The Boyle Heights Art Conservatory, located in just south of Downtown Los Angeles, has a rich history of collaborative spirit and energy, starting with its original construction as a multicultural gathering place in 1925. Today, as climate change continues to disproportionately affect communities, the staff and youth at the conservatory is tasked with expanding their endurance.
Climate Resolve is a non-profit organization that works with predominantly Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to achieve a “just and resilient future” through equitable climate solutions. In partnership with Climate Resolve, the Boyle Heights Art Conservatory serves as a model example of a Resilience Hub: a trusted space that displays both their deep-rooted culture and disaster preparedness.
Building Resilience
As of 2021, the conservatory includes cooling and heating facilities. The building has been retrofitted for earthquakes, water filtration systems have been set in place, and the landscaping is drought tolerant. Back-up power is also available in case of a disaster.
Climate Resolve and the Boyle Heights Art Conservatory regularly communicate with their community members in order to keep up with their needs. Because of their diverse environment, this resilience hub is able to translate their information in languages in English and Spanish. Their strong connections to the Indigenous community in the area allows them to understand and learn about native edibles and medicinal plants. Role models such as Tochtli Orozco have paved the way for environmental activism and awareness within the resilience hub. In fact, Tochtli lives in a tree!
Throughout the pandemic, staff members like Joey Rodriguez (a Youth Coordinator) volunteered at vaccination sites to help distribute vaccines and guide people in both Spanish and English. Throughout his teen years, Joey learned to “keep an ear open and listen to community members.” The conservatory plays an important role in Joey’s perception of the community: “Do not treat your neighbors like a business.” Instead, Joey is a firm believer in fruitful and long-lasting work that benefits the whole community.
Similarly, Chase Engelhardt, a Policy Analyst & Organizer at Climate Resolve, has learned to engage with people at their comfort levels: “People can feel overwhelmed by not being able to accomplish their goals. But the important thing is: do something.”
A Rich History: Setting a Precedent
In the early 1920s, members of the Cooperative Consumers League, a Jewish Socialist group, commssioned the construction of a building that would serve as a gathering place for Mexicans, Japanese and African Americans. At the corner of North Mott Street and East Cesar Chavez Avenue, the building provided a bakery and café on the first floor, a large ballroom in the middle, and meeting rooms on the top floor. The Jewish Bakers Union 453, who ran the bakery, played a valuable role in distributing low-cost bread. During the Great Depression, the café served as a soup kitchen.
During the 1930s, The Cooperative Center was pivotal in organizing marches, rallies, and protests against police harassment during the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Red Squad’s persecution of communists. In 1931, fellow community members were arrested for helping Mexican and Filipino farmworkers strike against hazardous and inadequate work conditions.
Later in the 1940s and into the 1960s, this site continued to embrace its multi-ethnic community. The Paramount Ballroom hosted Latinx and African American musicians such as Tito Puente, Arsenio Rodríguez, and The Six Teens. The ballroom welcomed all kinds of music such as punk, ska, goth, reggae, hip-hop, doo-wop and oldies. Flamenco, tap, ballet and boogie-woogie dancing decorated the ballroom floors every weekend.
Modern Day: Continuing Community Building
The long history of arts and activism function as the foundations of the Boyle Heights Arts Conservatory, which began in 2011. The Boyle Heights community is marked by their ability to continuously provide vulnerable members with a safe space rich with culture, education, and opportunities.
Now, celebrating almost 100 years since the building’s opening, the Boyle Heights Art Conservatory “provides a focus on career development for historically disenfranchised and impacted youth who are interested in pursuing careers in film, television, broadcasting, music and digital content creation.” The conservatory hosts 101.5 FM KQBH L.A., which is a community radio station run by local youth. In addition to the radio station, classes for their community range from stop motion animation to introduction to DJing, to YouTube/acting.
Looking Ahead
The Boyle Heights Resilience Hub has come a long way in building resilient structures, and are now turning their focus to broadening their conservation efforts. The staff is eager to incorporate potential programs that further educate community members in native plants and gardening. The staff also learned that the hub will need more space and supplies like masks and air filters. They have recognized the need to start implementing more programs that allow community members to be trained in CERT and/or First Aid. Nonetheless, the Boyle Heights Art Conservatory will continue to serve its community members with labor, time, and money. The strong relationships they fostered with their culture and environment will aid Boyle Heights on their journey towards resilience.
You can learn more about the Boyle Heights Art Conservatory and how to support them through their website and this video:
This project, which is coordinated by the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, seeks to adapt existing West Oakland community spaces at 18th and Adeline Streets into the West Oakland Resiliency Hub. Working closely with the community of West Oakland and the City of Oakland, the West Oakland Resiliency Hub aims to connect with, support, and strengthen existing networks of neighborhood churches, schools, parks, community organizations, and crisis responders.
Existing buildings and outdoor spaces to be incorporated into the program include: the West Oakland Senior Center, West Oakland Branch of the Oakland Public Library, and the DeFremery Recreation Center and Park – all of which are owned and operated by the City of Oakland. This hub would offer regular programming to increase neighborhood resilience every day and provide vital community services during environmental crises, while serving as a Cooling Center during high heat days and as a Warming Center during cold days. Other proposed infrastructure includes but is not limited to:
Sanitation: sufficient on-site sanitation facilities for large scale disaster us
Energy: renewable, non-polluting energy sources and back-up power to run critical operations when the power grid is down
Communications: access to information, cell phone and computer charging, communications systems not reliant on cell or wifi infrastructure
Shelter: emergency, temporary shelter managed through the Red Cross or a similar organization
Clean Air: reduced neighborhood pollution and access to clean air spaces; filtered indoor spaces during forest fires and high air pollution times
Transportation: shared community bikes, electric vehicles, and ADA accessible vans or buses for regular use; vehicles to transport or evacuate people and resources as needed in a disaster\
Medical care: access to acute medical care and mental health care in the wake of a natural disaster, public health, or other emergency
Ongoing resiliency efforts: education courses, tool library, expert advising, community meetings, peaceful protests, and other vital environmental and social services.
