Cal Poly Humboldt
EN-10: Community Partnerships

HSU’s efforts to build a campus and community resilient to climate change are built upon three interrelated areas of focus - Planning, Curriculum & Research, and Student Leadership & Engagement - which allow us to more effectively plan for climate change while supporting others engaged in this important work.

Generally, efforts and activities within the "planning" area of focus have yielded collaboration with community organizations and members, including representation from the City of Arcata, Redwood Coast Energy Authority, Humboldt County Board of Supervisors, Blue Lake Rancheria, Humboldt County Association of Governments, the CSU Chancellor's Office, Civic Spark Climate Fellow, Cooperation Humboldt, and the Redwood Community Action Agency. This collaboration represents a robust partnership of many community organizations to advance climate action and resilience planning for the region. This effort has been led by HSU Office of Sustainability staff member and Climate Action Analyst Morgan King.

More specifically, work within the "planning" area of focus has been comprised of two main activities over the last two years:
1) Development of a Report on the Initial Assessment of Campus-Community Resilience, completed in April 2018. This effort identifies vulnerabilities to climate change impacts, initial opportunities to strengthen resilience, and indicators the campus and City of Arcata can use to track progress towards greater resilience. strengths, assets and activities on the HSU campus and within the City of Arcata. Review the Initial Assessment of Campus-Community Resilience.
2) Execution of an HSU-Community Resilience Building Workshop, held March 2019. This activity brought together campus and community stakeholders to identify and prioritize actions to improve campus-community resilience. Review the Executive Summary and workshop Summary of Findings. More about the process used can be found at www.CommunityResilienceBuilding.org.

Read more about this partnership at https://facilitymgmt.humboldt.edu/sustainability-climate-change-resilience-initiatives.

Humboldt State successfully partnered with the City of Arcata, City of Eureka, and Food for People to submit a selected grant application to CalRecycle during the the 18-19 cycle. The Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) administers the Food Waste Prevention and Rescue Grant Program pursuant to Public Resource Code section 42999. The purpose of this competitive grant program is to lower overall greenhouse gas emissions by establishing new or expanding existing food waste prevention projects (source reduction or food rescue for people) in California to reduce the amount of food being disposed in landfills. Furthermore, this program is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide program 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.

The specific partnership seeks to expand existing food rescue programs throughout the Humboldt Bay region. The project will rescue food that would otherwise be disposed from businesses in the food service industry, local institutions, grocery stores, and through on-campus efforts. This will include an education and outreach program, hands-on engagement, expanded cold storage capacity and increased food donation collection and distribution. The project will divert approximately 170,000 pounds of food from landfill disposal over the grant term.
Total Amount Awarded : $163,657.00

Humboldt State provided a significant amount of staff time in the preparation of the grant content, and will remain and integral partner in the implementation of grant monies.

Read more at https://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/climate/grantsloans/foodwaste

Established in 2017, Equity Arcata is a partnership between the City of Arcata, Humboldt State University, local businesses and nonprofits who are working to make Arcata a more welcoming, safe and racially equitable community. The group is working to eliminate racial disparities for all people of color in housing, health, education and employment. Volunteer working groups aim to support community issues and create strategies to help increase housing equity, foster communications between law enforcement and students, develop equity communication and education outreach, expand diversity and inclusion training our community, local businesses and in tk-12 schools, develop a community bias reporting tool, a community response team and create events to bring our community together.

Initiatives include:
-Create a diversity and inclusion awareness campaign.
-Launch a series of KHSU public service announcements.
-Address housing equity.
-Build stronger relationships between police and students.
-Continue to expand diversity and inclusion training.
-Create a bias response system with real accountability.
-Create a website with community resources and updates on these initiatives.

Partners in this effort include Humboldt State University, Equity Alliance of the North Coast, Arcata Chamber of Commerce, Northern Humboldt Union High School District, Humboldt County Office of Education, City of Arcata, and AA1A Senior Corps.

Humboldt State has been an integral partner offering staff support from leaders on campus, including Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Staff, faculty from the Department of Social Work, and the Campus Police Chief, among other participants in various workshops, discussions, social activities like potlucks, and working groups.

Read more at https://www.equityarcata.com/teams