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Accelerating Climate Resilience Grant Program

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MAPC >> Resources >> Environment >> Accelerating Climate Resilience Grant Program

Accelerating Climate Resilience Grant Program

MAPC is working in partnership with the Barr Foundation to accelerate climate resilience in the region by helping municipalities advance strategies that protect people, places, and communities from the impacts of climate change.

The intent is to fund actionable resilience interventions that facilitate long-term, innovative changes leading to greater readiness for climate change. In particular, MAPC seeks to elevate projects that will advance climate equity, regional coordination, and social cohesion.

While the application deadline (Friday, September 15, 2023) has now passed, you can learn more about the Program and our application process by reading the Invitation for Proposals below.

FY24 ACR Municipal Grant Program Invitation for Proposals

Informational Webinar

Watch on YouTube

Webinar Presentation Slides

Questions & Answers

Questions?

Van Du
Assistant Director, Environmental Planning
vdu@mapc.org

Francelis Morillo Suarez
Clean Energy and Climate Planner I
fmorillosuarez@mapc.org

Program Priorities

We're supporting projects in the following categories:

- Nature-based solutions for climate resilience, such as green infrastructure, climate-smart parks, urban forestry, floodplain protection, and restoration of natural systems.

- Municipal climate resilience policy; including regulations, zoning, permitting, and inspectional services.

- Innovative financing or infrastructure investment program models.

- Capacity building through municipal staffing or climate coalitions/convenings, such as stormwater partnerships, regional climate networks, or watershed-based climate resilience initiatives.

- Contributions to social resilience or cohesion, such as public space improvements, dialogues, gatherings, training programs, and public health improvements, particularly for populations or neighborhoods vulnerable to climate change.

- Projects that combine climate adaptation with climate mitigation.

- Local food systems or community agriculture resilience measures.

- District-scale climate resilience pilots that are scalable and replicable.

- Innovative public outreach, engagement, and education efforts; including artistic, cultural, or creative projects that advance climate change knowledge or action.

Case Studies

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FY21 Second
Round Projects

FY21 First
Round Projects

FY20 Projects

Funded Projects: FY2024

Acton: Greening the Red House: A Living Example of Community and Climate Resilience

Project Type: Capital

Partners: Acton Water District

Grant Amount: $37,600

Project Description: This grant would allow the Town to transform what currently looks like a house on private property into a welcoming, wildlife certified, educational space, complete with rain gardens, a rehabilitated meadow filled with native perennials for pollinators, and water-wise elements. The property would function as a pocket park and serve as location for outreach, education, and public engagement (e.g., an accessible “Little Climate Resilient Library” with books selected by the community and available in multiple languages spoken in Acton).

Project Duration: One year

Boston: Building Climate Resilience Through Immersive Education and Training

Project Type: Capacity Building

Partners: Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation, University of Massachusetts Boston, Sustainable Aquaculture Program and Environmental Innovation Clinic, Wentworth Institute of Technology

Grant Amount: $45,000

Project Description: Leveraging virtual reality (VR), the project will promote socio-economic resilience to climate risks in Boston and bridge the gap between climate change projections and impacts, fostering a deeper understanding of the challenges facing our communities. Immersive VR experiences, delivered through workshops and events in state-identified “Environmental Justice” census tracts, will focus on coastal resiliency issues like flooding. VR may also be used as a platform for climate-ready workforce training. This dual approach of education and upskilling will enhance knowledge and empower individuals to start building a more resilient future.

Project Duration: One year

Braintree: Watson Park Stormwater Retrofits

Project Type: Capital

Partners: N/A

Grant Amount: $20,000

Project Description: The Town of Braintree plans to retrofit Watson Park with stormwater best management practices including a bioretention basin and subsurface infiltration system. The project site is in an Environmental Justice Block Group and within 1 mile of 17 additional EJ Block Groups within Braintree, Quincy and Weymouth. The project will directly benefit residents of these EJ communities by preserving a neighborhood park for their use.

