CivicWell

Healthy communities & community design:in 2022, Civicwell's community design team partnered with 19 jurisdictions to apply for funding and conduct local visioning, planning and implementation of solutions for equitable and sustainable transportation, safe routes to school, housing, downtown and neighborhood revitalization. On behalf of the strategic growth council, the team assisted 11 disadvantaged communities with project and application development support for funding from the state transformative climate communities program and approximately 40 other communities with project and application development for funding from the state air resources board clean mobility options pilot program. Civicwell's funding navigation technical assistance program helped marginalized communities engage stakeholders, assess project readiness, interpret grant guidelines and requirements, and prepare competitive funding proposals. The platform supported local leaders in navigating the complex landscape of sustainable transportation, affordable housing, urban greening, and water resources management to identify viable and appropriate funding sources. Civicwell hosted a webinar series that gathered leading experts to discuss options to increase housing supply, choices affordability in California. Events included housing in commercial corridors, missing middle housing, and housing as a climate strategy. The webinars reached hundreds of people in multiple states and even abroad. Civicwell also conducted 4 webinars and office hours for tribes and disadvantaged communities to help them conduct community transportation needs assessments and develop projects for shared mobility with electric vehicles.

Energy:in 2022, as part of the California climate and energy collaborative (ccec), a successor program to the statewide energy efficiency collaborative (seec) program, Civicwell's energy team provided resources, technical assistance, and networking opportunities to help local government agencies reduce greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate climate action. Civicwell also hosted the 13th annual ccec forum as an in-person conference for local government staff and clean energy leaders from across the state to exchange knowledge, learn, and network. Civicwell staff also worked with the local government sustainable energy coalition (lgsec) to advocate for local government energy policy interests at the California public utilities commission (cpuc) and other state agencies and provided members with professional development and networking resources. Civicwell also provided local government outreach support for the empower procurement program, an initiative funded by the California energy commission to streamline advanced energy procurement processes for local jurisdictions, and finalized a community energy action plan for low-income neighborhoods in the city of fresno. Finally, Civicwell supported a statewide cca initiative in partnership with calpine and provided early support to san diego community power to help inform their local government engagement programs.

Climate change:in 2022, Civicwell's climate team supported numerous local, regional and statewide climate change efforts through the alliance of regional collaboratives for climate adaptation (arcca), the capital region climate readiness collaborative (crc), the partners advancing climate equity (pace) pilot program, and the 2023 California adaptation forum (caf), engaging with hundreds of jurisdictions and organizations across California. These programs supported a series of coordination meetings, educational workshops and capacity-building trainings, advisory committees, engagement with key state and regional agencies, research on climate risks and solutions, and targeted technical assistance. Civicwell also completed a project with the city of san luis obispo to support the development of an adaptation plan, which will be included in the city's updated general plan, by organizing virtual community engagement activities, analyzing existing city policies and programs to identify areas of alignment, and developing a compliance timeline for relevant state laws related to local climate adaptation planning.

Water:civicwell's water team served as convener and facilitator of the ngo groundwater collaborative, a network of 51 community-based organizations, advocates, and nonprofits working with localities to ensure equitable and effective implementation of sustainable groundwater management act. The team organized and facilitated the 2022 ngo groundwater collaborative convening with clean water action, engaging 50 participants across two days in both english and spanish. We revamped the groundwater exchange online platform that connects water managers, users and community members with resources for effective groundwater sustainability plans, and supported 5 webinar and 3 office hours on key groundwater themes. The team continued to assist borrego springs with incorporation of the borrego valley stewardship council, capacity building and engagement with 107 constituents and 46 organization to inform water and land use planning. We helped establish a cohort of local leaders, advocates, and tribal, agency, and business representatives to produce the san diego region coastal resilience roadmap. Lastly, we assisted madera county with planning for implementing groundwater recharge and land repurposing in disadvantaged, unincorporate fairmead, collaborated on a report with clean water action and community alliance with family farmers on the impacts of groundwater sustainability plans on small farmers, and hosted a webinar on green infrastructure with over 80 viewers that highlighted a project led by Civicwell with cosumnes community services district and the city of elk grove.national service:in 2022, as part of the 2022-23 service year, 87 civicspark fellows provided over 154,197 hours of service to communities across California, Colorado and Washington state. This was our 9th service year in California and 1st year in Colorado and Washington state. Fellows have supported 87 civicspark projects at 71 agencies across three states. Projects focused on addressing emerging environmental and social equity resilience challenges such as climate change, water resource management, affordable housing, and mobility. Fellows have performed 1,515 hours of volunteering, engaged over 319 ongoing on-going volunteers and 1,831 one-time volunteers.local policymaker engagement:in 2022, Civicwell connected over 27,000 leaders through projects, coalition work, and events (in-person and virtual). Local government regulatory engagement: lgc's coalition, the local government sustainable energy coalition (lgsec), provided energy-related technical and policy information to its 42 members via monthly regulatory engagement calls, monthly newsletters, 1 virtual webinar, and 1 in-person meeting on the topics of energy resilience and cross-sector coordination. The lgsec represented its coalition members on 4 cpuc proceedings and issues, including the ab-32 climate change scoping plan, sunova community microgrids California's application, grid modernization, and clean energy financing options. A total of 6 comments were submitted.