes water quality assessments of the four high school associated creeks, pet waste pollution prevention, residential garden pesticide awareness, creekside habitat improvement, zero litter surveys, watershed management, stormwater-related career exploration, hands-on stormwater specific STEM skills development, GLOBE hydrosphere data collection and analysis protocols, and restoration techniques. The Earth Team will also conduct three off-campus creek restoration field-day events at each campus site. The Earth Team students will also participate in an education campaign that includes the development of a three-minute video on stormwater pollution, conducting lunch rallies to share posters communicating the project finding from the project’s collection activities, and eight in-class presentations. The Earth Team students will also participate in one community watershed workday that will require tabling at a in a local community event to share findings and best practices with the community on water pollution prevention.
The Environmental Health Coalition (EHC), $50,000, San Diego, will work to educate residents the community of Logan in San Diego who are heavily impacted by air pollution sources and are at high risk for respiratory health issues, specifically asthma. The EHC will educate Logan residents on air quality issues, through its Community Action Team that meets monthly. EHC will also provide in-home assessments to identify and remediate indoor respiratory health hazards. EHC will provide Logan community members with healthy homes kits that include non-toxic cleaning supplies, safe pest traps, and an action plan for long-term improvements to their home environment. EHC will develop a leadership curriculum on air pollution that will include guidance on reporting violations through the San Diego Air Pollution Control District’s Compliant Program. EHC will hold mini, one-time workshops to help community members understand local environmental decision-making processes. EHC will lead Logan residents in air sampling monitoring events.
Fathers & Families of San Joaquin (FFSJ), $50,000, San Joaquin County, will raise the awareness of environmental justice issues in south Stockton neighborhoods to spur reinvestment, sustainability, and economic development. Fathers & Families of San Joaquin will develop a K-12 curriculum to promote capacity building focused on environmental justice, environmental hazards, and leadership and emotional management skills. FFSJ will conduct intergenerational dialogues and learning exchanges with south Stockton youth and elders, where youth will interview elders about the importance of community, how elders view the environmental changes they have witnessed over their lifetime, and how that ties into how they value the community in which the live. FFSJ youth will also hold a roundtable discussion with formerly incarcerated individuals to draw connections between environmental justice and criminal justice to discuss ideas for developing green job pathways and opportunities. FFSJ will compile their findings from the interviews into two reports. FFSJ will also conduct community monitoring, community beautification, and video campaigns.
Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice (Greenaction), $30,000, Kings and Monterey Counties, will engage the working class and predominantly Latino, Spanish-speaking farmworker communities of Kettleman City in Kings County and the city of Gonzales in Monterey County through community education. Greenaction and its community partners El Pueblo Para el Aire y Agua Limpia (People for Clean Air and Water of Kettleman City) and Asamblea de Gonzales will work together to engage residents in decision-making processes with regional and state regulatory agencies and elected officials on environmental health and justice issues. Greenaction will conduct an intensive six-week environmental and climate justice leadership academy with youth. Greenaction will conduct a bilingual community education campaign and develop three bilingual educational fact sheets on pesticide drift, exposure, health impacts, and how to report violations; the health and environmental dangers of diesel idling and how to report violations of the anti-idling laws; and how to participate in local government process in both communities. Greenaction will also hire a part-time Gonzales pesticide drift community educator/organizer, conduct door-to-door outreach in neighborhoods, and help academy participants understand how to participate in local Kings County and Gonzales government meetings.
Groundwork Richmond, $41,461, Contra Costa County, will partner John F. Kennedy High School and 180 of its students to implement a dynamic, peer-to-peer environmental education platform: Air Rangers in the Classroom. This project will compliment Groundwork Richmond’s existing project funded by the California Air Resources Board’s AB 617 Community Air Grant project to monitor and reduce emissions to improve air quality in Richmond. This Groundwork Richmond project will provide an outreach effort with JFK High School students. The three main objectives of this project will be to establish an effective partnership with JFK High School, to implement a student-led air quality monitoring project on campus, and to develop and deliver high school curricula that provides students with four educational workshops on environmental justice, public health, climate resilience, and civic engagement. Groundwork Richmond will deliver direct educational programs to 180 students in the Advanced Placement Environmental Studies, Tech Academy, 9th grade biology classes and after-school programs at JFK High School. Groundwork Richmond will provide teacher training, develop classroom lessons, install a campus-wide air quality monitoring network, provide community based service-learning activities, create public advocacy opportunities and share professional development opportunities in environmental justice career paths.
