Case Study: Boyle Heights

by admin | Sep 13, 2021 | Case Studies, Case Study Hubs

Boyle Heights Case Study

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:

Neighborship

by Ben Robbins | Aug 28, 2021 | Case Studies, Case Study Blocks

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, and the skyrocketing cost of living in the United States, many people turned to tiny homes and mobile homes as a means to survive. Tucked in a small lot at the edge of West Oakland lies a tiny home community known as Neighborship. Founded by Adam Garrett-Clark and other pedicab drivers in 2015, Neighborship is a resilience space in a variety of ways, from their energy resilience to their response to various legal and zoning challenges unfortunately common to many tiny home communities throughout the Bay Area.

Off-Grid Living

Neighborship is composed of several mobile homes, all with a variety of innovative climate solutions. The community is truly a resilience hub in that it is completely off-grid, with each home outfitted with its own solar panels and battery back up.

Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

The combination of the limited financial resources with limited energy from their batteries and solar panels have prompted the residents of Neighborship to become experts at energy conservation. All of the homes have energy efficient appliances, while the community also sports a wind turbine which is essential during prolonged periods of minimal sun visibility such as heavy smoke days.

The community is also food resilient. Built on a former junk yard with a history of toxic heavy metals in the soil, the residents have had to get creative with their gardening. All of their edible and medicinal plants are grown in raised beds and pots and are pollinated by the several hives of bees that live on site.

Despite their model resilience practices, the community is under constant threat of closure. The residents have become outspoken advocates for zoning code reform and leaders in the struggle to legalize tiny home communities, as highlighted in this recent San Francisco Chronicle article. Their local partners and collaborators in this struggle include the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, Sustainable Economies Law Center, Northern California Land Trust, and Bottom’s Up Community Garden.

Recently, their efforts have seen some success with Oakland’s New Ordinance to Increase Housing Affordability which would give communities like Neighborship a legal designation and protection. But these efforts are a double-edged sword: the requirements stipulated in the ordinance will increase financial burdens that could jeopardize their very affordability.

Community Asset Mapping

Inside Neighborship, there is an informal understanding of both the skills and vulnerabilities of the residents. Since many of the residents have been pedicab drivers, there is extensive use of bicycles and knowledge to prepare them. To keep things affordable, they are also skilled in water conservation and are constantly looking for new ways to save and store water.

Disaster preparedness is one area of growth for the community. The site does have a 72 hour supply of food and water, but they do not have sufficient supplies of other emergency materials such as masks, air filters, and radios. They used to meet on a regular basis to discuss disaster preparation, but since the start of the pandemic, these meetings have become less frequent. Recognizing these deficiencies, Adam is interested in formalizing disaster response procedures and adding capabilities to be able to respond to a variety of different emergencies.

Although their community faces many challenges, Neighborship stands as a model for how tiny homes can effectively fight the housing crisis, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and increase community resilience.

Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

Case Study: West Oakland Resiliency Hub

by admin | Aug 26, 2021 | Case Studies, Case Study Hubs

Project Overview

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

Case Study: Bay Area Maker Farm

by Ben Robbins | Aug 17, 2021 | Case Studies, Case Study Hubs

The climate crisis is already here. Every year, the threat to vulnerable communities rises. In order to meet the moment, we must act quickly to protect those at risk. Recognizing the urgency to adapt, a group of skilled craftspeople have rapidly developed a new resilience space in the City of Alameda. At its current location, the Bay Area Maker Farm has only been around since the beginning of 2021. Since then, they have developed their allotted plot of land into a dynamic site. Their new location is on land owned by Alameda Point Collaborative (APC), the largest supportive housing community in Alameda County, which has provided them with the opportunity to support their residents, many of whom previously struggled with homelessness. This partnership has already proven fruitful, with many of the residents regularly showing up at volunteering events and workshops.

The Bay Area Maker Farm is in a unique situation, being the only resilience site in the City of Alameda. Although it is relatively new, the site will most likely act as a model for other potential hubs who are interested in building resilience in the face of climate change.

