The California Resilience Partnership (CRP), launched in 2021 with the support of the Hilton Foundation, was designed with the vision of bolstering existing efforts to generate meaningful partnerships and further advance resilience projects in regions across the state.
Within regions, CRP worked to:
CRP’s work within each region began intentionally with learning, planning, and strategy, building a foundation of strong partnerships and a robust learning community.
Support local partners to identify community-led local needs
Local nonprofit and public practitioners lead a process to identify resilience priorities and project opportunities ripe for CRP partnership.
Launch project development activities
Multi-sector partners built projects that address local shocks and stresses through convenings, trainings, technical assistance, policy guidance, philanthropic engagement and direct funding support.
Cultivate cross-sectoral partnerships
Cross-sectoral partnerships are critical to building lasting capacity at the regional scale, particularly when they uplift environmental justice and equity-focused community organizations and connect them to the public sector.
Regional partnerships
Following RCC’s work in Los Angeles to surface and pilot innovative solutions to fire and urban heat following the 2018 Woolsey Fire, CRP was formally established to work with partners to strengthen the region’s preparedness for wildfire and extreme heat, as well as other climate threats, through coordinated efforts at the regional scale.
In San Diego, RCC and the San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative convened global experts and key regional leaders representing diverse community stakeholders to explore innovative approaches to coastal erosion. The San Diego Region Coastal Exchange identified innovative designs, viable projects and policies that addressed coastal resilience challenges and were later advanced to design and implementation.
The program expanded to Sacramento in 2023, conducting a regional landscape analysis of the greater Sacramento region, identifying organizations and partnerships that play a critical role in activating the region, and assessing funding opportunities to advance regional resilience priorities.
From planning to implementation
Over time, regions progressed and CRP transitioned to support tangible resilience project implementation.
In the Los Angeles region, CRP supported the creation of the Resilience Blueprint and the Resilience Tool for Baldwin Hills, working closely with the Urban Watershed Conservancy. The work now informs the conservancy’s overall strategic priorities, helping to form new partnerships and build complementary community engagement efforts such as the Urban Resilience Advisory Task Force.
In the Sacramento region, RCC supported the advancement of the Yolo Food Hub to expand food production and distribution channels, improve healthy food access, stabilize food markets, and increase employment and job-training opportunities. This effort and other implementation work continued through RCC’s California Project Preparation Initiative.
Statewide, CRP strived to:
CRP also used regional learnings to inform its approach to improving a statewide enabling environment.
Share best practices and accelerate collaboration through the CRP Network
Through convenings, knowledge exchange, development of learning materials and sharing of best practices, the expanding CRP Network facilitates exchange among practitioners.
Foster statewide resilience policy alignment among CRP practitioners
An aligned policy agenda can help inform state policies, philanthropic efforts and other resilience work, while reflecting regional priorities and on-the-ground experience.
Engage statewide philanthropies to catalyze funding and build partner capacity
By cultivating relationships with philanthropies statewide, mapping CRP projects and regions against funder priorities, and convening funders, CRP activates new funding opportunities for priority projects and partners.
A statewide enabling environment
Regional learnings, including those documented in resilience case studies in Ventura, Oceanside and Paradise, elevated best practices. The program facilitated statewide dialogues around climate investments, centered equity in every engagement, and cataloged lessons to lay the groundwork for expansion to new regions across the state. Through Climate Crossroads: California’s Readiness to Act on Climate Resilience, CRP provided robust recommendations to help the state’s grant programs foster more equitable and resilient communities across California.
CRP’s deep work in greater Los Angeles, greater San Diego, greater Sacramento and the Central Coasts ultimately revealed funding and implementation challenges that underscored the need to catalyze philanthropic funding in concert with public resources. CRP therefore created the foundation for the next phase of RCC’s work: the California Resilience Implementation Accelerator.
Impact
Progress made visible.
Advisory Board
As CRP launched, RCC identified leading nonprofit and other organizations across California that share a common resilience agenda to inform the program and grant-funded initiatives on an ongoing basis. Over time, the CRP Advisory Board has advised on projects across regions, supported key partnerships, and provided a formal connection to statewide policymaking agencies so that partnership activities can inform state policy. As CRP evolved and the Accelerator launched, RCC continued to engage the board in ongoing California activities.
Current members
- Bernadette Austin — CEO, CivicWell
- Louise Bedsworth — Executive Director, Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, Berkeley Law
- Darbi Berry — Director, San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative (Chair)
- Erin Coutts — Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability, UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
- Abby Edwards — Senior Deputy Director, Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation
- Jessica Hitt — Associate Director, ClimateWorks Foundation
- Nuin-Tara Key — Executive Director of Programs, California Forward
- Robert Miyashiro — Program Officer, International Programs, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation (Ex-Officio)
- Kiara Reed — Executive Director, Civic Thread
- Jonathan Parfrey — Executive Director, Climate Resolve
Past members
- Dolores Barajas — Regional Resilience Grant Program Manager, Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation
- Sona Mohnot — Director for Climate Equity, Greenlining Institute
Founding Funder
Supporting Funders
