Nineteen community-initiated projects received funding from the city of Cincinnati to address neighborhood-level effects of climate change. The “Seeds of Change” grant program supports sustainability, equity and resiliency efforts as a part of the Green Cincinnati Plan.
A group of residents, rather than city officials, selected the projects to fund.
City sustainability manager Molly Robertshaw says that empowered people who are most impacted by effects of climate change to make decisions about solutions.
“It’s not really up to the government to prescribe a solution for a given community without at least their input, if not with them in the driver’s seat,” Robertshaw says.
Heat, flooding and air quality are the primary local effects of climate change. They manifest differently throughout the city. Lower-income and historically redlined neighborhoods experience these effects of climate change more acutely than wealthier areas, according to Cincinnati’s 2021 Climate Equity Indicators Report.
“Equity in sustainability and resilience work involves both some of the listening to community voices that that we’ve discussed before, but also shifting decision making and allowing decisions to be made by those who know better because of their lived experience,” Robertshaw says.
Each project is led by residents or nonprofits. They range from the Black Power Initiative’s plan to create an agricultural production site for kids in the West End, to the Camp Washington Urban Revitalization Corporation’s proposal to convert street lights to LEDs.
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Sidney Prigge is the Camp Washington Urban Revitalization Corporation’s executive director. She says the idea to implement LED streetlights came from community council meetings, where people expressed concerns about low lighting on streets in the industrial neighborhood.
“We’re happy that this initiative can not only impact our street safety, but also the green impact on Camp,” Prigge says.
LEDs are brighter and more energy efficient than traditional lights, producing fewer carbon emissions
Projects funded by the Seeds of Change grants support the Green Cincinnati Plan’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
“The more we collectively work together, whether it’s within a neighborhood, across a city, state, or federal or international, the better chance we have at starting to mitigate and adapt to these challenges,” Robertshaw says.
The Seeds of Change grant program is led by the city of Cincinnati’s Office of Environment and Sustainability in partnership with the Greater Cincinnati Foundation. This year, it awarded $196,769 to 19 projects, according to a city news release.
The initiatives are set to be up and running by the end of the year.