This project consists of conducting community‑based shoreline habitat enhancement, organizing capacity building workshops, and engaging participants in shoreline adaptation plans in Santa Clara County and San Mateo County. Climate Resilient Communities (CRC) is a community-based organization that serves communities at the frontline of climate change impacts in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. The Alviso and Belle Haven neighborhoods in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties are communities that have long faced disproportionate impacts of shoreline industrialization, habitat degradation, and climate change impacts, such as flooding, extreme heat, and more. Each neighborhood has historically encountered barriers to organizing local climate adaptation efforts and accessing resources for community‑driven projects.
The project will enable the Alviso and Belle Haven communities to participate in hands‑on shoreline habitat enhancement and learn about native shoreline plants, climate‑focused capacity building, and shoreline adaptation planning. As part of the project, CRC will partner with each neighborhood’s Climate Change Community Teams (CCCTs), launched in Alviso and Belle Haven in 2024 and 2020. Each of the CCCTs is comprised of a partnership with multiple local community organizations, local government, and non-profits. Alviso in Action and the Belle Haven Collective are the community organizations leading their neighborhood’s respective CCCTs. The CCCTs leads, Alviso in Action and the Belle Haven Collective, will partner with CRC and a local non-profit called Grassroots Ecology, to engage approximately 65 individuals from the two neighborhoods in the project.
