Climate Resilience
Our Vision
Climate resilience is community resilience—a whole community approach that ensures everyone’s well-being is considered. Achieving resilience requires deep thinking around issues such as social and economic inequities and structural racism, as well as long-term integrated planning among agencies
and jurisdictions.
To build true community-wide resilience, CEC is pioneering climate adaptation and resilience efforts that are rooted in equity and catalyzed by place-based innovation. We elevate solutions that are community-led, ready to activate, and intersectional, supporting a broad range of community needs.
CEC’s unprecedented resilience action plan addresses the most pressing climate threats to our region – offering solutions that are needed now and can be immediately activated to build resilience across our community.
In 2022, CEC:
Published the region’s first Climate Resilience Action Plan, synthesizing over 700 climate resilience and adaptation solutions from a series of five community roundtables on our region’s greatest climate threats: extreme heat, wildfire and smoke, sea level rise, drought, and intense storms. The plan identifies 11 key actions to make our region safer and more prepared for climate disruptions.
In conjunction with the Santa Barbara Fire Safe Council’s Regional Wildfire Mitigation Planning program, piloted a climate planning process that engaged frontline communities to define wildfire resilience solutions that are iterative, collaborative, and replicable.
In partnership with the Santa Barbara County Regional Climate Collaborative, identified three community resilience hubs that will provide centralized disaster services, support, and education to residents who are most vulnerable, or at high risk, during disasters.
WHAT’S AHEAD
Launch three community-designed resilience hubs in Santa Barbara County that provide refuge and resources for community members to not only survive disasters but recover, adapt, and continue to thrive in the face of future climate threats.
Work with the Santa Barbara County Wildfire Resilience Collaborative to develop and execute wildfire resilience and habitat restoration projects, including in the Goleta Riparian Corridor.
Formalize an Extreme Heat Resilience Coalition of public and private partners to develop and launch solutions for vulnerable communities who face one of the region’s deadliest climate impacts.
Align climate resilience goals with public health goals by piloting community resilience solutions to reduce the economic and health disparities related to the prevalence of extreme heat.
