A New Initiative Will Create Neighborhood Resilience Hubs to Serve Vulnerable Populations

Imagine your community is impacted by the next wildfire that starts in our region. Maybe your home is in close proximity to the flames, or the smoke and ash from the fire drifts to your doorstep. How will you respond? Will you have the supplies you need? Will you know when or where to evacuate to? If you lose power, how will you prepare food, stay cool, or run air purifiers? What if you have a neighbor who needs help? By sharing information and resources, residents can be empowered to support each other and build community resilience in the face of wildfires, earthquakes, extreme heat, and other natural disasters.    

For years, the Community Environmental Council (CEC) and our partners have taken bold action aimed at protecting vulnerable populations and strengthening communities along the Central Coast in the face of climate change. In 2021, we completed our Climate Resilience Roundtable series, garnering insights from many community members, and informing a first-of-its-kind Climate Action Plan to identify the most immediate climate threats to our region and prioritize actions we can take now to reduce these risks. 

One action already underway is the establishment of neighborhood climate resilience centers – or hubs – that provide centralized disaster services, support, and education to residents who are most vulnerable or at high risk during disasters. The Santa Barbara Regional Climate Collaborative, in partnership with CEC and the Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project (MICOP), received a grant to plan and design a network of resilience centers. Grant funds will support community-based organizations to conduct neighborhood level outreach and gather input on where resilience centers should be located and what services they should offer. CEC will lead the effort to develop a toolkit with resources and guidance on how to develop climate resilience centers in other locations with the goal of establishing a network of centers across the county.

CEC’s climate resilience and climate justice teams are working diligently with our partners through the Collaborative to identify potential existing and trusted facilities (schools, community centers, churches, etc.) that could serve as resilience hubs.

“Climate resilience centers provide space to share information, create self-sustaining networks of community support, and build leadership and empowerment at the neighborhood level,” said CEC Climate Justice Manager Jen Hernandez. “We envision each resilience hub as a critical community lifeline that can coordinate resource distribution and services throughout a natural hazard event.” 

Recently, the Collaborative announced an open-call for local agencies and organizations to apply for funding and support to establish their existing facility as one of three countywide community resilience hubs: two in North County (Santa Ynez Valley, Lompoc Valley, Santa Maria Valley, and/or Cuyama Valley), and one on the South Coast (Gaviota to Carpinteria). Selected sites will receive support to establish their hub, including a technical site audit and recommendations to implement energy resilience improvements, guidance from a local community-based organization on how to engage the public, direction from the County on how to develop a governance framework, and up to $15,000 to offset the costs of staff participation. Funding for the program comes from a $200,000 grant from the California Resilience Challenge and a $25,000 grant from PG&E.

In coordination with County staff, CEC is charged with designing a web-based climate resilience hub toolkit that will provide key information to help local governments, nonprofits, and other community-based institutions establish successful resilience hubs. This work builds on CEC’s long term role in developing and disseminating real life solutions that lead to positive outcomes for our climate and our community. 

“Key to ensuring success will be working with local partners to develop a community engagement plan for each selected hub,” said CEC Climate Resilience Associate Trace Sykes, who is leading the development of the toolkit. “The toolkit will include a variety of mechanisms to support communities through the engagement process, and guidance for designing a resilience hub that is responsive to each community’s unique needs before, during, and after a climate disturbance. Ideally, a resilience hub will not only reflect community needs, but also community strengths, vision, and identity.”

Interested parties should attend the Collaborative’s informational webinar on July 26, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. PST. The webinar is an opportunity for potential applicants to learn whether their facility is eligible to become a resilience hub, and what the application process entails. Applications to participate in the program are due September 7, 2022. Learn more, register for the webinar, and apply. 

Learn more about how CEC is building community resilience to climate impacts.