Feasibility Phase: Completed in Summer 2020
The feasibility phase identified the physical infrastructure upgrades that are needed to retrofit the centers into a resilience hub and worked with technical experts to assess feasibility and costs. This phase began with a series of community and stakeholder engagement events to define resilience for West Oakland and identify relevant infrastructure. We then worked with a cohort of urban design and planning students from UC Berkeley to explore additional infrastructure options. The team then brought in a solar energy and HVAC consultant, mechanical air filtration company, and structural engineer to assess the feasibility and cost of making the necessary upgrades. This phase was completed in close collaboration with Center Directors and stakeholders across the City of Oakland.
The feasibility phase thus identified broad areas and types of resilience and explored how the areas of resilience can be manifested and/or supported with physical infrastructure. Project consultants then helped to identify cost-effective measures to increase resilience at a reasonable cost. And, over the course of this phase, we also considered the possibility of a more substantial upgrade and revisioning of the site into a modern resiliency hub that can truly be a city wide and regional model.
Project Stakeholders
This project has strong support and involvement from center staff and directors at all three centers; city staff across departments; and community members and organizations connected to the three centers. City department involvement includes: Office of Aging and Adult Services, Oakland Public Libraries, Parks and Recreation, Public Works, Environmental Services, Emergency Services, Chief Resilience Officer, District 3 Councilmember. PG&E and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District are also involved and supportive. PG&E funded the initial feasibility phase. Community networks include: St. Mary’s Center, Friendship Christian Church, Oak Center Neighbors Group, West Oakland Library Friends, West Oakland Neighbors, NCPC Beat 2X & 5X, and West Oakland Senior Center Community.
Resilience and West Oakland
West Oakland is a socioeconomically vulnerable, historically marginalized, and disenfranchised community, yet it is also and a community with a strong social network that has survived numerous historical crises, including decades of systemic racism and industrial dumping, and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and subsequent Cypress Freeway collapse. West Oakland is a majority community of color (76%) and working-class community overburdened by poverty, underemployment and low education (median household income of $38,169). People of Color disproportionately experience poverty and other indicators of negative well being as indicated in the Oakland Equity Indicators Report.
West Oakland is also a low-lying neighborhood with significant infilled land from the San Francisco Bay which puts residents at high risk for flooding and significant earthquake damage, both of which could lead to sewage overflows, toxic soil from contaminated industrial sites spreading, and road and transportation infrastructure damages. Adjacent to the Port of Oakland, national rail yard, and bounded by freeway, West Oakland also experiences disproportionately high levels of air pollution which will likely be exacerbated by increasing ground level ozone production with rising global temperatures and intensified wildfire seasons.
Current Disaster Response
Baseline disaster response in West Oakland is largely reactive and insufficient to fully meet the community needs in the event of a significant disaster. Response only happens once a disaster has occurred and is often centralized and militarized, failing to meet the needs of people of color and poor communities. Oakland Fire Department has publicly said that they will take from 72 hours up to one week to respond in the aftermath of a major disaster. And while there are community organizations and large national organizations (such as the Red Cross) that are experts in providing disaster support and temporary, setting up and running shelters, many Oakland city buildings do not meet Red Cross requirements, particularly because they do not have backup power.
Next Steps: 2021 and Beyond
Design Phase: The next phase is to build off of the feasibility assessments with more detailed design. This phase may include a design competition with design professionals and will conclude with permit ready drawings for building and site upgrades. This phase will require hiring consultants from various disciplines.
Implementation: After the conclusion of the design phase and procurement of permits and funding, project implementation will begin. Implementation will likely happen in tiers and phases as funding becomes available and permitting progresses for various sections of the project. While the immediate need is for funding for the design phase, we are also starting to explore funding options for implementation.
Social Infrastructure: The social infrastructure of resilience and the West Oakland Resiliency Hub is equally critical. Next steps include finalizing the core team of individuals and organizations, then acquiring funding for the organizing and programming to build the Hub’s social infrastructure.
Scaling: This project phase has been completed in coordination with various City of Oakland staff and departments who are using this project as a model for future replication in other parts of the City. Oakland’s Equity and Climate Action Plan includes the implementation of three additional Resiliency Hubs across the City.
Estimated Implementation Budget
Note that there is potential funding for mechanical and air filtration through a pending Supplemental Environmental Project through the California Air Resources Board. This project has also been submitted through the City of Oakland’s 2020 to 2022 Capital Improvement Program. Both the West Oakland Library and the West Oakland Senior Center are also currently being prioritized for needed building repairs to maintain basic safety and functioning.
Design phase: $500,000
Initial known implementation estimates
Library: $245,120
Senior Center: $177,291
DeFremery Recreation Center (Gymnasium Roof): $130,220
Library: $216,000 to $696,000
Senior Center: $72,000 to $132,000
DeFremery Recreation Center: $36,000 to $96,000
Library: $25,873
Senior Center: $18,466
DeFremery Recreation Center: $18,194
Library: $31,395
Senior Center: $38,860
DeFremery Recreation Center: $46,104
Rooftop Solar
Solar Battery System (with and without air conditioning capacity):
High-efficiency HVAC Systems with new or repaired air conditioning
Energy efficiency lighting and other upgrades: paid through PG&E’s On-Bill Financing
Air filters added to new HVAC with 5-year initial maintenance contract
Additional implementation needs without cost estimates
Seismic structural upgrades
EV charging stations
Additional refrigeration and cold storage
Potable water harvesting and storage
Not-potable water system
West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project (WOEIP)
WOEIP is the Project Lead and is a resident-led, community based organization with over twenty years of experience and national recognition as an expert in collaborative problem-solving and policymaking that centers residents’ voices and leadership. WOEIP’s work centers on air pollution in West Oakland, community resilience to climate change, and renewable energy production and energy efficiency.
