City Awarded $8 Million Grant to Establish Community Resilience Hubs

City of Spokane Awarded $8 Million Grant to Establish Community Resilience Hubs for Extreme Weather

Fianna Dickson, Communications Manager, 509.625.6297 & Amanda Donovan, Director of Communications, 509.444.5319

Thursday, July 25, 2024 at 4:26 p.m.

Today the EPA announced the Spokane Climate Resilience Project - a collaboration including the City of Spokane - was selected to receive $19.9 million dollars in Community Change grant funding to support disadvantaged Spokane communities through environmental and climate justice work.

Of the award, $8 million dollars will be designated to the City of Spokane and Spokane Public Library to add infrastructure to City-owned facilities, outfitting them to serve as Community Resilience Hubs during extreme weather. The infrastructure upgrades will include solar panels and battery back-up at the West Central Community Center, Northeast Community Center, Central Public Library, and Liberty Park Library.

"Building Spokane's climate resiliency, especially for our underserved community members, is a safety priority as we plan for the impacts of climate change," said Mayor Lisa Brown. "The Spokane Climate Resilience Project brings together strong partners to target eight strategies aligned with our Sustainability Action Plan, and EPA grant funding will go a long way towards implementing these strategies to keep community members safe during extreme weather."

"We have seen our community turn to the Library as a safe space time and again in extreme cold, heat, smoke, and windstorms as a climate resiliency center," said Andrew Chanse, executive director of the Spokane Public Library. "This grant will help bolster resiliency in our community and infrastructure and allow us to provide even more support for our vulnerable populations."

The Spokane Climate Resilience Project is a collaboration between the Gonzaga Institute for Climate, Water, and the Environment (the lead applicant); Spokane Neighborhood Action Partners (SNAP); City of Spokane; Spokane Public Library; and the Carl Maxey Center. The grant will fund a variety of climate action strategy projects aimed at transforming disadvantaged Spokane communities into healthy, climate resilient, and thriving communities.

"The Inflation Reduction Act is the largest investment in climate action in our nation's history and it could not come at a more important time," said Brian G. Henning, director of Gonzaga's Institute for Climate, Water and the Environment. "As deadly heat waves and poisonous wildfire smoke increase in frequency and duration, we are living in a changed climate that affects those who are least responsible first and worst. In collaboration with our partners, this grant will be a much-needed catalyst that will set Spokane on the path to being a more environmentally just and climate-resilient community."

Funds are anticipated to arrive over the coming months, and the grant provides a three-year window for the scope of work. For more information about the various projects within the grant award, please view the press release from Gonzaga University.

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