Hopland Band of Pomo Indians, $33,914, Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino Counties, will work with 950 members of the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians on their reservation land base of 2,070 acres. The Tribe is located in southeastern Mendocino County, 90 miles of north San Francisco. Fifty percent of the residents on the Hopland Reservation live in degraded mobile homes or trailers and some have a leaking roof causing black mold and rodent infestations. The Hopland Tribe conducted black mold testing and remediation at these sites, however black mold is pervasive in other locations. The mold confirmed units are either abandoned, leaving a toxic mess for the Tribe to clean up and remove, or homeless Tribal members continue to live in them. This project will provide technical support in leak prevention to Pomo peoples living in the Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino counties by conducting a hands-on workshop on the Hopland Reservation open to all 22 Pomo Tribes in these counties. The Hopland Tribe will offer a two-day workshop to train participants on how to build a mobile home floating roof over existing mobile homes to eliminate leaky roofs, reduce black mold, and improve indoor air quality. The Hopland Tribe will also provide outreach and education materials to Tribal members on leak detection to prevent black mold in mobile homes. The Hopland Tribe will also provide information on integrated pest management for rodent control with continuing outreach at subsequent intertribal special events.
Humboldt Baykeeper, $40,365, Humboldt County, will analyze fish caught by local tribal, subsistence, and sport fishermen in Humboldt Bay and nearby coastal waters in northwestern California to determine the magnitude of mercury exposure from local fish consumption. This Humboldt Baykeeper (HB) project is part of the second phase of a project previously funded by CalEPA and aims to inform tribal members, fishermen, and their families of best practices to avoid mercury exposure. The HB will recruit traditional tribal and subsistence fishermen to provide samples of Pacific lamprey, lingcod, black rockfish, and other important local species to assess the human health risk from mercury exposure. The HB will collect lamprey and fish tissue samples to be analyzed by a certified laboratory to add to results from Phase I. The HB will use the data to make recommendations to reduce community exposure. The HB will conduct bilingual outreach to community members to share the project findings.
I Am My Brother’s Keeper CDC (IAMBK CDC), $39,850, San Diego County, in partnership with the Southeast San Diego Sustainability Coalition, will implement an outreach campaign to engage mobile home communities in southeast San Diego, with a series of four workshops focusing on climate solutions. Eight Sustainability Ambassadors will be provided training to become community liaisons on sustainability-related topics such as clean vehicle rebates, residential energy and water efficiency best practices, and weatherization and solar installation workforce training.
Insight Garden Program, $50,000, statewide, will work with over 150 women incarcerated at Chowchilla Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) and Chino California Institution for Women (CIW) to provide them with the tools, knowledge, and understanding needed to tackle environmental pollution and hazards, along with green job skills to assist them upon their return home. IGP will work with the women who were formerly incarcerated to engage state decision makers in reducing the environmental impacts caused by prisons. IGP will provide two-hour training sessions on environmental education, sustainable agriculture, inner gardening and systemic injustice, re-entry and green skills career preparation. The training sessions will be held in classrooms and in prison gardens with trained expert facilitators, some of whom are formerly incarcerated. IGP will also create bridges between IGP women participants, green employers and environmental justice organizations to strengthen and provide green career connections and opportunities upon reentry home.
The Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, $50,000, Riverside County, will work alongside community partners in the Eastern Coachella Valley (ECV) to improve the air quality in the region. The ECV includes the city of Coachella, and the unincorporated communities of Thermal, Oasis, Mecca, and North Shore. The ECV faces environmental impacts from agricultural pesticide use, illegal dumping, hazardous waste facilities, unpaved roads, substandard housing conditions, inadequate public transportation, inadequate water and wastewater services and amenities, goods movement, and the declining Salton Sea. The Leadership Counsel will promote resident participation to improve active transportation and transit usage in the 2020 Regional Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy. The Leadership Counsel will also foster deeper engagement in the State Community Air Protection Program (AB 617) by working with the South Coast Air Quality Management District on the second year of implementation. The Leadership Counsel will also encourage ECV community partners to promote community climate resilience to bring a Transformative Climate Communities’ implementation grant to the region., The Leadership Counsel will also conduct monthly community meetings with ECV community.