For further information, please contact:
Brian Beveridge, Co-Founder and Co-Director, at brian.woeip@gmail.com or 510-282-2565
In this interview, I spoke with Robin Bean Crane, who talked about the numerous and wonderful projects happening in the urban farm in Oakland. After our interview, I headed over to one of Canticle Farm’s garden parties with my friend, Ishaana, and helped them plant some tomato seeds. I also took a few pictures, which are included in this article, but to truly experience the peaceful and communal atmosphere, you might want to go support Canticle Farms by attending one of their events.
Q: Can you tell me what Canticle Farm does?
Crane: We’re an intentional community experimenting at the intersection of faith-based, race-based, and earth-based activism. It’s a platform for figuring out how to live together across differences and how to serve our hyper-local community and neighbors. Our theoretical pillars are non-violent communication, restorative justice, and work that reconnects.
Q: Can you paint a picture of what you do at Canticle Farm?
Crane: Picture seven houses between two busy streets in Fruitvale (a neighborhood in Oakland), with all the fences knocked down between them. This creates an open, common, guiding space.
These seven houses each have their mission within the larger whole. There’s a house that focuses on neighborhood work, there’s a house that focuses on restorative justice work, there’s about to be an asylum seeker program, and there was a house dedicated toward gardening and restoration. Our mission is to learn together in a beautiful way.
We have many different land projects that also fulfill this mission, such as rainwater garden beds, demonstration projects for our neighbors (on how to grow edible and native plants), and we’re trying to remove invasive plants and replace them with natives. We have a childcare program, where we have our neighbor’s kids over and take care of them. We also have a program with high schoolers, and on Thursdays we do food distribution and give out free food and herbal medicine consultations. There’s an interfaith service on Sunday, and we’re about to open a community kitchen project. It’ll be exciting where the community can come. A living, learning laboratory.
Q: Can you talk about your resilience hub work some more?
Crane: We have a solar panel and battery project. Part of the work with a resilience hub is that, when sh*t goes down, people can come and find resources. We also have food distribution services, so we want to be a place where people in the neighborhood can come, even when there’s not a disaster.
People can also come and learn about the Earth. We have a water remediation project, where we’re putting in drought-resistant plants and water remediating plants, and then filtering the water through pumping it from this really old well. We then pump that water into a fish pond, and there the fish poop and add nutrients to the water. This then gets funneled to the plants that clean the water, and then it makes its way down the land, so the creek gets cleaner and cleaner. This ties in to the creek restoration project, where we invite anyone and everyone to come help us “daylight” this creek.
It’s really deep to me, because this water has been in cement tunnels and underground for centuries and generations, and now it will get daylighted and be around bees and birds; the ecosystem will be alive again. That’s exciting! We’re inviting people to come and restore the riverbanks.
Little demonstration projects like that are part of what it means to be a resilience hub, as well actually distributing resources.
Q: Going back to something you said earlier, you said you wanted to be ready for when sh@# goes down, whether it’s the solar batteries or growing your food. What kind of disasters do you see affecting your area?
There are already the disasters of racism and capitalism, alive and well. That ends up creating food insecurity crises. So we’re working with our neighbors to avoid the charity model of food distribution, we want to plant a seed for deeper collaboration.
How do we support each other past food? One thing that we talked a lot about is having crisis intervention training, and teaching each other self defense tactics that avoid calling the police and ways to intervene in escalated situations. That happens a lot in our neighborhood, and we’re trying to train each other around that form of crisis.
In terms of natural disasters, there are earthquakes, and in that case we have our kits. We distributed a bunch of earthquake prep kits during a block party. We want to do more stuff like that: integrating emergency prep into fun stuff. In terms of fires, we distributed masks, and bought a couple of air filters for everyone in our immediate community. Another thing is the drought. A lot of our gardening work, rain garden work, native plant work, creek restoration work, is centered around how we live in a drought affected place and with water scarcity.
Q: It sounds like Canticle Farms are reaching out to the people most vulnerable in the face of climate change.
Crane: The people who live at Canticle, and who are in those populations most affected by climate change, have talked about how living in community is a part of the healing process.
Also, a lot of our neighbors have recently immigrated, and still are getting their footing in this wild society of ours. We are a place for them to ask questions, like how do I navigate the school system? How do I fill out this paper work? We also serve the wider community. There’s internal and external service work, and we try to orient that around people who have been historically oppressed.
It sounds like Canticle is at the nexus of a lot of different communities and identities! Can you tell us what’s in Canticle’s future?
We want to expand our food preservation work with our community kitchen, and invite people to come work on fermentation, canning, and preserving projects. We also want to invite them to use the kitchen space. Also, we hope to be able to stipend teams in our neighborhoods for them to do this earth-based work, whether it’s roles for youth to do food cooking and delivery, or maybe composting. We don’t have plans yet, just daydreams around taking care of our neighborhoods. No one gets paid right now, but maybe in the future, if we could stipend people, that would be great.
This interview is part of an occasional series showcasing different inspirational community organizers who are part of the NorCal Resilience Network and organizing resilience hubs. Meet Bonnie Borucki and the Ashby Garden!
