California Strategic Growth Council

Couldn't let today pass without celebrating the work of our SGC & Governor's Office of Planning and Research (OPR) 2024 summer interns on National Intern Day! Interns are an integral part of the work that we do at SGC and OPR. Our interns work closely with staff on a variety of projects that advance the Governor’s policy and planning priorities. Interns have hands-on opportunities to learn about California State government and policy implementation, while gaining skills in policy research and writing, land use planning, climate resiliency, grant assessment and technical assistance, local government outreach, interagency coordination, legislative analysis, and more! ☀ This summer we collectively offered six intern opportunities to college students from across the country. Waverly Patterson, from the University of South Dakota. Justin Toshima, Idyl Farah, and Irene Fernandez from University of California, Berkeley. Madison Nguyen from UC Irvine, and Rohan Chowdhury from Stanford University. Thank you all for your hard work and dedication to our various programs, initiatives, and the people of California! We hope you learned as much from us, as we learned from you! Happy #NationalInternDay!

📢 Today, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that three community partners working with the California Strategic Growth Council’s (SGC) Connecting Communities Initiative have been selected to receive funding for community projects that reduce pollution, increase community climate resilience and build community capacity! 🎉 Congrats La Familia Counseling Center, Inc. in Sacramento for being selected for your, Greening North Franklin project—which will implement several projects to reduce pollution and build climate resiliency in south Sacramento.  🎉 Congrats to The City of Bakersfield for being selected for your Southeast Strong project that will improve community connectivity in central and southeast Bakersfield by expanding residents' access to safe, clean, and convenient active transportation and public transit options.     🎉 And congrats to the San Diego Foundation for being selected for their Rooted in Comunidad, Cultivating Equity: Brighting Just and Electric Transit, Healthy Homes and Opportunity to San Diego's Central Historic Barrios project, which will focus on providing a holistic approach to improve local air quality, mitigate extreme heat, and expand green space in the southern border region.      The Connecting Communities program was established in November 2023 to help local partners statewide access federal funding made available through the Biden-Harris Inflation Reduction Act. The program works to support current SGC grantees and unawarded grant applicants with technical assistance and other tailored resources to develop strong applications for federal grants.     The EPA’s Community Change Grants Program is the single largest investment in environmental and #ClimateJustice in history. Today they announced more than $325 million in funding for 21 selected applications, five in California.     Fun fact: All three awarded projects were applicants to SGC’s Transformative Climate Communities (TCC) program, which is a unique, place-based strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and designed to catalyze collective impact through a combination of community-driven climate projects in a single neighborhood. #ClimateResiliency #ClimateEquity #Justice40

#ThankfulThursday! Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that three community partners working with the California Strategic Growth Council’s (SGC) Connecting Communities Initiative have been selected to receive funding for community projects that reduce pollution, increase community climate resilience and build community capacity. These awards demonstrate how California is leading the way in climate justice investments and leveraging state dollars to capture available federal funding! #ClimateEquity

📢 We are #hiring! We have openings in our #HR and #Business Services offices!    💼 Personnel Officer: https://lnkd.in/g2J2SQWy Apply by: 7/26    Under the Chief of #HumanResources, the Personnel Officer (SSMI) oversees analysts and specialists, ensuring top service in payroll, leave accounting, accommodations, separations, benefits, and workers' compensation while assisting with progressive discipline.    🤝 Business Service Analyst: https://lnkd.in/g8DpVZgD Apply by: 7/29    Under the direction of the Senior Administrator, the Business Service Analyst (AGPA) handles complex business services tasks, including facility management, procurement, space planning, project management, and special projects.  The Strategic Growth Council is a Cabinet-level state organization that coordinates and works collaboratively across state government and with public agencies, communities, and stakeholders to achieve sustainability, equity, economic prosperity, and quality of life for all Californians. SGC programs include Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities, Community Resilience Centers, Sustainable Agriculture Lands Conservation, Transformative Climate Communities, Climate Change Research, Community Assistance for Climate Equity, and Health and Equity Program – which is part of a multi-agency Health in All Policies Initiative. SGC is a fast-paced, creative work environment that encourages staff to have strong collaboration skills, an ability to quickly respond to changing policy needs, and a positive attitude.   

