Spokane organizations receive over $1 million to support environmental and climate justice
Officials announced Monday that Spokane organizations will receive over $1 million in state grants to support environmental justice and communities disproportionately impacted by climate change.
The Washington state Department of Health said 41 organizations and tribes across the state were selected to receive more than $14 million in funding from the Climate Commitment Act. Passed in 2021, the Climate Commitment Act is a cap-and-invest program designed to help the state meet its carbon reduction targets.
The $14 million was distributed in the form of grants, which have the purpose of funding climate change adaptations and community engagement in environmental politics within disproportionately impacted communities.
“We’re creating a sustainable world but also a world that’s fairer and more just. And these grants help us to do that,” Department of Health spokesperson Lauren Jenks said. “It really kind of puts our money where our mouth is.”
The Gonzaga Institute for Climate, Water, and the Environment received a grant of $95,856 in partnership with the Carl Maxey Center. This funding will be used to assess the climate-related needs of the East Central community along with potentially creating a refuge from wildfire smoke in the Carl Maxey Center, said Brian Henning, director of the institute.
Henning said the climate institute found in a study that the East Central Neighborhood has, at times, been as much as 14 degrees hotter than neighborhoods near the Spokane River. Henning said this is an example of an “urban heat island,” caused by the close proximity of Interstate 90. East Central has faced historical discrimination from redlining – racist rules that barred Black residents from living in certain areas, causing many Black residents to settle in East Central.
“When you look at your phone – you look at the weather – you’re usually getting something that’s typically registering from the airport,” Henning said. “And so community members in East Central may not realize they’re more at risk, more vulnerable, to these heat waves than in other parts of the city that have more greenery, such as the South Hill.”
Another organization that received funds from the Climate Commitment Act is Latinos en Spokane. The nonprofit was awarded $306,328.
Executive Director Jennyfer Mesa said these funds will be used in part to hire a full-time worker to lead immigrant policy and climate justice work in the local Latino community. Due to immigration status, Mesa said that sometimes workers aren’t provided essential gear for working in high heat.
The new employee will help identify climate risks in the Latino and immigrant community.
“We are going to make sure that the voices of the most marginalized – and the essential workers who are providing building, growing our food to processing our food, to building our homes – is at the center,” Mesa said.
Spokane’s Asians for Collective Liberation and Nuestras Raices Centro Comunitario also received funding – $269,540 and $406,164 respectively.
Jenks said that while she hopes that the Climate Commitment Act remains operational and able to continue to fund grants like these, the upcoming vote on Citizens’ Initiative 2117 to repeal the act is a real concern.
“If that were to go away,” Jenks said, “I’d be very concerned about how we’re going to meet our carbon goals and create jobs and invest in our communities.”
This article has been updated to reflect that the new Latinos en Spokane employee will support both Latino and immigrant populations.