Ashby Garden, located in South Berkeley was founded in 2004. It started in an empty lot of the location and grew into a flourishing garden of many fruits, flowers, and vegetables. People here grow their own food and are independent of ongoing city programs. Volunteers also come by to help out with the garden and participate in community events. People also come together to share their knowledge of urban farming and grow food collectively.
NorCal Resilience intern Tracy Ngyuyen caught up with Bonnie to talk about this beautiful oasis and her role in it.
How did the garden begin? How has it grown and flourished?
We have a group of young people who are food activists and there were more vacant properties back then. They decided that this lot should be used for purposeful things for the community such as involving the community and growing food.
People who started the garden went to the books and asked who owned the land. We the flyered the neighborhood, had potlucks, community meetings, and eventually started classes and workshops. In the broader community, people have members and volunteers. We have garden members who pay for plots because it’s not financed. There are water bills, insurance. They grow whatever they like, grow and harvest, and share when they can. It’s a community space so it can be arranged for people to come and collect food. Or they can pick and distribute.
What does Ashby Garden hope to get out of the leadership training?
It’s difficult to stay with projects so trying to get people to commit is what we’re hoping. How do you commit and get other people to commit for a long time ya know? It’s also a lot of experimentation. Seeing other people can be incentives, and also going to a beautiful garden is another.
What are the short-term and long-term goals for the garden?Whom to you hope to impact?
Our long term goals are keeping the space, having it grow and thrive, and be part of the community. We’re hoping a land trust can help take it over.Our vision is to have a spot to build community by allowing people of many backgrounds to participate and contribute their best. Also we’re hoping for more community building overall.
The biggest impact would be to connect people with soil, plants, and support of other creatures. Water is also important and having an appreciation for these spots is also important.
What other kinds of projects are you working on in the community?
I am a co-director of Transition Berkeley, an organization that brings neighbors and community members together to build a more equitable, regenerative, self-reliant future for Berkeley. Projects we are working on include “Bee City Berkeley”, where we are planting pollinator gardens in Berkeley parks and public schools, and educating the public about the relationship between plants, pollinators, and our food. Another project is Essential Repair Skills Trainings, where we are bringing in repair experts in clothing, bike, appliance and electronics repair to teach these skills to high school and college students. A third project is Mobilize Berkeley. The group brings together UCB SERC students, environmental educators, faith-based communities, and other Berkeley residents to provide information on the state of climate change, ways to participate in a climate emergency mobilization, and preparation for the impact of climate change and other crises we are increasingly experiencing.”
Why is this work important so important to you?
“I’ve realized that the most important and satisfying work is to join with others in creating a society that lives in good relations to the earth and all the people and life forms that inhabit our planet. I recently heard a phrase that puts this work in perspective, “ When we have hope, we have life, and when we have life, we have hope”. To me this means that as long as we are living and thinking, we can make changes that will sustain a dignified, joyful life for future generations.”
This interview is part of an occasional series showcasing different inspirational community organizers who are part of the NorCal Resilience Network. Meet Keneda Gibson!
Tell us about yourself. How has your background influenced the path you are on today?
I am a 3rd generation Oakland resident. Most of my family has been pushed out from this area. I really see the shift here, the shift away from community. I just didn’t want to be pushed out. I want to be able to manifest the visions I have for this community. I want to find ways to inspire people.
Tell us about your resilience hub, and about your neighborhood projects. What is your vision? What are you excited about?
I’m excited about having turned my yard into a community garden, to help people during the Pandemic, to start with! I worked with Sankofa Garden, and am still working on it. It’s in a bit of a pause right now. We are tearing down structures to provide a space so that people can teach workshops. One friend one wants to teach movement meditation, and others want to teach youth to build their own bikes. We also want to work with students from Castlemont High, have them get service learning credits while they are working in our garden. We’d also love to host story slams, getting people to tell their stories about living in Oakland.
I’m also super interested in integrating art. I want to teach workshops, how to do artivism. I want to be taking over spaces, to be put up murals, and teaching people how to create using wheat paste.
Neighbors aren’t not as interested until things starting to move. But the neighbors with small kids are excited. People walk up to inquire, about the space, and a neighbor up the street is fleshing out ideas about this movement to stop the violence by working with you. If people see that more productive things are happening, there is less time for violence. We want to give kids ideas of things to get into instead of getting into trouble.
What kinds of other projects are you working on to make a difference in your community?
I just got a Fellowship working with East Oakland Collective. We are working on a transportation project, getting people information they need to switch to electric vehicles, and to find financing options for vehicles. We are also bringing free shuttles from the bus stop at 73rd, to the (MLK) Shoreline, to activate the shoreline – to inspire more families from Oakland to use shoreline, and make it more accessible. We are looking at beautifying the shoreline, and creating a park there.
I’m also talking with someone named Red, who will help turn the cellar in the back into an underground growhouse, to grow things underground. This whole process could turn into a series of videos.
Who are some of your biggest inspirations, both historical figures and other changemakers in our community?
My biggest inspiration is simply remaining rooted, if I could show people in community that that can happen. I’m inspired by inspiring people.
I’m also inspired by a group in East Palo Alto called the HoodSquad (run by my friend JT). He created Hood News, which is creating news in the community. He got together with a group of friends, who are donating home cooked meals, and then distributing them. They also create videos about the projects.
What do you do to stay present and refreshed? What kind of self-care do you use so that you are not burned out?
I’m trying to figure out this part! I am periodically taking breaks.
What kinds of advice would you give to other changemakers, who are just getting started?
This work can be daunting sometimes. Fatigue is real, but rewards are great.
I can’t state enough the importance of drinking the right water. We are working on a water filter machine, filtering water for the community.