Project Duration: One year

Cambridge: Community Center Resilience Hub Solar Panels

Project Type: Capital

Partners: Cambridge Community Center, Climable, CESI

Grant Amount: $50,000

Project Description: The City of Cambridge has been working with the Cambridge Community Center (CCC), a trusted community nonprofit, to develop a Resilience Hub with a clean, resilient energy system that can operate independently from the regional electric grid during and after disruption events. During disruptions, this system would provide CCC with the capacity to operate all its equipment for 5-12 days (e.g., kitchen, computers), enable residents to charge devices, and allow CCC to deliver food services, communications, safe shelter, etc.

Project Duration: One year

Chelsea: Urban Garden and Green Roof Design Pilot

Project Type: Technical Assistance/Design

Partners: Chelsea Senior Center, Chelsea's Department of Housing & Community Development, Green Roots

Grant Amount: $15,000

Everett: Main St. Meadows, Making Everett Cool

Project Type: Capital

Partners: Neighborways Design

Grant Amount: $20,000

Project Description: Situated next to Sweetser Circle, the future site of Main Street Meadow is located in one of the hottest neighborhoods in Everett. The project goals are to: cool an urban heat island, create a more beautiful, resilient, and connected neighborhood, increase pedestrian access and safety, support ecosystem restoration, decrease carbon and soil pollution, establish a sound barrier to reduce noise pollution, create an inclusive vibrant public space, and engage community through educational outreach and programming.

Project Duration: One year

Hopkinton: HopPlanning for Climate

Project Type: Capacity Building

Partners: Hopkinton’s Sustainable Green Committee (SGC), Cconservation Committee, Youth and Family Services, Planning Board, Hopkinton, Senior Center

Grant Amount: $35,000

Project Type: Capacity Building

Project Description: HopPlanning for Climate aims to 1) engage all stakeholders and members of the community in the participatory process of informing the Climate Action Plan (CAP) and 2) have an early-stage educational process for community members, targeting businesses, local developers, low-income homeowners/renters, the EJ population, and senior citizens. The process will include open house workshops, training events, a youth engagement day, a senior resiliency day, and municipal staff interviews.

Project Duration: One year

Hull: Cadish Avenue Resilience Project

Project Type: Technical Assistance/Design

Partners: Stone Living Lab

Grant Amount: $50,000

Project Description: Hull has a ~250 linear ft coastline area along the Boston Harbor side coast that is highly vulnerable to sea level rise, changes in precipitation events, and increasing intensity and frequency of coastal storm events. The area, which is located in the floodplain and in a coastal high-risk zone, currently has hard structures that border the beach to the north and to the south. The town, in consultation with the Woods Hole Group and Stone Living Lab at UMass Boston, identified this site as an excellent candidate for a nature-based solution.

Project Duration: One year

Ipswich: Leveraging Rainwater Harvesting to Promote Accessible Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies

Project Type: Technical Assistance/Design

Partners: Earthwater Design Solutions, Inc., Ipswich Housing Authority

Grant Amount: $33,000

Project Type: Capital

Project Description: This project aims to address some of the impacts of climate change felt most acutely in our community by expanding an existing program focused on rainwater harvesting to our affordable housing community. This project would extend the town’s existing Outdoor Water Use Assessment survey program to 13 multi-family buildings and to the Housing Authority’s main office to help provide rainwater for a planned community garden.

Project Duration: One year

Wayland, Ashland, Framingham, Natick, and Weston: Empowering Climate Resilience for Aging Residents

Project Type: Capacity Building

Partners: HeatSmart Alliance, MassEnergize

Grant Amount: $44,000

Project Description: The project would be a regional collaboration among several municipalities, including Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wayland, and Weston, to address the impacts of extreme heat and urban heat island effects on senior citizens. The project would rely on partnerships with each community’s Councils on Aging, Mass Energize, and HeatSmart Alliance. Extreme heat poses a greater threat to seniors because they face multiple challenges with health, social isolation, mobility, and living conditions. Socioeconomic factors such as poverty or language barriers can further exacerbate heat impacts.