👋 Meet the California Strategic Growth Council’s (SGC) Agricultural Land Equity Program Lead, Camille Frazier! Camille oversees the administration of SGC’s Agricultural Land Equity Task Force, a 13-member body working to develop recommendations for the Governor and Legislature about how to equitably increase access to agricultural land. 🌱 Prior to joining SGC, Camille was an assistant professor at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York, where she taught interdisciplinary social sciences courses including “Culture and the Environment” and “The Ethics of Eating.” She has a B.A. from Scripps College and a M.A. and Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from UCLA. She is also a published author. She’s written about a wide range of topics, from the popularity of Maggi instant noodles in India to the agricultural land equity policy landscape in California. She has more than 10 years of research and project management experience related to food, agriculture, land transitions, social movements in India and the U.S.   ⬇ Say hello to Camille in the comments and click through our #TeammateTuesday photos to learn fun facts about her!

🏛 It's not every day we get asked to update members of the U.S. House of Representatives, but when we do... The California Strategic Growth Council’s (SGC) Deputy Director of Energy Investments Sean Kennedy, Ph.D. was invited to a virtual meeting of the House of Representative’s Climate Solutions Caucus to provide a national update on California’s progress with Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) and Factory-Built Housing (FBH). The DOE Loan Programs Office invited SGC to present and highlight its progress with LPO and utilizing the State Energy Financing Institution program. Deputy Director Kennedy gave the following updates: ◾ In April 2024, SGC entered an agreement with King Energy, a third-party provider, to develop VPPs to enhance the #resilience of SGC supported sites, while contributing to the overall reliability and sustainability of the grid. This innovative public-private partnership aims to leverage funding through the DOE Loan Programs Office to increase site-level #EnergyResilience by adding solar and storage solutions. In addition, the initiative aims to improve grid stability, reduce energy costs, and create additional revenue streams for the host site for using or leasing project site space. ◾ In June 2024, SGC released the NOFA for the FBH Pre-Development Program. The program has $12 million available to fund pre-development activities for factory-built housing manufacturers applying to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Title 17 Clean Energy Financing Program. The program aims to unlock federal and private funds to accelerate the growth of California's factory-built housing sector. The Climate Solutions Caucus is a group of bipartisan members, led by co-chairs Congressman Andrew Garbarino (R-NY-02) and Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA-06), who are working together to combat #ClimateChange while also protecting the economic prosperity of the United States. This is a group dedicated to building a constructive dialogue about climate change, economics, #energy, and #conservation among Members of Congress, global leaders, environmental organizations, and business leaders. SGC is honored to be included in this space! 🤝 #EnergyResilience

📣 NEWS: "New reports from UCLA document how state investments in Transformative Climate Communities (TCC) reap financial wins for households, workers, and the local economy!" ⬇ Click the link in comments to learn how the California Strategic Growth Council's (SGC) TCC program helps communities build capacity for additional investments, by giving them the foundation to create competitive applications for other grant opportunities! The TCC program is supported in partnership with SGC and the California Department of Conservation. Rounds 1-3 of funding were part of California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment — particularly in disadvantaged communities.  #ClimateResiliency #ClimateEquity #CaliforniaForAll

Help California youth experience the outdoors! The Youth Community Access Grant Program is now accepting applications until August 14 for projects that create opportunities for low-income & disadvantaged youth to connect with nature. Funded projects will support #OutdoorsforAll, expanding park access for communities that need it most. 🌳Learn more: https://lnkd.in/ePcg3h7

So, proud of our Council Chair, Samuel Assefa and his representation of the California Strategic Growth Council’s many grant programs and initiatives that create spaces for innovation and equity in California communities! Thank you, California Government Operations Agency for hosting such an inspiring event and including us in this space! #CaliforniaForAll

👋 Meet the California Strategic Growth Council’s (SGC) Resilient Community Policy Associate for the Community Assistance for Climate Equity (CACE) team! Markie P. joined SGC in 2023, around the same time as the inaugural SGC Catalyst Conference. As a Policy Associate for CACE, Markie helps support the program administratively, serves as the communications liaison to the executive team, develops ArcGIS maps to visualize program data, and serves as the team's Racial Equity Action Plan data lead. CACE works to equip underinvested communities at the frontlines of the #climate crisis with tools to access funding for #ClimateAction. It houses multiple capacity building programs that offer funding, trainings, technical assistance, and peer exchanges to ensure that underinvested communities can lead their own climate solutions.  Prior to joining SGC, Markie served as the Volunteer Coordinator at Ready to Succeed, a non-profit that supports transition-age foster youth and first-generation college students. There she focused on communications, outreach, and connecting program participants with professionals. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and a minor in Urban and Regional Studies from UCLA. She also received a certificate in Geographic Information Systems from UC San Diego. Markie was born and raised in the harbor area of Los Angeles, home of the Port of Los Angeles, which inspired her passion for #ClimateEquity and to work for SGC.  ⬇ Say hello to Markie in the comments and click through our #TeammateTuesday photos to learn fun facts about her!