Always look at different problems – look at it with solutions mindset. How can we fix this problem?
And also get plenty of sunshine!
What are the barriers to change — systemic and interpersonal?
Funding is the biggest barrier. We did started a collective with some friends. It’s based on Mutual aid – if you buy products, you are funding our Mutual Aid work. It’s called Imdiggininus and also connected with Castlemont, Sankofa Garden, and Black Earth Farms.
What do you need? What would you ask from people who want to support you?
I’m always on lookout for supplies, and volunteers to help with different projects and funding. I would like to connect with a nonprofit, for as a fiscal sponsor.
Don’t let anybody tell you that they know how this is going to end: The Maxwell Park Frick Seminary
Climate change is a global problem, but Laura Nicodemus is stepping up to be a part of a local solution. In this interview, Nicodemus talks about starting resilience hubs in her own neighborhood, and how one person can make a difference.
Tell us about your resilience hub team.
Our team actually is just me and my husband. We’re going to be pulling in other people in. We live in Maxwell Park in Oakland. We’re really starting from scratch, I have a lot of neighborhood organizing skills and we’ve lived in our neighborhood for seventeen years. In terms of getting a resilience hub going, we’re at the beginning. It’s a little daunting, so part of the challenge is… getting used to dealing with the challenge.
So, why did you want to start a resilience hub?
Because it made sense to us to be a part of something that had more aspects to it than just disaster preparation. Personally, I think a lot of people lead really isolated lives. We need to be connecting more and depending on each other and helping each other out. This is a really good way of doing that. Also, it just makes sense to put different aspects of resilience altogether. In terms of disaster preparation, it’s a good excuse for us to get our acts together. Something that just occurred to me this morning was like, setting up a disaster prep buddy system. I’m sure people are already doing this, but it’d be a program where there’s someone you’re checking in to stay accountable. That seems like a good, tangible way to get started. For us, one of the challenges is that there isn’t a clear space we can have.
You talked about disaster preparation. What kind of disasters do you see affecting your neighborhood specifically?
Well, certainly an earthquake. But also just living through fires and the smoke. For people who can’t go out, I’m thinking that the fire season and this level of smoke threat is going to become unfortunately pretty regular. We need to be ready to help each other out. And there’s the pandemic. That’s another disaster. My fantasy would be if we could set up a general neighborhood helping system, so that if there’s an elderly person who needs help, then that could be a part of it. I live on the border of two neighborhoods, one is Maxwell Park, and it’s more affluent and more, as far as I’m aware, more organized. And then the other neighborhood has people who are struggling with a lot of day-to-day stuff. As I’m talking to you, I’m realizing that before I make any conclusions, I need to find out more about that other neighborhood. I want to avoid coming in as a white person with the solutions. I’m going to try to avoid that.
You’ve talked a lot about you and your husband taking the initiative to combat really global threats, like the pandemic or climate change. Do you think a lot of other people are waking up to create local solutions to global problems?
That’s a good question, I’ve been thinking a lot about that. I actually have a theory about that. It’s a dialectic, a yin-yang thing, and it’s pretty simple. Basically, there’s these huge problems like global warming and climate change and pandemics and they’re really overwhelming, right? People spend a lot of time thinking about ‘Can we save the world? Can we stop this? Oh my god, what if we can’t?’ I think we need a more constructive way to deal with problems. I see it as a dialectic where there are threats where people just need help. People need aid. So, if you want to build people’s sense of agency, then sure, try and do work to reduce the threat, but acknowledge it’s just as important to help the people, the animals, and the environments after they’ve been damaged. So, there’s always something you can do that makes a difference. Nobody is going to say to you: I didn’t appreciate your help because you weren’t working on the source problem. A good example are the fires in Sonoma. It’s a terrible problem, and most people just needed help. That’s just to say that if you think of the humanitarian support as part of the equation, then there’s always something you can be doing. The cool thing is that the organizing that is necessary is a lot of the same organizing that is necessary for preventing the problems.
Have you heard of a woman named Joanna Macy before?
No I haven’t.
You should check her out. She is somebody who has been working on helping people get strong enough to deal with this stuff for decades, since the, I think the, 70s. She’s about to stop teaching, but she’s generated this whole movement of people who are trained to help others to deal with their feelings and to hook in. I did a training with her at a place called Spirit Rock, which is a center up in Marin, which organizes a lot of politically active stuff. This amazing 6-hour training with her goes from this place of ‘What’s to celebrate about the Earth? What can you be grateful for?’ and then going deep into the ‘It’s really bad right now though,’ and then coming to this place where you can bring the two things together, a place of gratitude and love and acceptance where you can work to make things better. At the end, she says, ‘Don’t let anybody tell you that they know how this is all going to end.’ I was really inspired about that, and I thought, We don’t know how this is all going to play out, and we can’t buy into the notion that we’re going to hell in a hand basket. That’s just too simplistic. Even if things go downhill, there’s still all this helping each other, and organizing that’s really profound and that we can all be doing. I don’t mean to sound resigned, I think the resilience hub is a place where all these ideas can meet. Also, I like the idea of blending physical resilience with cultural resilience. I’m a singer and a musician, so it’s a cool place to see this blending. But all this being said, I still feel overwhelmed. I’ve got a full life, a teenager, and a host of my problems to deal with.
Regardless, it sounds like you’ve got a great framework to be building off of.
I would say so. It’s helpful to understand the other kind of challenges and responsibilities that regular folks have. If you want to pull them in, you need to know where they’re coming from.