The Oakland Climate Action Coalition (OCAC), $30,000, Alameda County, who contracted with the city of Oakland to serve as its “Equity Facilitator” for its 2030 Energy and Climate Action Plan, a plan that sets climate action priorities for the next decade, is in the process of forming a resident advisory council: Neighborhood Leadership Cohort (NLC). It will work to ensure meaningful community input in a series of community workshops, one held in each city council district. The OCAC will extend the NLC training through quarterly leadership development forums, develop a user-friendly online portal/mobile app to augment Oakland’s 2030 Equitable Climate Action Plan (ECAP) and host two community events to gather input and answer resident questions about the 2030 ECAP. OCAC will also co-host six climate equity work days.
Pueblo Unido CDC, $45,030, Riverside County, will develop a consolidation action plan for water and sewer infrastructure to provide safe, clean and affordable water to 15,000 low-income farm workers living in small 12-unit mobile home park villages not served by municipal water and sanitation services in the Eastern Coachella Valley in Riverside County. These farm worker villages depend on small water systems, private domestic wells and septic systems that do not meet state requirements for water quality. Pueblo Unido will conduct home visits to survey farm worker residents about what type of water system residents currently use, what type of septic systems they use, and contaminants in their drinking water systems. They will use this data to build a bi-lingual Spanish/English public awareness campaign, conduct four community planning meetings, and develop a consolidated water and sewer infrastructure plan for the community. Pueblo Unido will also promote resident participation in the Riverside County Housing Review Committee Advisory Council and the Coachella Valley Water District’s Disadvantaged Communities Infrastructure Task Force, which can address the community’s infrastructure issues.
Regeneración Pajaro Valley Climate Action Project, $48,780, Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties, will build climate resilience, help improve public health outcomes through heat stress prevention outreach in the predominantly agricultural Pajaro Valley in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. Regeneración will elevate awareness of heat stress caused by rising temperatures due to climate change and promote preventive measures that can be taken by vulnerable populations and community allies. Regeneración will develop a new culturally appropriate educational sheet on climate related heat stress cause and prevention in Spanish and English, engage with growers about climate impacts on their operations and workers, host one climate change and heat community forum. Regeneración will also develop two Spanish language radio public service announcements, conduct six group meetings with farm workers, and conduct extensive direct outreach to farm workers. Regeneración plans to reach over 2,000 community members in Pajaro Valley.
The Rising Sun Center for Opportunity $50,000, San Mateo County, will train and employ 54 local youths to work in their communities of East Palo Alto, eastern San Jose, and the greater Stockton region, to provide 1,750 homes with the free Green House Call service. At each Green House Call, a team of two youths perform an energy and water assessment, install water-and energy-saving devices such as LED light bulbs and shower heads, and provide resources for residents to further save energy and water in the home. The Green House Call service prioritizes underserved and hard-to-reach residents and delivers, at no cost to the resident, tangible savings in energy, water, and dollars. Each Green House Call client is provided with a summary report of work done in the home along with a list of community resources. Youths will learn about environmental conservation.
The Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment (Rose Foundation), $50,000, Alameda County, will engage two elementary schools (Acorn Woodland Elementary School and EnCompass Academy) and two high schools (Coliseum College Prep Academy and Fremont High School) in east Oakland in a youth air monitoring project. This will be done in partnership with the East Bay Academy of Young Scientists (EBAYS) at UC Berkeley and Communities for a Better Environment (CBE). The Rose Foundation youth air monitoring project will educate youths about the importance of science in developing community based solutions and different ways to gather, analyze, and disseminate data to advance environmental justice. The Rose Foundation project will increase youth understanding of the environmental issues that affect them and their communities, and of actions that can be taken to improve these conditions. Rose Foundation students will be trained on how to collect data. They will keep odor logs at the elementary schools, which are situated near an active foundry, and at the high schools, which are situated near truck routes. They will also use portable particulate sensors and stationary monitors to assess particulate concentrations. The data will be shared with parents and community members at an Earth Day event and at other community meetings, along with information about opportunities to participate in decision-making processes.