Project Duration: One year

Funded Projects: FY2023

Beverly: Public Art to Illuminate Clean Energy Futures with Beverly Public School Students

Partners: Beverly Public Schools

Grant Amount: $20,100

Cambridge: Shade is Social Justice

Partners: Cambridge Arts, Harvard Office of Sustainability, MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, and more

Grant Amount: $100,000

Project Type: Capital

Project Description: Demonstrate the role of artists in designing creative and equitable heat mitigation strategies for Cambridge and beyond. It uses experiential learning to engage the public in daily spaces with the challenging themes of climate change impacts while also providing much needed shade. Shade is Social Justice treats shade as a ‘civic resource, an index of inequality, and a requirement for public health.

Project Duration: Two years

Chelsea: White Roof Pilot for Heat Mitigation

Partners: GreenRoots, Chelsea Boys and Girls Club

Grant Amount: $85,000

Project Type: Capital and Capacity Building

Project Description: Add a white roof to the Boys and Girls Club building, allowing the City to pilot and test another way to reduce urban heat. After installing the white roof, grant funds would also allow the City and our local nonprofit partners to engage residents and institutions in identifying other buildings where white roofs might be beneficial, and to develop preliminary plans for installing white roofs in those additional locations.

Project Duration: Two years

Malden: Beat the Heat: Cooling the Wicked Hot Outdoors

Partners: Mystic River Watershed Association

Grant Amount: $100,000

Medford: Staff Capacity for Climate Change Zoning & Policy Capacity Building

Partners: N/A

Grant Amount: $75,000

Project Type: Capacity Building

Project Description: In 2022, Medford published a Climate Action & Adaptation Plan, Housing Production Plan, and a city-wide Comprehensive Plan. To move these recommendations from plan to implementation, the City needs additional staff capacity. This request is to expand staff capacity to implement climate change zoning & policy changes recommended by these plans.

Project Duration: Two years

Milton: Energy Resilience: Winter Valley Microgrid

Partners: Milton Residences for the Elderly

Grant Amount: $50,000

Milton and the Neponset River Watershed Association: Neponset Estuary Climate Resiliency Group

Partners: Neponset River Watershed Association, Boston Harbor Now, and other local community organizations in Boston and Quincy

Grant Amount: $44,450

Natick: Tiny Forest and Tree Planting

Partners: Bio4Climate (non-profit), Natick High School Earth Club, and Natick Sustainability Committee

Grant Amount: $57,000

Project Type: Capital

Project Description: Seeks funding to support nature-based solutions that leverage the power of trees. The Town of Natick is committed to installing a Tiny Forest at Natick High School as a pilot project to engage and educate area residents, members of the adjacent Environmental Justice Community, and high school students on the importance of climate resiliency and ecological diversity.

Project Duration: Two years

Norwood: Green Stormwater Design at Senior Center and Emergency Shelter

Partners: Neponset River Watershed Association

Grant Amount: $50,000

Project Type: Technical Assistance/Design

Project Description: Take both designs for two potential BMP sites in Norwood (the Savage Center and Cleveland School) from 25% to 75% design and conduct community outreach about climate resiliency and green stormwater infrastructure. Moving both BMP designs to 75% with cost estimates will position both projects very well for further funding though MA DEP 319 program which will fund construction but only for projects with a conceptual design.

