Contacts:
Gissela Chavez, gissela@cbecal.org
California Climate and Health Equity Hub, Community Data and Action for Regional Resilience
Community based Climate Hub Network to inform regional and state climate adaptation strategies
Los Angeles, CA– In honor of embodying the Just Transition principle of Movement of Movements and protecting frontline communities from extreme climate crises, Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) is excited to announce the launch of the California Climate and Health Equity Hub (CCHE Hub).
The CCHE Hub will be a powerful network of community-based organizations across California, united around the urgent need and regional priority of climate adaptation, resilience, and emergency preparedness. It will consist of 10 California-based organizations participating in a two-year cohort anchored by CBE with the goal of generating compelling, community-rooted data to expose critical gaps and needs, and craft a bold unified narrative to elevate frontline solutions and drive lasting statewide change.
“This cohort is a direct investment in community. We are honored to share our knowledge with our partners who are interested in assisting their respective communities with their own climate resiliency plans,” said Darryl Molina Sarmiento, Executive Director with Communities for a Better Environment. “The experts live in our neighborhoods, they have experienced extreme weather, they bear the brunt of health impacts exacerbated by surrounding industrial pollution, and they hold a wealth of information that will provide solutions that best suit their needs. On-the-ground data can provide us with the necessary knowledge that can lead to life saving solutions in serious cases of climate emergencies.”
The Hub Network will grant $150,000 to 10 trusted community-based organizations so they can dive into climate adaptation and resilience curriculum, incorporate a version of the curriculum into their own communities, identify needs to establish a resilience hub in their community, and educate elected representatives on community-led solutions to address the climate crisis.
In recent years we have witnessed how the impacts of climate change have intensified natural disasters to unprecedented levels, triggering climate emergencies across the world, with Environmental Justice (EJ) communities bearing the brunt of these impacts. These crises have manifested as freezing temperatures, torrential rainstorms that cause flooding, severe heatwaves, high-speed winds, and devastating and unprecedented fires fueled by the ongoing climate crisis. Low-income communities of color are more vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate emergencies due to historical and systemic racism, such as redlining and discriminatory housing policies, which have led to these communities residing in areas with higher exposure to environmental hazards and fewer resources to adapt or recover.
As climate crises escalate across California and the nation, the demand for effective emergency preparedness and response is becoming increasingly urgent. State leaders are beginning to recognize the extent of this challenge and the need for bold, cross-sector, movement-based solutions. With over 45 years of leadership in the environmental justice movement, CBE has witnessed how a powerful communications strategy combined with community mobilization and clear, data-driven evidence of health impacts can elevate overlooked issues to the forefront of state decision-making. Additionally, this strategy can attract critical media attention, and unlock the funding needed to drive real change.
For the past decade CBE has been addressing this issue through our Climate Adaptation and Resilience Enhancement (CARE) program which works to build climate resilience and increase adaptive capacity via emergency preparedness, community care, resilient homes and activating local resilience centers and resources. Through providing emergency preparedness support and resources to vulnerable communities during climate emergencies, we are addressing the need for direct support and mutual aid while building a growing network of community responders in times of crises. In tandem with these efforts, we are simultaneously focused on educating decision makers around resilience, mitigation, and environmental justice needs locally and statewide.
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Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) is one of the preeminent environmental justice organizations in the nation. The mission of CBE is to build people’s power in California’s low-income communities of color to achieve environmental health and justice by preventing and reducing pollution by building green, healthy, and sustainable communities and environments. cbecal.org
Support for this program is provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation