October 2019 - June 2021

Staff at County of San Mateo, CA was seeking to improve how it operationalizes equity in programming and project implementation. To do so, an internal cohort of six staff engaged in community building, reviewed internal practices, and created best practices for equitable and inclusive project delivery. Leveraging multi-departmental momentum at the County of San Mateo and with the leadership of the County Office of Sustainability, built staff capacity and developed strategies to center equity in climate resilience efforts for a local community partner, North Fair Oaks Community Alliance, to co-create an emergency preparedness curriculum for the community. They leveraged institutional knowledge to identify institutional barriers and considered approaches to reduce or eliminate them, while introducing strategies to co-design the planning and partnership processes. At scale across the County, the spread of this pilot is positioned to improve the impact of government programming and improve community-based organizations’ ability to work with government towards sustainability and resiliency for all.