The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, $50,000, Santa Barbara County, will conduct a pesticide and agricultural pollutant exposure watershed assessment of the Zanja de Cota Creek that runs through the Chumash reservation, located 35 miles northwest of Santa Barbara. The Tribe will conduct the assessment to understand how the reservation and its tribal members are being impacted by the surrounding large-scale industrial agricultural and vinicultural operations. The Tribe will develop the assessment to identify surrounding agricultural land uses, outline pesticides, herbicides, other nutrients and chemicals that are applied, and assess pathways for pesticides and herbicides through air and water. The Tribe will collect and test water and atmospheric deposition samples (12-24 samples) for the pollutants of concern identified in the watershed assessment. The Tribe will also engage its members in monitoring activities and educational workshops that will explain the impact findings in relation to the adjacent industrial-scale agricultural and vinicultural land uses. The goal of the project is to catalyze conversations with local landowners to reduce or alter their pesticide use, expand the Chumash community’s knowledge about local water and air quality health risks, and increase the community’s capacity to advocate for their health, and the health of important environmental and cultural resources that are important to the Chumash.
Sierra Nevada Journeys (SNJ), $26,083, Sacramento County, will deliver a curriculum to galvanize elementary school students in Sacramento to address polluted drinking water, groundwater threats, water conservation and polluted riparian ecosystems, all explored through the lens of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). SNJ will provide in-class lessons, field-study experiences, teacher resources, a parent engagement strategy and volunteer opportunities for both parents and community members for first through sixth-grade students to address these issues. SNJ will educate 600 students and 67 volunteers through hands-on activities and discussions of the Sacramento watershed to increase their understanding about critical environmental issues that affect them. Students will also participate in daylong field study science experience at the William B. Pond Recreation Area on the American River Parkway, a main tributary of the Sacramento River Watershed.
Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education, $50,000, Los Angeles County, will engage with 8,000 south Los Angeles residents to identify community-led climate change impacts solutions build the capacity of the community to advance these solutions in local policy and planning processes. SCOPE will train community residents on climate change policies, decision-making processes, and framework to identify potential solutions. SCOPE will also develop community leaders through a six-week leadership training program and develop popular education tools and materials related to climate changes issues. SCOPE will develop and administer a short community survey to identify impacts and priorities for south Los Angeles. SCOPE will conduct a day-long intensive training in partnership with the Los Angeles Equity Alliance and will partner with Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles to conduct two community walks to ground-truth the southeast Los Angeles community.
Sustainable Solano, $49,852, Solano County, in partnership with Solano Public Health and UC Davis, will engage in listening circles with Fairfield, Suisun City and Vacaville residents in Solano County to identify 10 neighborhoods for green infrastructure programs. Sustainable Solano will translate print materials into Spanish and project meetings will be facilitated in Spanish. Sustainable Solano will analyze current environmental data in collaboration with the UC Davis Air Quality Research Center. Sustainable Solano will map 10 neighborhoods in need of urban greening and select up to 20 focus areas that need further interventions. Sustainable Solano will create a hot spot map with the Yolo-Solano Air Quality Management District. If there are any gaps in the data, the UC Davis Air Quality Research Center will conduct additional monitoring and research and interpret complex air quality data. The Justice Collective will provide pro-bono guidance on facilitation.
The Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment (CRPE), $50,000, Kern County, will develop a training program for residents in low-income, predominately Latino, farmworker communities of Arvin, Lamont, Greenfield, Delano, Lost Hills, and Shafter in Kern County. CRPE will bring together five agencies, academics, and residents to facilitate data collection that will lead to improved enforcement and more health protective decision-making. CRPE will partner with the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), the Department of Conservation (DOC), and the State Water Resources Control Board to develop five hands-on field trainings on low-cost and accessible techniques and tools to monitor and report soil, air and water pollution. CRPE will promote resident collaboration with agencies in order to fill an information and resource gap, which will lead to better and more focused enforcement action and decision-making. CRPE will work with each agency to develop media specific curriculum then hold five-day long workshop. CRPE will conduct a graduation event to recognize agency trainers and participants.
