Community Resiliency and Preparedness Fund
In 2015, the Community Foundation’s Board of Directors established the Disaster Fund for Mendocino County in response to severe drought conditions in the spring/summer of 2014. The Disaster fund was successfully utilized for recovery and rebuilding efforts when the Redwood Complex Fire struck Mendocino County in October 2017. However, as local fire departments and other organizations approached the Community Foundation for preparedness and resiliency resources, items not addressed by Disaster Fund guidelines, the Foundation increasingly turned to its Community Enrichment and Community Support grant programs to fund these kinds of projects. By the summer of 2018, it became apparent that a separate fund designed to specifically address preparing for and minimizing damage from catastrophic events was needed.
The goal of the Fund is to support effective, realistic, and coordinated planning, reduce duplication of efforts, and increase the overall effectiveness of disaster preparedness activities in our communities. These efforts can help minimize the impact of disasters on our community and result in saving more lives and safeguarding livelihoods during any disaster situation, enabling our affected neighbors to return to a normal lifestyle as quickly as possible, and for the community to be stronger and more resilient afterwards.
In 2019, the Community Foundation is accepting proposals from non-profit organizations and public entities to prepare our communities to be ready for a potential disaster through building resiliency and preparedness projects.
Criteria:
Community resiliency projects should support Mendocino County communities to encourage and improve community resilience following a disaster. These grants focus on building resiliency and systems to help communities recover emotionally, physically and socially. Examples of resiliency grants include:
- Activities that offer long-term benefit in supporting emotional, physical, or social recovery;
- Supporting a community study to allow a Municipal Advisory Council (or other local governing bodies) to develop a long-term plan for the community;
- Establishing or further developing local Volunteer or Community Organizations Active in a Disaster (COAD) teams;
- Assisting with a community resilience assessment to specifically evaluate the physical, economic, and social implications of community decisions (either active or passive) made with respect to recovery needs following a disaster.
Disaster preparedness projects should support concrete steps to mitigate disaster hazards, such as fire-safe building and landscaping. Examples of Disaster Preparedness Grants include:
- Workshops on fire-safe construction and landscaping for homeowners throughout the region;
- Organizational collaboration to work with homeowners, city and county organizations to assess and prevent wildfire threat to the Western hills of the Ukiah Valley; and
- Funding for local emergency response organizations to be fully equipped and better prepared to respond in case of a disaster.
Total Funding Available: total $50,000; grant range $1,000-$7,000
Deadline for Submission: This grant program is now closed for the 2018-2019 grant cycle
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