The Canal Community Resilience Council (CCRC) is a part of the Multicultural Center of Marin’s Community resilience program, and is working to mitigate the local impacts of climate change in the Canal area of Marin County. Marco Berger, head of the Canal Community Resilience Council, notes that “The canal is particularly prone to sea level rise. It’s probably going to be one of the first to be affected in the area.” Located at a low elevation, issues of sea level rise are particularly pertinent to the neighborhood. Water levels in the San Francisco Bay can rise eight inches by 2035 and sixteen inches by 2050. Parts of the Canal could face up to two feet of flooding in the future.
The CCRC, comprised of members of the Canal neighborhood, convenes every month to discuss issues that could affect their community. And there are a lot of issues, including (but not limited to): housing, sea level rise, water quality, water access, flooding, waste management, transportation, and emergency preparedness. At CCRC meetings, stakeholders and community partners from local government agencies join to clarify policies and listen to citizen input.
Berger is keenly aware of this, observing that “People sit at home and they go, ‘Wow climate change. Stuff is going to go down. Things are gonna happen. But it’s over there somewhere, and I gotta put food on the table, I gotta pay rent.” However, he adds that communities are beginning to become more attuned to these issues. “I think as there are more things coming out about extreme weather and snowstorms in Texas, and people are starting to wake up.”
This work is a part of a larger impetus to provide local solutions to what is ultimately a global crisis: climate change.
That’s why it’s more important than ever to build community networks, so people know where to go for resources. That’s why Berger signed up to join the Resilience Hubs Leadership Training Program, “We’re really in an exploratory stage, we’re looking to see how we get involved and become a hub. It’d be good for people to know there’s a place for them to go for resources in a place of disaster.
Despite the added obstacles of the COVID-19 pandemic, Berger is persistent. “As long as I can keep doing work, that’s what I’m going to be doing.”
In this interview, NorCal Resilience Network intern Emily Zou spoke with Astrid Scott, the program manager at the Fremont Wellness Center, which is an arm of the Bay Area Community Services. Scott’s passion for serving the community is clear, and she is insistent on continuing the work for those who need it most. According to their last quarter report, the Fremont Homeless Wellness Center provided carry out meal services to approximately 30-50 individuals on a daily basis. The Wellness Center also provides every participant with masks, gloves, face shields and hand sanitizer. The Fremont Wellness Center is also looking ahead, and preparing the Fremont community for imminent wildfires. Last summer, five of the largest wildfires in California history raged across the West Coast. The smoke from the fires would create apocalyptic landscapes, and also send the AQI (Air Quality Index) skyrocketing to dangerous levels. Given that, this year, California’s rainy season is starting nearly a month late, it is likely that we will see more wildfires this year. The effects of global climate change are starting to manifest. The Fremont Wellness Center is providing support for the most vulnerable communities in the face of climate catastrophe.
The Fremont Wellness Center hopes to be a resource for the communities most vulnerable to global climate change in the coming months. As is evidenced by their adaptive COVID-19 response, they have been able to meet people where they are at, and they will continue to do so
Astrid scott, BACS Wellness center coordinator
Q: So, can you tell me, in a nutshell, what the Fremont Wellness Center does?
Scott: Pre-COVID, we were a wellness center set up to help anybody in the community, and we were a safe space for people to come in here and get meals. We have a kitchen, so we make meals, we also have a computer lab so that people can apply for jobs online. We have groups that teach skills such as anger management, and we also have substance abuse programs. A lot of people who come into the community are homeless, so we have a program that helps with housing. We help them get on the waiting list for section 8, or people who don’t really know how the system works (CEA). Our hours were extended from 8AM-8PM, 7 days a week, so people can drop by for any resources they need. We have showers, a food pantry, a clothing pantry, we also have a program where people who have pets can come in here and pick up pet food. We work with a nonprofit that helps people with pets. That was before.
Since shelter-in-place, we had to close down our community room and computer lab and limit the people who come in. As of now, what we’re doing is that people call in and schedule a time to shower. They either let us know if they need clothing or a hygiene kit and we help them. Once they’re inside, they have to call and make an appointment. Since our kitchen is closed, we’ve linked up with local groups focused on food recovery, so they pick up meals from Kaiser meals and share them with us so we share them with the community. We also work with volunteers in the Fremont area, there’s a group called Feeding the Hungry that we work with. There’s a kitchen in Milpitas that still has a kitchen, and they drop off meals three times a week. It’s been a huge help, since we’re able to provide those meals to the homeless community and the increasing amount of families who need food. Since shelter-in-place, we didn’t get a lot of families since our program is adult only. We tailor our services, such as grocery box giveaways. We’re trying to serve our community based on what they need right now.
Q: Why is the center interested in becoming a resilience hub?
Scott: Part of it was, on a personal level, at the beginning of shelter in place, I felt unprepared like everyone else did. What can I do? How can I best serve the community? How can we be more knowledgeable in these kinds of situations because we don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. Back in April, we started going through our emergency kits and all of that stuff expired. We need to learn more about this. The services we provide might not look like this in a couple a months, and we need to keep up with what the Fremont community really needs.
Q: You talked about being prepared, what other events that you feel like you need to be prepared for?
Scott: Something my team has been talking about is the heat wave that is coming in the summer. We’re also thinking about other natural disasters, but based on the patterns that I’ve seen, I know that the needs during the summer. Is there a space that we can provide a cooling station? We’ve been really thinking along those lines.
Also, last summer, when we had the air quality issues, we didn’t have the resources to be an air quality center, which would have been ideal. So if anything like that happens this summer, we want to be prepared, and we want to be able to provide that service. We also want to become a vaccination site. We work with the city of Fremont to do testing with the fire department, so anything to provide the best services that we can.
Q: Why do you do this work? Why do you think it’s important?
