Albemarle, Charlottesville, UVA announce launch of Climate Resilience Cohort

Albemarle County, the City of Charlottesville and the University of Virginia has announced the launch of the Climate Resilience Cohort, a grant opportunity to fund community participation in preparing for the local impacts of climate change.

The initiative seeks up to 10 community-based organizations serving disadvantaged or vulnerable community members in Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville.

Resilient Together is a collaborative planning and implementation process that its participants hope can work to strengthen community resilience in the face of climate change.

“The Climate Resilience Cohort is a key component of Resilient Together, aimed at expanding the project’s reach and ensuring local resilience strategies serve our entire community,” said Gabe Dayley, Climate Protection Program Manager for Albemarle County.

Selected organizations will receive multiple benefits from participating in the Climate Resilience Cohort:

• Training in how climate change is affecting vulnerable community members and how extreme weather intersects with other social and economic challenges that many community-based organizations work to address.
• Relationship-building and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing among organizations with complementary areas of focus.
• Leadership in solution design for resilience strategies that can leverage future federal and state funding programs.

The grant is comprised of two phases: resilience planning and implementation. Grantees will receive awards of $15,000 each to participate in the planning phase of the Resilient Together Project. An additional $250,000 will be available to cohort participants for project implementation, with each organization guaranteed $25,000.

Organizations will have the option to co-design projects and pool funds.

The Climate Resilience Cohort is funded through an Environmental Justice Government-to-Government grant from the EPA.

“The impacts of climate change don’t care about the jurisdictional boundaries between the City, County, and UVA, so it makes sense to work together to prepare for those impacts,” said Emily Irvine, Charlottesville’s Climate Program Manager. “Doing the work together as a community will make us stronger.”

The application submission deadline is Thursday, Aug. 1.

To learn more about the Climate Resilience Cohort and to download the application instructions and materials, visit the Climate Resilience Cohort webpage.