CSCI Announces $1 Million in Initial Awards
As CRF’s program officer for the Climate Smart Communities Initiative, I am thrilled to be able to share today’s announcement of the initiative’s first awards!
- For more on today’s awards, please see the news release and grant summaries at www.climatesmartcommunity.org
- For updates on future rounds of awards, and the other resources available through the initiative, please follow the new CSCI page on LinkedIn or join the initiative’s mailing list
The CSCI has been designed to increase the capacity of communities across the country to proactively address climate-related impacts, with a central commitment to prioritizing the needs of those that are on the frontlines of the climate crisis. To this end, the initiative has two critical strategies.
- Awarding grants like these to help communities advance their local plans and projects
- Developing a scalable model to help communities proceed in a locally tailored way while being grounded in a national set of standards, centered on the Steps to Resilience Framework.
There aren’t many precedents for developing and implementing an initiative as ambitious as this! Thankfully, we are not starting from scratch nor going it alone. The CSCI aims to leverage the community leadership, partnerships, and local knowledge that already exist, helping local leaders identify and solve their most pressing climate resilience problems, as defined by them. And the CSCI benefits from having a consortium of partners involved, including not only CRF, but EcoAdapt, Fernleaf, the Geos Institute, ICF, and the Environment, Equity and Justice Center at the Natural Resources Defense Council, all working in close coordination with NOAA’s Climate Program Office.
Today is a big day for the initiative’s efforts to advance climate resilience, and I look forward to many more big days over the next four years. Stay tuned!