Project Duration: One year

Reading: Mattera Cabin Community Garden Phase II

Partners: Community Garden Collective

Grant Amount: $42,500

Scituate: Development of a Resilient Waterfront Park in Scituate Harbor

Partners: Scituate Harbor Redevelopment Commission

Grant Amount: $100,000

Project Type: Technical Assistance/Design

Project Description: The proposed project is part of a larger effort to build resiliency in the Scituate Harbor area through redevelopment of the 1.04 acre “Pier 44” site into a resilient waterfront park. The funding sought in this proposal will allow the Town of Scituate to hire a consultant to conduct the necessary geotechnical investigations and engineering studies, develop full architectural and engineering plans at a level of design suitable for construction and obtain permits for the preferred concept design.

Project Duration: Two years

Watertown: Edible Watertown

Partners: Watertown Community Gardens, Watertown School Gardens

Grant Amount: $70,600

Project Type: Capital and Capacity Building

Project Description: Edible Watertown is an interdisciplinary project that promotes awareness of the local environment and its ecosystems. Edible Watertown brings together the Public Arts & Culture Committee, Department of Community Development & Planning, Department of Public Works, Watertown Community Gardens, and Watertown Public Schools to educate residents of all ages about sustainable planting practices that enrich ecosystems and promote stewardship, access to public green spaces, and food security. Two years should enable the coalition to draw in more collaborators such as the Watertown Housing Authority, the Watertown Health Department’s Eat Well program, and others.

Project Duration: Two years

Winchester, Arlington, and Stoneham: Sustainable Landscape Handbook and Trainings

Partners: N/A

Grant Amount: $40,400

Project Type: Technical Assistance/Design

Project Description: The three towns propose educating property owners and landscapers about the importance of ecological land management. We propose the creation of a Sustainable Landscape Handbook usable by all three communities, coupled with training sessions led by sustainable landscaping experts to help property owners and landscapers understand and implement the recommendations in the Handbook for their own properties. The recommended techniques will better capture, treat, and infiltrate storm water. They will also enhance drought resilience and biodiversity, and provide other benefits.

Project Duration: One year

Funded Projects: Second Round of FY2021

Arlington: Remembrance of Climate Futures

Partners: Arlington Commission for Arts & Culture, Arlington Public Schools Green Team, artist Tom Starr

Grant Amount: $17,350

Short Description: Series of public art markers created by Arlington students.

Project Type: Capacity Building

Project Description: This combined public art/environmental education project proposes to implement an intergenerational version of artist Tom Starr's “Remembrance of Climate Futures,” a series of circular markers using the visual vocabulary of street signs and trail markers throughout public, town-owned spaces such as parks, plazas, and sidewalks.

Climate Resilience Impact: These markers, developed by artist Tom Starr, commemorate anticipated “historic events” relating to climate change – events still in the future and viewed as if looking back from the vantage of the 22nd century. The youth Green Teams will work and consult with various municipal departments, commissions, and community organizations to develop content for the markers. Specifically, they will seek out examples of resilience strategies that support low-income, elderly, and linguistically isolated populations to ensure that these strategies are highlighted in the markers.

Beverly/Salem: Community Outreach Campaign for Building Retrofits

Project Partners: Cities of Beverly and Salem

Grant Amount: $50,000

Short description: Targeted community outreach campaign to retrofit buildings to be more energy-efficient.

Project Type: Capacity Building

Project Description: This proposed project is a complement to the two cities’ joint climate action planning effort, Resilient Together (an MVP-funded project). This project seeks to conduct a targeted community outreach campaign and education to retrofit homes and businesses. Low-income communities and property owners who rent to lower-income households will both be prioritized for outreach during engagement processes. Training will also be offered to local developers and/or property owners to learn about incentives and opportunities to create or retrofit energy efficient and net zero developments in our communities.

Climate Resilience Impact: This overall project helps to ensure that climate resilience occurs in tandem with mitigation, by implementing energy efficiency measures that result in a better performing building envelope, which in turn will reduce strain on the electrical grid (potentially caused by increase in heating/cooling demand due to extreme temperatures) and protect building occupants from fluctuating temperatures (caused by power outages due to extreme weather events).