Scott: Basically, I feel that it’s a really fulfilling job for me, and by working with BACs and being involved, I’ve seen so many people succeed and their lives change. That’s why I do this. I believe that there are people capable of changing and there are so many people who have lost hope, and we’re here to provide hope.
Q: What does the future look like for BACs and the Wellness Center?
Scott: BACS has not stopped going into the community, BACS has not stopped reaching out to people who need to get tested and vaccinated. The way we’re headed is to continue providing and to not take a back seat. If you think about it, all of the social services offices are closed, and there’s no way for people to get phones anymore, they have to be on the phone for hours and hours to get their stimulus check. The library is closed, and you can’t apply for a job online. So, a lot of our employees are providing services and meeting people where they’re at. As far as the wellness center here in Fremont, depending on what the CDC says, it depends on when we’ll open our doors. There’s a lot to think about.
The Fremont Wellness Center hopes to be a resource for the communities most vulnerable to global climate change in the coming months. As is evidenced by their adaptive COVID-19 response, they have been able to meet people where they are at, and they will continue to do so.
Last Thursday, NorCal Resilience held its virtual Quarterly Meeting event, where member organizations of the nonprofit came together to reflect on ways in which they have continued to impact their communities during an exceptionally challenging year. As 2020 comes to a close, individuals and communities around the world are left with a rapidly growing need for unity, compassion, and purpose.
Xochitl Moreno, Co-Founder of Essential Food and Medicine (EFAM) spoke of a time when the community held individuals together during a time of political instability and police brutality. One Friday night in October, EFAM members delivered medicine to a group of people in moments of high stress and trauma during the Black Lives Matter movement. As communities fearlessly rose in solidarity, EFAM members saw this as an opportunity for healing and unity, and focused their efforts on supporting individuals in reclaiming their sovereignty through spiritual healing. EFAM collectively decided to remain still, rise above, and play their drums as a means of holding a safe space for individuals on the front lines. In the face of violence and corruption, EFAM bravely held their ground and dedicated themselves to strengthening the unwavering presence of the community.
Phoenix Armenta, an herbalist and educator with the Mycelium Youth Network, provided insight for members at the meeting regarding how the network responded to the fires this year. The network collectively worked to bring about a sense of awareness regarding the poor air quality as a direct result of human-induced fires exacerbated by climate change. The network is raising awareness through their “Clean Air is a Right” program, which aims to educate individuals on how they can improve their indoor and outdoor air quality. As the fires began to spread rapidly, the network offered courses on how to make a DIY air filter, as well as how to prepare herbs in a way that will improve lung health and function.
Mycelium Youth Network reached out to the City of Oakland to learn about what efforts were being made in response to the fires, but members were disappointed to find out that the city efforts were not enough. Members of the Youth Network understood that the response to fires had to be a community-led effort, and the network is dedicated to providing resources that will help to strengthen and heal local communities.
PLACE, an Oakland-based community center and member of NorCal Resilience, has been stepping up to the task of strengthening connection through their mission to foster regenerative living practices. Paola Diaz, an Event Steward at PLACE, acknowledges this as a time of utmost importance in honoring communities and individuals who have been marginalized due to an increasingly unstable economy and corrupt political climate.
Dedicated to deepening human connection and networks, Paola reflected on how PLACE volunteers came together to overcome the harrowing social, psychological, and financial challenges brought forth by the pandemic. Volunteers at PLACE have chosen Crowdcast, a live-streaming online platform, as new means of providing a virtual safe space while still feeling connected to others. Volunteers at PLACE have been working toward one common goal- bringing forth a decolonized vision of community and connection to the planet.
The NorCal Resilience Network also continues to catalyze a just transition to an equitable and regenerative region by supporting and activating community-based, ecological solutions in Northern California. One of the Network’s bigger projects this year has been the development of the Resilience Hubs Initiative. The goal of the initiative is to create a network of hubs, spaces, blocks, and neighborhoods in California as demonstration sites for sustainability and ecological practices. The initiative supports community-led, climate-friendly disaster preparedness and response efforts for underserved communities.
The Resilience Hubs Initiative will be holding a Leadership Training program from January to July in 2021. There will be monthly sessions led by community and content experts covering a wide array of topics ranging from holistic permaculture principles to food security and disaster preparedness. Apply through our online form by December 20, 2020 to join the program and become a part of the just transition!
Would you believe me if I told you that the average carbon footprint for a person in the United States is one of the highest global rates at 16 tons? This is heavier than the weight of a fully grown whale shark, equating to about 32,000 pounds. Our carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gasses generated by our individual actions, and it is negatively impacting the atmospheric and ecological conditions on earth.
SolSolutions recognizes that reducing the carbon footprint of energy consumers is a key goal within the sustainability movement. One way that SolSolutions is addressing the above-average footprint in the United States is by providing innovative portable solar power devices. These devices are designed to perform independently from the grid, in turn contributing to the lowering of total carbon emissions. SolSolutions is also committed to reinforcing the concept of personal empowerment and social responsibility, and upholds these values by supplying affordable and readily-available personal solar services.
Similarly to the NorCal Resilience Network, SolSolutions actively engages in tackling global problems with localized solutions. Access to clean energy is especially important for vulnerable communities in the midst of rapidly spreading wildfires that are exacerbated by climate-change. Specializing in affordable and accessible off-grid solar power and LED lighting, SolSolutions addresses the importance in collectively shifting away from fossil fuels and adopting new, local alternative energy solutions.
Increasing power outages and rising energy costs are causing an increase in demand for alternative energy systems that are separate from the grid. SolSolutions on-site solar power production product line, the SolMan Generator, contributes to an increase in reliability, accessibility, and affordability of portable solar products. In contrast to a gas generator, the SolMan generator uses solar power to store collected energy into a battery bank. Benefits of these portable generators include the ability to perform cleanly and quietly, their endurance for heavy and long-term usage, and zero recurring costs with no fuel or engine maintenance. With four types of generators available to choose from, this product line is a great option for households or businesses that require a wide variety of energy-related needs to be met.