One area where they stand out is their incorporation of various makers, whose expertise and ingenuity contributed to the rapid establishment of the site in its current location. The members of the Maker Farm are skilled in a variety of crafts including woodworking, sewing, blacksmithing, and gardening. The site contains several shipping containers which have been converted into workspaces for the makers to rent out. Some of their projects include NorCal Resilience partner Wholly H2O, which promotes water conservation, and the Foodz Project, which turns food waste into hot meals for the homeless. During the pandemic, the makers have put their skills to good use, producing personal protective equipment and painting murals in support of Black Lives Matter during the height of the George Floyd protests.

Recognizing the lack of diversity in the maker community, the site has made efforts to promote equity by hosting community events for local BIPOC organizations as well as offering skill shares for their local community to bring new people into the maker’s space. These efforts are especially important given the fact that their area is 90% people of color while a majority of the makers are overwhelmingly white.

Although they have made remarkable progress since coming to their new location, the Bay Area Maker Farm acknowledges its need to further develop as a resilience hub, especially in the area of disaster preparedness. One area, in particular, they seek to flesh out is setting up clear procedures to respond to natural disasters such as extreme heat, smoke from wildfires, earthquakes, and flooding. Currently, the farm does not act as a food distribution hub despite its connection with the Foodz Program and the refrigerated truck on-site, but they are interested in setting up a food distribution program in the future. In terms of supplies, they do not have enough food, water, masks, air filters, first aid kits, or emergency go-bags to withstand a sizable disaster. There is currently no committee dedicated to disaster preparation, but there are ongoing efforts to rectify this shortcoming.

One area of strength for the Maker Farm is their connection with their community. The site itself is designed to be as open and inviting as possible. The gates are always open for visitors and anyone can come to their volunteer days. This has made them incredibly accessible to their APC neighbors and has brought in assistance from across the area including the local Coast Guard base. They also host regular meetings for groups such as BIPOC Alameda and have partnerships with Community Action for a Sustainable Alameda (CASA) as well as APC’s Farm2Market.

The farm also has made excellent progress to be more self-reliant with its water and energy practices. The entire site runs on renewable energy supplied by a solar panel owned by FEMA and operated by the makers. They are also looking to install backup batteries and generators to prepare for power shutoffs. Through Wholly H2O, the site is also working on adopting more water sustainable practices such as rainwater catchment.

The new Bay Area Maker Farm has quickly established itself as an innovative and dynamic resilience space that could serve as a model for the entire city of Alameda. Thanks to the creativity and ingenuity of the MakerFarm members, the site will continue to find innovative ways to better serve its community.

If you wish to learn more about the Maker’s Farm or assist in their projects, check out their website here: Bay Area Makerfarm

Case Study: The Oakland Peace Center

by Ben Robbins | Jul 26, 2021 | Case Studies, Case Study Hubs

As climate change drastically upends our daily lives, promoting peaceful cohabitation, conflict resolution, and cooperation will be essential for humanity’s survival. To this end, the Oakland Peace Center is dedicated to community building through the work of its 30+ community partners, whose programs support nonviolent communications, mental health, healing, and community-based conflict resolution. At the Peace Center, the various organizational partners offer a variety of services including therapy, meditation, youth workshops, and immigration services.

Founded at the First Christian Church of Oakland on MLK Day ten years ago, the Oakland Peace Center has taken a unique approach to promote resilience. Beyond just maintaining supplies of emergency resources, their connections have given them the ability to promote resilience on a daily basis and strengthen their community before a disaster even hits.

There are many elements of the Oakland Peace Center which distinguish it from other resilience hubs. Their most unique elements are their partners. In total, there are ten in-house partners and more than thirty-five external partners who work closely with the organization. Through these, the Center shines. Acting as an intermediary, the Peace Center excels at coordinating resources and expertise to promote nonviolent conflict resolution and provide assistance to vulnerable community members. Some of the organizations include East Point Peace Academy, which offers conflict resolution training to the general public and prisoners, the Niroga Institute which teaches trauma-informed mindfulness practices at Oakland schools, and Project Darreis, which provides basic needs in an effort to curb violence. By themselves, these organizations provide vital services to the community, but with the assistance of the Peace Center, they are able to break out of their silos to collaborate with other organizations and find creative ways to build resilience.

