University of California, Davis
EN-10: Community Partnerships

The Capital Region Climate Readiness Collaborative (CRCRC) is a multidisciplinary network of local and regional agencies, organizations, businesses and associations working together to advance climate mitigation and adaptation efforts in their own communities and throughout California’s Capital Region. CRCRC brings together stakeholders from across sectors and jurisdictions to find regional solutions to address shared challenges – drought, extreme heat, extreme weather events, wildfires and more. The goal is to help the six counties of El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba, and the communities they encompass, thrive in the face of a changing climate.

The CRCRC Steering Committee guides strategic planning, decision making, implementation, etc., and all members are able to self-nominate (or be nominated by another steering committee member) to join. The CRCRC has a number of Community-based Organizations (CBO) in its network who are serving on the committee or have served previously. The CRCRC nonprofit dues structure and flexibility with modified dues also aims to reduce barriers to participation – CRCRC has offered many complimentary memberships. Many of the 2020 Steering Committee members (e.g. Breathe California Sacramento Region, WALKSacramento, SMAQMD, SMUD, Sacramento County Public Health, etc.) are leading efforts that directly serve underrepresented groups/vulnerable populations, and CRCRC always strives to maintain a strong equity lens throughout all its work.

https://climatereadiness.info/

The Yolo Resiliency Collaborative is an ad-hoc staff-based organization with membership from jurisdictions across Yolo County that formed in October 2017 to kick-start resilience planning and implementation in our communities. Yolo is a leader in successful regional planning partnerships. The Yolo Resiliency Planning Group (YRPG) builds on these established collaborative and allied relationships. Member agency staff meet monthly to further the organization’s and individual agencies’ goals.

Communities in Yolo County contend with disasters that have serious impacts on our health, economy, infrastructure, environment, social equity, safety, and well-being. These disasters include wildfires, flooding, drought, and extreme heat, and they are exacerbated by climate change. Holistically planning and preparing for such challenges and calamities allows our communities to not only survive disasters, but to continue to thrive. The YRPG seeks to tackle resilience challenges head on by creating a collaborative space to envision and implement regional resiliency solutions, and by developing resources to mitigate impacts of disaster, accelerate our ability to recover, and support and strengthen our communities.

In supporting our communities, the YRPG engages with Yolo stakeholders to inform and shape our projects and goals. In February 2018, the YRPG held its first Workshop “Addressing Impacts of Heat Stress and Extreme Heat” with attendance from multi-departmental jurisdictional staff and other local stakeholders. This workshop was followed up by a second stakeholder workshop in June 2019 to address internal/external outreach and communication related to the work completed over the year prior. The YRPG also presented information at the boards, city councils, or other representative body of each member agency to engage with our communities’ elected officials.

Following the first Workshop, a work plan was developed to create a “Resiliency Plan Toolbox” with template language for addressing and preparing for extreme heat events. The YRPG hired a CivicSpark Fellow (an AmeriCorps program managed by the Local Government Commission that seeks to build capacity for local governments to address environmental and social equity challenges) to create this toolbox, with direct supervision and home officing from UC Davis and additional supervision from all other YRPG members. The YRPG work, including the CivicSpark Fellow, was funded by YRPG Member Agencies, including a generous 50% seed money allocation by Yolo Energy Watch.

YRPG members currently represent the following jurisdictions, agencies and organizations throughout Yolo, who have provided staff participation and expertise, meeting spaces, work space and equipment, supervision, conference funding, and other resources based to-date on the proportional population-based Yolo Joint Emergency Management Structure (JEMS), and substantial in-kind support: Yolo County, City of Davis, City of West Sacramento, City of Winters, City of Woodland, Yolo County Housing, Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, UC Davis, Capital Region Climate Readiness Collaborative, Yolo Energy Watch, and Yolo-Solano Air Quality Management District.

The mission of the Yolo Subbasin Groundwater Agency (YSGA) is to provide a dynamic, cost-effective, flexible collegial organization to ensure compliance with the California Sustainable Groundwater Management Act within the Yolo Subbasin. Each of the Member and Affiliated Parties has an initial responsibility for groundwater management within their respective jurisdictional boundaries and the YSGA serves a coordinating and administrative role for developing the Groundwater Sustainability Plan. The Yolo Subbasin Groundwater Agency was officially formed on June 19, 2017 for the purpose of acting as the Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) for the Yolo Subbasin. The Yolo Subbasin Groundwater Agency is considered the exclusive GSA for the Yolo Subbasin, which can be found on the California Department of Water Resources SGMA web portal.

https://www.yologroundwater.org/

Aggie Square harnesses the power of UC Davis and its partners to create educational and economic opportunities in Sacramento and beyond. Located on the UC Davis Sacramento Campus, Aggie Square will house business partners and community-based programs with UC Davis innovation and research to create a stronger and healthier shared community.

https://leadership.ucdavis.edu/aggie-square/about

Developing Productive and Equitable Community-University Partnerships for Aggie Square: https://leadership.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk1166/files/files/page/Aggie%20Square_Full%20Report_UPDATED%20FINAL%205.3.19.pdf

The UC Davis Regional Community Engagement program is dedicated to the fostering of partnerships with our diverse community. This program is the campus' primary conduit between the University and Northern California small businesses, and civic and community organizations. More information and a list of partnerships is available at: https://diversity.ucdavis.edu/regional-community-engagement