Overview
Award Amount: $996,390.00
Region: Marin County
Communities of Focus: San Rafael Canal District & Marin City
Partners:
In our first year, we have made significant strides in building organizational and resident capacity in each community of focus. We have also been able to foster new trust and relationship as advocates for Marin’s two largest historically underserved communities.
About the Collaborative
The Marin Climate Justice Collaborative (MCJC) works to build capacity and climate resilience to ensure a safe and equitable future for low-income residents and communities of color in Marin County. The communities in the Canal District of San Rafael and unincorporated Marin City have a shared history of underinvestment. They are building on a strong foundation of years of partnership to address socioeconomic and climate impacts such as displacement, a level rise, and flooding, and equitable planning and decision-making. MCJC works to transform the local decision-making dynamic by educating, empowering, and activating residents to drive placemaking and planning projects that build climate resilience, to leverage this power for more effective and generous collaboration. MCJC looks forward to achieving climate justice for Marin County’s most vulnerable communities.
Highlights in Year 1
The MCJC partners are deeply rooted in the priorities of their focus communities, which include building cross-sector partnerships and supporting participatory planning and placemaking efforts within the Canal District and Marin City. In their first year, the partners have dug into opportunities to bring community-led projects to fruition that will address the key climate and socioeconomic challenges that residents in those communities face on a daily basis. The collaborative partners are identifying and developing grant opportunities that align with those priorities as well as building solid relationships among themselves and the City of San Rafael and County of Marin to create social infrastructure.
Additionally, the Canal District partners have launched a Consejo de Residentes (Resident Council) called “Nuestro Canal, Nuestro Futuro” to engage residents in the Canal neighborhood in developing a Neighborhood Vision Plan and engaging in climate resiliency efforts for the community. A Neighborhood Vision Plan will allow Canal residents to define their own assets, needs, and priorities. This plan will be a guide that they can use to direct investments from government, philanthropy, and private businesses. With the collaborative structure, this participatory planning effort can not only build community leadership in place, but also have an avenue for reaching jurisdiction planning leaders and funders.
The Collaborative is also engaging extensively with youth and students in climate adaption and resilience activities. The Marin City Climate Resilience and Health Justice Organization is working with students through an initiative called the Marin City Climate Resilience Environmental Leadership Academy Scholars to develop leadership skills, environmental knowledge, community engagement strategies among many to drive change in Marin City.
The Regional Climate Collaboratives (RCC) initiative presented the partners with a catalyzing opportunity to tap into a variety of initiatives and leverage their collective capacity to secure diverse funding streams. Thus far, the Collaborative has applied to federal, state, and private funding opportunities to catalyze climate action projects in both communities. For example, the Collaborative applied to a number of U.S. EPA grants such as the Community Change Program and the Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving (EJCPS) Cooperative Agreement Program. Additionally, the lead Marin City partner, the Marin City Climate Resilience and Health Justice organization led by Ms. Terrie Green, secured $300,000 through a partnership with the Marin Community Foundation through the Marin Climate Justice Catalyst Fund to leverage their work on the RCC program.
Key Milestones:
- Hosted four technical assistance trainings focused on plan development, community engagement, and capacity building.
- Held 23 outreach and engagement events pertaining to raising awareness of environmental issues in Marin City and recruitment of residents for the Consejo.
- Secured a $180,000 Partners in Place grant to support the Collaborative and participate in leadership development, advocacy training and outreach
- Engaged in local community events throughout the year to raise awareness of the Marin Climate Justice Collaborative and its efforts driving climate action, such as the King Tide Day and the San Rafael Head Start Carnival to name a few.
- Received a U.S. EPA Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Cooperative Agreement Program to develop community-led projects to tackle local climate issues.
What’s Next
The Marin Climate Justice Collaborative is eager to continue leading participatory planning and placemaking efforts within the Canal District and Marin City. In the coming year, the Canal District partners will work closely with members of the Consejo to build the residents’ capacity to engage in decision-making to define the future of their own communities. The partners are also excited to document and share the process of building out the Consejo and the Neighborhood Vision Plan for the Canal District. The Marin City partners look forward to continuing to build community understanding of climate resilience and pursuing funding opportunities for critically needed infrastructure projects to ensure access to clean drinking water, build sea level rise resilience, and create more spaces for outdoor recreation through urban greening.