Another central element of these organizations, and the Center at large, is their focus on promoting equity and supporting marginalized communities. This can be seen in their agreed-upon values where they recognize the persistent legacy of slavery and commit themselves to always center racial equity in their work.

The Oakland Peace Center stands as a model resilience hub thanks to their extensive disaster preparations, relationships with their community, and their efforts to fight climate change. In the event of a disaster, the facility will be prepared thanks to their regular evacuation drills, designated meeting places, and supplies of essential resources. Currently, they have enough food and water to supply thirty people for over a week, a reserve of bunk beds and sleeping bags, as well as go-bags that contain feminine hygiene products.

To ensure that nobody is left behind in the event of a disaster, one of their most important roles as a resilience hub is to stay connected to the community that they serve. As an organization whose primary purpose is networking, the Oakland Peace Center is perfectly situated as an intermediary in their community. Through their partners, they are able to identify those who need the most assistance and connect them with resources. When one partner is working with someone who needs mental health counseling, they are able to work with another partner who provides these services. Finally, the Center has been making efforts to combat climate change. This is mainly done through partners such as The Sunflower Alliance, Urban Releaf, and the Alliance for Climate Education. These community organizations work with the Peace Center to educate the community about climate change and fight for climate justice. Recently, they have been retrofitting the facility with sustainable appliances such as energy-efficient lights and low water usage faucets and toilets. One area of potential growth for both disaster preparedness and fighting climate change is switching to renewable energy and expanding backup power options.

In the near future, the Peace Center plans on adding solar panels as a form of renewable energy, as well as adding backup power in case of power shutoffs. The Center is also looking to build up a larger network of volunteers to assist them in their endeavors and to create a list of people’s skills so they can better assign people to various work projects

If you wish to help them promote nonviolence and create a more equitable and resilient future, you can click the link below.

https://www.oaklandpeacecenter.org/volunteer

Case Study: The Garden of Dreams

by Ben Robbins | Jul 22, 2021 | Case Studies, Case Study Spaces

Envisioned by young community members in 2019, the Dream Youth Clinic’s Garden of Dreams has blossomed over this past year, providing a green safe-space in a formerly blighted section of their cul-de-sac. At the start of the pandemic, health advisors stressed the importance of sheltering-in-place to slow the spread of COVID-19. This was a tall order for those without stable housing to quarantine in or somewhere to go to refresh outdoors. For residents of Dreamcatcher Youth Shelter, an affiliate of the Youth Clinic, the creation of the Garden of Dreams helped remedy this situation by providing a healthy environment to relax, remain active, and reflect during the stress of the pandemic.

Thanks to the leadership of Dr. Aisha Mays, a physician at the clinic, and her team of young volunteers, the Garden of Dreams stands out as a model resilience space. From the beginning, they have excelled at promoting youth leadership and equity. Instead of dictating what young people needed, the clinic asked their youth community what would best support them. The youth responded enthusiastically that they wanted a garden. The design of the site’s rainwater catchment system exemplifies how this emphasis on youth voices persists to this day. Using white butcher paper, the youth of the clinic wrote out inspirational messages. These messages were then carved, in their own handwriting, into the panels of their water gazebo. In terms of equity, the garden emphasizes the incorporation of indigenous healing practices and provides stipends to youth volunteers and leaders who help out on planting days and who lead workshops. By providing financial support, the garden uplifts their young community members and encourages further climate action and leadership. Two years after the first visioning session, the garden now offers a variety of fruits and vegetables that are often unaffordable and out of reach for many young people and community members

To bring people together, the hub has developed a network of robust partnerships with a variety of community organizations and local governmental departments. They received two grants from the NorCal Resilience Network and currently collaborate with DreamCatcher Youth Services, MISSSEY, Planting Justice, HumaniTree, Acta NonVerba, BART, and the Oakland City Council. They also hold regular events such as planting days, garden youth cooking workshops, food distribution, and youth block parties. These events and connections help break down barriers between groups, allowing greater cooperation and interconnectivity.

