SACRAMENTO — The California Department of Food and Agriculture is seeking public comments on a draft Request for Applications (RFA) for a new grant program, Community Resilience Centers Program (CRC). The 30-day public comment period will begin on July 25, 2022, and comments will be accepted until August 24, 2022.
Appropriated through the Budget Act of 2021, the $38 million available for the CRC program will focus on improving community facilities to enhance the state’s emergency preparedness capabilities, particularly in response to climate response. This funding will be used to support infrastructure for emergency evacuation, shelter, base camps during emergency events, and critical deferred maintenance. Elements for this infrastructure may include cooling and heating centers, clean air centers, and extended emergency evacuation response centers with community kitchens, shower facilities, broadband, back-up power and other community needs due to wildfires, floods, and other emergencies or climate events.
Applicants may apply for project implementation grants of a minimum of $5,000,000.
The following entities are eligible to apply for this program: tribal governments, non-governmental organizations, community development corporations, non-profit organizations, and public entities. Entities applying must have demonstrated expertise in workforce development programs as well as assisting socially disadvantaged, low-income, and/or climate vulnerable communities.
The draft RFA for the CRC program will be released prior to the start of the public comment and can be found at: https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/
Comments must be submitted via email by 5 p.m. PT on August 24, 2022.
CDFA will consider all comments received before releasing a final RFA for this program. Comments will be accepted the following ways:
Written Comments: Please submit written comments via email to: CRCProgram@cdfa.ca.gov
Include “Community Resilience Centers Program Comments” in the subject line of the email. Please specify which funding track each comment is regarding in the body of the email.
Live/ In-person Comments: The CDFA Fairs and Expositions Branch will host at least one listening session during the public comment period to welcome live feedback.
The first webinar is tentatively scheduled for August 3 at 11:00am via Zoom.
Information for these sessions is available on the CDFA – Grant Programs (ca.gov)
No registration is necessary for these sessions.
–California Department of Food and Agriculture