The Sierra Fund (TSF), $35,738, Sierra, Nevada, and Yuba Counties, will build the capacity of rural, low-income, and underrepresented residents of Nevada, Yuba, and Sierra counties to address community fire resilience, assist the community in emergency management planning, and mitigate air quality health impacts. TSF will expand the reach of its 30-question community environmental health survey, which asks how community members are impacted by environmental health issues, to collect an additional 100 surveys from the three counties to add to the data from 50 surveys already collected. TSF will translate the survey into Spanish to survey Spanish speaking Sierra Nevada residents. TSF will use geospatial mapping to identify priority areas in high fire severity zones (as defined by Cal Fire) and will conduct outreach to these areas. TSF will identify local community leaders to help prioritize forestry projects at the Yuba Watershed Coordinator Forum and coordinate assistance to support economic development and carbon sequestration through California’s Forest Carbon Plan. TSF will work with Fire Safe Councils in the Sierra Nevada to identify defensible space grant programs available for use by forest-based resident. TSF will develop a Spanish-language evacuation checklist and conduct outreach to the Latinx community. TSF will also work to ensure emergency alert notifications are available in Spanish. TSF will identify communities with vulnerabilities to poor air quality and then build a coalition of public health stakeholders to develop a wildfire air quality impacts mitigation strategy.
The Tuolumne River Preservation Trust (TRT), $27,056, Stanislaus County, will engage community residents from under-served riverside communities (Airport and La Loma neighborhoods) and promote climate resilience in the City of Modesto. TRT will host four community-wide workshops and six community meetings to work with community residents to understand how they can participate in their local environmental decision-making processes. TRT will translate into Spanish available General Plan information sheets, presentations and handouts.
Valley Improvement Projects, $43,050, Stanislaus County, will target low-income, farmworker, immigrant and Spanish-speaking community residents in Stanislaus County on pesticide exposure and drinking water issues. The VIP project will build community capacity by assisting community residents in creating educational materials, hosting a conference and training workshop, and facilitating trips to the offices of their local elected representatives, and educate the community understanding and on how to participate in environmental decision-making processes.
The West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project (WOEIP), $49,966, Alameda County, will hire a Community Air Action Liaison, a dedicated staff member who will conduct direct community outreach door-to-door, through newsletters, social media and a website to support WOEIP’s Assembly Bill 617 Community Air Action Plan in West Oakland. The Community Air Action Liaison will provide information on neighborhood air pollution, instruction on how to get involved in the implementation of the Community Action Plan, and guidance on how to take individual steps to reduce health risks from pollution. The AB 617 Community Air Action Plan is co-designed and co-lead with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD). The Community Air Action Liaison will serve as a liaison between the community and government, responding to community concerns in a timely manner, identifying, and advocating with the appropriate enforcement agency or government body. Air pollution disproportionately affects West Oakland area residents who live in close proximity to the Port of Oakland, freeways surrounding the entire neighborhood, and mixed-use zoning that enables industrial activities within residential areas. This project and staff will significantly increase community engagement and local leadership capacity.
Wu Yee Children’s Services, $50,000, San Francisco County, will provide a training workshop about flame retardant chemicals sometimes found in furniture and children’s products. According to a 2014 study, foam nap mats are one of the major sources of flame retardant exposure in childcare settings. Flame retardant chemicals may disrupt brain development and thyroid hormones, affect learning, memory and attention, reduce sperm quality and fertility, and contribute to the formation of cancer. Wu Yee will create a multilingual training curriculum for childcare providers about flame retardant chemicals and select safe, environmentally friendly nap mats to distribute to childcare providers in this project. The training on flame-retardants will be provided to over 210 childcare providers who service the southeastern and Bayview Hunters Point, Potero Hill, Vistacion Valley, the Excelsior, South of Market and Tenderloin neighborhoods of San Francisco. The workshop and materials will be available in Cantonese, Mandarin, English and Spanish. After the training, Wu Yee will distribute free flame retardant-free nap mats at no cost to the newly trained childcare providers. This intervention will help child-care providers create a safer environment for the children ages 1-5 years in their care, who are particularly vulnerable to the effects of flame retardant chemicals.