Community Partners Collaborates with Ambitious Pacoima Green Effort

Community Partners is excited to be part of a potentially historic collaborative effort that will direct $23 million in state funding into a wide range of alternative energy, active transportation and greening projects in the Pacoima-Sun Valley area of northeast Los Angeles designed to achieve important environmental, health, workforce development and climate resilience benefits. The $23 million will be matched by an additional $47 million in local leveraged project funding.

The “Green Together” coalition is led by Pacoima Beautiful and includes the Trust for Public Land, GRID Alternatives, Los Angeles Conservation Corps, Los Angeles Business Council, the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge, the Department of Transportation, and the Bureau of Sanitation. Community Partners will provide administrative, contract compliance and network support infrastructure to ensure the success of this grassroots, community-led effort.

“This is a hugely ambitious effort designed to transform Pacoima-Sun Valley neighborhoods, bringing crucial environmental, health and economic improvements to the people who live there,” said Judy Harper, a Community Partners program director. “Job growth, youth development, greening projects, water capture, energy alternatives to boost the local economy —  it’s really all encompassing, also focusing on issues of equity and displacement avoidance. In many important ways, this project will be a local test-case for the vision outlined in the Congressional proposal for a Green New Deal.”

The funding is part of a larger $46 million funding pool awarded by the California Strategic Growth Council (SGC) to both Sacramento and Pacoima, part of its Transformative Climate Communities (TCC) Program, which supports community-led, neighborhood-scale development and infrastructure projects that achieve important environmental, health, and economic benefits. These large-scale investments are intended to make a difference in the lives of the residents of some of the State’s most disadvantaged communities, while also reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. The first six to 12 months of the program will primarily be devoted to planning and organizational efforts. News releases on the grant award, which was announced in Sacramento on Dec. 20, can be found here and here.

Pictured above: Andres Ramirez of Pacoima Beautiful and project leader of People for Mobility Justice, a project of Community Partners