Announcing the Equitable Community Benefits Kern County Grantee Partners
September 20, 2024
Sustain Our Future Foundation is proud to introduce the grantee partners selected for our Kern County, California equitable community benefits grants. This grants strategy, created in collaboration with local environmental justice organizations and AES, demonstrates our collective commitment to providing tangible, lasting benefits for communities in and around Kern County, California.
Through this effort, 21 community-based organizations, social enterprises, and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) have been selected through our grantmaking programs—the Sustainable Justice Training Institute, Regenerative Economy Program, and Power Shift Grants Program. These organizations were chosen to advance our core grantmaking goals to:
Strengthen and diversify the sustainability workforce while promoting economic justice
Reduce or eliminate excessive and unjust carbon emissions through root-cause solutions.
Reduce, eliminate, or prevent environmental pollution and the creation of sacrifice zones.
Increase community-owned and community-driven models of sustainable infrastructure.
Heal and remediate natural ecosystems and restore our relationship to the land.
Listed below are the awarded grantee partners and their transformative initiatives.
Sustainable Justice Training Institute // Sustainable Justice Scholarships
The Sustainable Justice Scholarship supports historically underrepresented students by offering scholarships that enable them to complete educational programs focused on environmental and sustainability careers. The five Minority Serving Institutions selected to award these scholarships are:
Bakersfield College
Cerro Coso Community College
Porterville College
Taft College
California State University, Bakersfield
Sustainable Justice Training Institute // Workforce Development and Small Business Acceleration
This initiative resources workforce training programs to equip individuals for success in the sustainable economy. The selected grantee partners include:
Proteus Inc.: Offers workforce development programs with a focus on training, education, and community services.
Self Help Enterprises: Empowers low-income families by building homes and healthy communities through hands-on training programs.
FIELD Institute: Carries forward the agricultural justice legacy of Cesar Chavez by helping Californians, particularly farmworkers, engage in the green economy through education and workforce development.
Rising Sun Center for Opportunity: Provides career pathways in environmental fields for justice-involved adults and frontline youth, centering on economic equity and climate resilience.
Regenerative Economy Program // Reparative Land Collective
This program supports BIPOC land stewards implementing ecological restoration strategies, including agroecology and water replenishment. Through land reMatriation efforts, the collective addresses the climate crisis while creating community and environmental well-being. The selected grantee partners include:
Sogorea Te' Land Trust: An urban Indigenous women-led land trust that facilitates the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous people. The team is building a cultural revitalization center on its recently rematriated shellmound site.
MINNOW: Securing land tenure for farmworkers of color and Indigenous communities across California to achieve food sovereignty.
Allensworth Progressive Association: Revitalizing the historic community of Allensworth through an agroecological farm and climate resiliency center. Established by Colonel Allen Allensworth in 1908, the town was the first in California to be founded, financed and governed by African Americans.
Sustainable Economies Law Center: Pioneering legal frameworks that empower communities and support grassroots resilience.
Regenerative Economy Program // Regenerative Communities Project
The Regenerative Communities Project (RCP) mobilizes resources for hyperlocal sustainable infrastructure development, ensuring alignment with principles of sovereignty, and agency. The selected grantee partners include:
Central California Asthma Collaborative: Providing education, health services, and home health improvements to frontline communities, targeting the environmental factors contributing to chronic cardiovascular diseases.
Community Action Partnership of Kern: Providing home weatherization improvements to frontline communities to reduce energy burden.
Community Water Center: Advocating for and delivering clean water infrastructure across Central California to ensure all communities have access to safe, contaminant-free water.
Power Shift Grants Program // EcoRise Grants
The EcoRise grant supports the growth of local sustainability enterprises led by historically underrepresented community members. By providing general operating grants, EcoRise enables these businesses to navigate the challenges of their early or mid-stages, creating a diverse supplier ecosystem where a variety of perspectives and voices can thrive. The selected grantee partners include:
Gemini Energy Solutions: A Black-led social enterprise working with frontline communities to offer affordable energy audits and deploy solar microgrids at local institutions.
Green Raiteros: An Indigenous-led organization operating an Indigenous EV ridesharing service that provides affordable, accessible transportation in Central California.
Oasis Air and Solar: A person of color-led social enterprise offering heating, air conditioning, and energy-saving solutions while hiring justice-involved individuals.
Power Shift Grants Program // Thriving Communities Grants
The Thriving Communities grant empowers frontline organizations through general operating grants. These grants strengthen organizations' resilience, driving meaningful change in their communities and beyond. The selected grantee partners include:
Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment: Providing legal, organizing, and technical support to grassroots groups in frontline communities.
Central California Environmental Justice Network: Collaborating with community stakeholders and government bodies to address environmental justice issues and create sustainable solutions.