Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation Awards $9.4M for Local Governments and Community-based Organizations to Combat Extreme Heat and Build Community Resilience

The Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation's (LCI) Extreme Heat and Community Resilience Program (EHCRP) announces $9.4 million in funding to help 32 California communities build capacity for extreme heat action planning and project implementation.

Divided into 20 Small Planning Grants and 12 Small Implementation Grants, these awards support local, regional, and tribal efforts to reduce the impacts of extreme heat through investments including physical infrastructure, planning, nature-based solutions, and emergency preparedness. This funding, along with technical support for project management and evaluation, will develop frameworks for change across the state to reduce the risks of extreme heat events.

This investment comes at a critical time. "Governor Newsom's climate agenda takes historic action to address the climate crisis, and investing in building community resilience to extreme heat is at the very center," said Samuel Assefa, Director of the Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation. "The Extreme Heat and Community Resilience Program empowers California's communities to build essential projects and partnerships, that will safeguard residents and vital systems from the impacts of extreme heat."

Round 1 awardees represent a wide range of local governments, community-based organizations, and academic institutions. One hundred percent of all awards will be invested into disadvantaged communities.

Small Planning Grant awards range from $113,00 - $250,000 ($4.4 million total) and will fund early-stage efforts for communities to mitigate extreme heat. Projects include the creation of local heat action plans, heat resilient infrastructure planning at schools, and designing heat resilient bus shelters.

"We believe this partnership is essential to building a safer, more resilient future for all communities in Kings County," said Alexander Mena, the Kings County Chief Resilience Officer and EHCRP small planning grant awardee, "The Extreme Heat and Community Resilience Program grant enables us to prepare strategically, focusing on protecting vulnerable populations-such as those with access and functional needs, non-English speakers, unhoused individuals, farmworkers, and others who rely on outdoor labor."

Small Implementation Grants range from $330,000 - $450,000 ($5 million total) and will fund items like school campus landscaping retrofits, community safety training, and park retrofits to that add shade and heat relief.

"We're planning for the future, making sure that when the heat returns, our students have a campus that's comfortable, safe, and designed with them in mind," said SBVC President Gilbert J. Contreras. "These upgrades came directly from our students' voices. We listened at San Bernardino Valley College. With shaded spaces, cool water stations, and solar-powered study spots, we're setting an example in sustainability too. It's all about building a campus where students feel supported and can focus on achieving their goals."

Learn more about each grantee by viewing the Small Implementation and Small Planning Grant Awards List.

The EHCRP Small Grants were designed to ensure that smaller community-based organizations and heat-vulnerable communities have access to funding that can help them plan and take action to protect themselves from extreme heat events.

As part of the Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program, EHCRP is part of a family of grant programs that include the Regional Resilience Program and the Adaptation Grant Program. Funding for EHCRP was made available through the 2022-23 General Fund budget. An additional $3.5 million of funding was added to the small grant awards from the 2024-25 General Fund budget. These awards will be followed by large implementation grants which range from $450,000 to $4 million and will be announced later this fall.

For more information on EHCRP visit our website or signup for Program news and alerts.

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