LED lighting offers a highly-efficient and environmentally friendly solution to traditional incandescent lighting systems. LED lighting is a cost-effective alternative to traditional lighting, using less than 75% of the energy required to power incandescent bulbs. SolSolutions also offers a special Emerald Grow LED Light system, specifically developed for extending the greenhouse season for growing vegetation. This is an excellent option for households and farms whose livelihoods depend on growing their own food.
In addition to innovative green technology, SolSolutions offers Sustainable Event Services. Sustainable Event Services offers a wide range of options to lower any business or organizations carbon footprint at a public or private event. Specific services offered for event partners include electric transportation methods, zero waste services, and sufficient generation of solar power for live stage events and vendor areas. This event service even offers a free consultation, so that the partnering organization knows exactly how much energy will be saved, and what type of generator or lighting system will be the most cost-effective.
Energy is an integral part of our survival. Without energy, we wouldn’t be able to cook for our families, keep our homes warm during the harshest Winter months, or even jump into the air with joy. We live in a culture dominated by the consumption of fossil fuels as our primary source of energy, in turn leaving a hefty price tag for energy consumers.
People Power Solar Cooperative, a community-led nonprofit and collaborator with NorCal Resilience Network, places inclusiveness, equity, and accessible clean energy at the center of their work culture. Crystal Huang, founder of People Power, brought community members together in an effort to address the question “How do we put power back into the hands of the people?”, ultimately inspiring the team to design the Community Backup Power project.
The project aims to provide a backup source of energy for households in need of electricity during power outages. When in need of power, individuals can contact People Power and members of the team will work together to deliver a fully-charged battery that is ready to use. The project introduces an alternative power source that is readily available for households struggling during an emergency outage, upholding the Cooperative’s mission to approach social justice issues with an inclusive, community-led and owned support system.
“Energy is your relationship with the world. One of the biggest challenges is encouraging people to repair that relationship.”
Crystal Huang, Founder of People Power Solar Cooperative
The project is a great opportunity to invest in improving disaster preparedness and in-home resiliency in our communities. Minority communities are hit the hardest by volatile energy prices and unreliability of the grid, meaning that when the power unexpectedly goes out, these households are unequally left with both adverse impacts on health and financial consequences. This ultimately hinders their ability to access energy as a basic need for survival. The Cooperative’s backup power project invites individuals to consider the reality of the injustices low-income families must face on a daily basis, and how individuals can work together to collectively bring about change.
In addition, strengthening “Energy Democracy” is a priority for the Cooperative, meaning that power is redistributed back to the people through a renewable and just transition. If society collectively continues to engage in and educate others on the importance of community-led solutions, then we can actively apply these realized concepts to bringing about a positive change for vulnerable communities.
“People are solving problems in default mode, and applying these problems to a system of markets. Markets don’t care about people, groups or individuals.”
Kansas Heaney, Engineer and Member of People Power Solar Cooperative
Kansas Heaney explains the importance of setting up a community-led work dynamic when the project was in its first stages of development. Ensuring that community members and team members in the Cooperative maintain a sense of ownership is an integral part of the project’s mission, meaning that the key decision making is left to the people, rather than the market economy. The Cooperative develops inclusive solutions that empower the people, rather than solving problems for a market system that relies on a fossil fuel economy.
In addition, the Cooperative also received a Community Innovation Grant that will allow them to analyze and participate in East Bay Energy’s Resilient Home Program, which aims to strengthen families in the household and improve the standard of living in underserved communities. People Power also has future plans to implement projects in East Oakland, collaborating with local leaders and organizations to provide legal and technical support for solar development in the area. Ingleside Community Power also partners with the Cooperative, and the organizations are currently in the early stages of developing a new model for empowering community solar ownership.
An unlikely group of organizations, brought together through a UC Berkeley Chancellors Fund grant, organized a beautiful event on December 11th that reaffirmed the need for community members to come together and talk about climate grief and solutions. The NorCal Resilience Network, Transition Berkeley, Green the Church, Berkeley Council member Cheryl Davila’s and UC Berkeley’s Student Environmental Resource Center are the leading organizations in this effort to organize Town Halls to mobilize Berkeley residents into action.
The kickoff event, held at Church by the Side of Road, featured keynote presentations by luminaries Carl Anthony and Paloma Pavel and the lead organizations, as well as breakout sessions, songs and healing words of wisdom led by Reverends Ambrose and Ryan Carroll. Yesterday’s Mobilize Berkeley kick-off event was amazing and I just want to thank each of for your roles in supporting it! Special thanks to Ambrose and Ryan for making us feel welcome in their church and in supporting us in all the ways they did and Cheryl for her vision and leadership. There was lots of inspiration and connection throughout the event and in the small circles.A woman in a small group said, “This is where hope starts. I am ready to do something!”
“What brings me hope is the power of our collective imagination.”
There was also sharing around climate impacts as well that included knowing people that lost their homes in the California fires and having direct impacts from the smoke due to asthma. Groups were also so very sad about our Bay Area people who are un-housed and are aware that this situation is likely to get worse, but many are ready to build our relationships and find ways work on these problems.
A few special “thank-yous” go to Paloma Paval and Carl Anthony for their generous role in the event, the SERC team.
One highlight was Berkeley Council member Ben Bartlett and his wife for joining the event and sharing the joy of their newly born daughter. This work is for their daughter and her generation. May the healing continue.
Thank you to Linda Currie for co-writing this article.