The Garden of Dreams’ leaders continue to envision how to strengthen their site’s resilience. One area that they are focusing on more is disaster preparedness. Although the hub does have sufficient supplies of food, water, and medical equipment, they do not have a clear emergency response plan for frequent disasters such as excessive heat, smoke, drought, or earthquakes. The committee intends to formalize their emergency plans and provide more training in first aid and emergency medical care. To address climate change, the Garden of Dreams has installed solar panels on the aforementioned rainwater catchment system to pump water for the garden. They have also incorporated drought-tolerant landscaping, drip irrigation, and water efficient appliances for the clinic and the garden.

The Dream Youth Clinic’s Garden of Dreams is a visionary resilience space that is constantly looking for new ways to strengthen their community. Through these measures, this hub will further promote the health and wellbeing of their youth community and strengthen their resilience in the face of an intensifying climate crisis.

If you are interested in learning more about the Dream Youth Clinic, click here:

https://rootsclinic.org/dream-youth-clinic-2/ or follow DreamYouthClinic on Instagram and Facebook

Case Study and Interview: Canticle Farm

by admin | Jul 8, 2021 | Case Studies, Case Study Blocks, Food, Resilience Hubs

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.

Case Study: La Colina Community Circle

by Ben Robbins | Jul 7, 2021 | Case Studies, Case Study Blocks

La Colina Community Circle is a model resilience neighborhood situated in the hills of El Sobrante, California. Founded on the vision of breaking down walls of isolation and strengthening connection between neighbors, the Community Circle has grown into a thriving community in an environment challenged by climate change. Through frequent events like block parties and crop swaps, the bonds between neighbors have blossomed. By pooling their skills and resources, they have strengthened community resilience through disaster preparation, permaculture and various work projects. Unlike a traditional hub housed at a single facility, the organic and familiar nature of this resilience neighborhood model allows the site to more effectively care for the needs of individual community members.

The community itself is a unique blend of working class families of various races and ethnicities. There is a core constituent of dedicated members who find the time in their busy lives to work on the multitude of neighborhood projects to build both resilience and community.

A model for Permaculture: food growing and water catchment/conservation

The neighborhood itself contains a multitude of gardens that grow a variety of fruits and vegetables including olives, blackberries, and tomatoes. Chief among these gardens is the food forest at Rising Spring garden, home to community organizer Jessica Bates and the focal point of resilience for the neighborhood. Their innovative water systems help to support her garden; Rising Spring contains three 208 gallon tanks, a single 10,000 gallon tank, an in house water filtration system, water-efficient appliances,a laundry to landscape greywater system, and various drought-resistant landscaping. Other neighbors also have innovative sustainable features, from gardens to drought tolerant landscaping. One neighbor has a full-house grey water system and a home made composting toilet. These measures are an essential element of community resilience and will be vital community resources during California’s persistent droughts.

La Colina is also well prepared to respond to natural disasters.

Similar to many other hubs, La Colina is constantly finding new ways to build resilience. One priority area is disaster preparedness. For example, there is one member who is becoming CERT certified, while multiple community members have prepared go bags and have stockpiled 72 hours’ worth of food and water. They also have a Ham radio tower which is connected to East Bay CERT (community emergency response team) and is stationed on the hillside next to La Colina neighborhood. At their community meetings every third Sunday, neighbors often discuss how they would respond to various disaster scenarios, including evacuation plans. Since the community abuts part of Wildcat Canyon Regional Park, neighbors are currently working on becoming trained to become a “FireWise ” community. One dangerous source of vulnerability for the community are earthquakes as many of the homes in the neighborhood currently not retrofit for a sizable shock. Beyond this, the community itself is well connected, with clear lines of communication and extensive asset mapping to assist vulnerable residents during disasters. Rising Spring is also developing mobile off-grid power through solar with battery backup.

Looking to the future, La Colina Community Circle is ambitious in its efforts to create a more resilient community. Though busy with her toddler, Jessica has bold ambitions at her Rising Spring home garden that include creating a shared shaded area for community meetings, setting up a community kitchen, and building a mobile charging solar station. These efforts and others will go a long way to further the Community Circle’s goals of breaking down barriers between neighbors and strengthening their connections with one another. As a resilient neighborhood, La Colina neighborhood is a shining example of the power of cooperation and standing together in the face of adversity.