The past year has presented a flurry of devastating challenges for California. Wildfires and the pandemic delivered a one-two punch to the state, with a record-setting 4 million acres burned in 2020 and more than 500,000 Americans dead from COVID-19 to date.

"In California, a state that is so large and so diverse, we saw an opportunity to bring together partners across sectors (county governments, city governments, academic partners, key nonprofits, and community groups) to collectively design new, potentially replicable solutions to local problems," Sam Carter, founding principal at Resilient Cities Catalyst, said.

The Resilient Cities Catalyst (RCC), a nonprofit formed by members of the former 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) initiative, has launched the California Resilience Partnership (CRP), a multi-million dollar public-philanthropic collaboration. The partnership will bring together a diverse group of stakeholders, state agencies and organizations to support statewide priorities as California faces urgent and compounding resilience challenges linked to climate change, the pandemic, racial injustice and economic issues. The CRP model is designed to attract funding for resilience projects, with a goal to secure at least $30 million from public, private and philanthropic sources within five years to help scale those projects throughout the state.

Read the full article about the Resilient Cities Catalyst by Cailin Crowe at Smart Cities Dive.