Zoe Siegel

Zoe Siegel

CERF: An Economic Boost for Resilient Communities

At Greenbelt Alliance, we envision a Bay Area comprised of healthy, thriving, resilient communities and lands that are safe during climate disasters and recover quickly from wildfire, floods, and drought. We envision a Bay Area where everyone coexists with nature in innovative and powerful ways for generations to come. Targeted investments in climate-resilient infrastructure can help make this vision a reality.

This is why Greenbelt Alliance is proud to be a part of the Bay Area High Road Transition Collaborative (HRTC), a new group of 52 organizations led by All Home and the Bay Area Good Jobs Partnership for Equity. The HRTC has been awarded a Community Economic Resilience Fund planning grant by the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research to develop and implement inclusive, sustainable economic strategies in the Bay Area.

Ensuring everyone in our region can thrive means ensuring everyone has access to economic opportunities—particularly those who have been excluded in the past—while also addressing one of our most imminent challenges: climate change.

What is The Community Economic Resilience Fund (CERF)?

The Community Economic Resilience Fund (CERF) is a $600 million fund to build a sustainable and equitable economy across California, with a focus on supporting new strategies to diversify local economies and develop industries that create high-quality, broadly accessible jobs for all Californians in the transition to a carbon-neutral economy.

The CERF will support high-road economic development plans to create equitable access to quality jobs. High-road economic development supports environmentally sustainable businesses that pay living wages and create opportunities for career growth. As California recovers from the economic distress of Covid-19, the CERF aims to ensure that California’s economy works for all residents, particularly those who have historically been marginalized.

About the Bay Area High Road Transition Collaborative (HRTC)

In the Bay Area and 12 other regions in California, organizations have come together to create High Road Transitional Collaboratives (HRTCs) that include balanced representation from the workforce, community, labor, business, government, economic development, education, philanthropy, and indigenous communities.

The State has chosen one HRTC in each region to receive a CERF grant of $5 million for a two-year planning process. After the initial $5 million planning grants are provided, an additional $500 million for implementation will be administered in rolling, competitive grants.

Learn more about the planning and implementation phases. 

Bay Area HRTC Members

  • Alameda Labor Council
  • Arts Contra Costa County (ARTSCCC)
  • Asian Pacific Environmental Network
  • Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC)
  • Bay Area Community College Consortium
  • Bay Area Council
  • Bay Area Regional Health Inequities (BARHII)
  • Bloom Energy
  • BlueGreen Alliance
  • Building Skills Partnership
  • Building Trades Council of Alameda County
  • California Green New Deal Coalition
  • California Institute of Integral Studies
  • CAMEO
  • Canal Alliance
  • Center for Sustainable Neighborhoods
  • Centro Legal de la Raza
  • Chinese Progressive Association
  • Construction Trades Workforce Initiative
  • Contra Costa Building Trades Council
  • Contra Costa Economic Partnership (CCEP)
  • Contra Costa Labor Council
  • East Bay Economic Development Alliance
  • Emerald Cities Collaborative
  • Greenbank Associates
  • Greenbelt Alliance
  • Jobs with Justice San Francisco
  • North Bay Jobs with Justice
  • North Bay Labor Council, AFL-CIO (NBLC)
  • Othering and Belonging Institute, UC Berkeley Port of Oakland
  • Prospera
  • Rural County Representative of California (RCRC)
  • SAMCEDA
  • San Francisco Foundation
  • San Francisco Labor Council
  • San Mateo Labor Council
  • Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network
  • SF Building & Construction Trades Council
  • Sierra Club, San Francisco Bay Chapter
  • Silicon Valley Creates
  • Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG)
  • Small Business Majority
  • Solano Economic Development Corporation
  • SOMOS Mayfair
  • South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council
  • UC Berkeley Labor Center
  • United Way Bay Area
  • UpValley Family Centers of Napa County
  • Transition U.S.
  • Working Partnerships USA

HRTC Members have signed a Collective Partnership Agreement Letter, which includes a commitment to working in partnership to achieve the goals set out in the program and collectively devise a more inclusive, equitable, and competitive regional economy.

Want to learn more? Watch a recent webinar about how you can engage with CERF

Get Involved

If you or your organization are interested in getting involved or would like to receive updates about CERF and the Collaborative’s process, please reach out to Zoe Siegel (zsiegel@greenbelt.org) or fill out this interest form.

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