Boston Food Forest Coalition

Partners: Boston Department of Neighborhood Development, Boston Food Forest Coalition

Grant Amount: $50,000

Short description: Train local community members to maintain food forests, create educational signage for visitors, and hold summit.

The Boston Department of Neighborhood Development (DND) and the Boston Food Forest Coalition (BFFC) will use this funding to increase the capacity to foster community leadership development for climate resilience. Specifically, this project aims to:

Create a model “Stewardship Guide;”
Train local community leaders to maintain food forests;
Add educational signage for all visitors; and
Convene a city-wide summit to harness best practices for the development, maintenance, and activation of these community green spaces.

By strengthening grassroots, neighborhood-based leadership, especially from BIPOC residents of Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan, the DND/BFFC partnership will directly contribute to Boston's Climate Vulnerability Assessment and Climate Ready Boston Action Plan, by capturing rainwater and mitigating extreme heat while providing access to much needed green space. This project will strengthen the community’s response to climate impacts through establishing food systems that can withstand fluctuating temperatures and climate conditions (such as prolonged droughts, excessive rains, floods, or abnormal frosts), and contributing to improving public health and social cohesion through opportunities that BFF will facilitate to bring community members together.

Brookline: Tech Buddies Program

Partners: Brookline Housing Authority; Brookline Center for Community Mental Health; Brookline Council on Aging

Grant Amount: $28,000

Short description: Provide user-friendly tablets and internet access to seniors.

Project Type: Capacity Building

Project Description: The proposed Tech Buddies Program will provide user-friendly tablets and internet access to seniors, with an emphasis on those with low and moderate incomes. The program will also provide training, technical backup and ongoing guidance and moral support to the participants. The Tech Buddies Program, in tandem with the Town’s successful Emergency Preparedness Buddies Program, will help respond to the ongoing needs identified during the pandemic as well as future climate emergencies by providing a critical tool which will help seniors adapt more easily to the rapidly changing circumstances characteristic of any emergency, promote survival, and maintain quality of life, to the maximum extent possible, regardless of the specific emergency.

Climate Resilience Impact: This project aims to reduce the social, physical, and emotional isolation facing the elderly, which can be detrimental to this vulnerable population and their adaptive capacity and preparedness for extreme weather events and emergencies that are likely intensified by climate change.

Chelsea/Revere/Winthrop: Social Vulnerability Assessment

Partners: City of Chelsea, City of Revere, Town of Winthrop, GreenRoots, Mystic River Watershed Association

Grant Amount: $50,000

Short description: Social vulnerability assessment for climate-vulnerable communities in Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop

Project Type: Technical Assistance & Capacity Building

Project Description: This project proposes to perform a Social Vulnerability Assessment (the “SVA”) within the municipalities of Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop. The project will encapsulate the following tasks:

Project planning, civic engagement strategy;
Procurement and contracting;
Selection of SVA methodology;
Qualitative and quantitative data collection;
Assessment of climate impacts;
Data analysis, development of preliminary findings and vulnerability indicators, and production of social vulnerability maps;
Development of final vulnerability findings, indicators, and maps; and
Formulation of strategic, actionable recommendations and associated cost, timeline, and partnerships.

Climate Resilience Impact: This project will address climate risks associated with urban heat islands, air pollution, coastal and inland flooding, and environmental racism. Outcomes of this work will inform the work of the newly established North Suffolk Office of Sustainability and Resilience (comprised of Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop).

Marlborough: Tree Planting Initiative

Project Partners: Boys and Girls Club of Metro West

Grant Amount: $44,500

Short description: Strategic tree planting in Environmental Justice neighborhoods

Project Type: Capital

Project Description: This Marlborough Tree Planting Initiative has identified key areas in the inner-city Environmental Justice (EJ) neighborhoods, parks, and schools. Engaging the schools and the Boys and Girls Club in this effort will also help to educate students and residents about the benefits of trees for shade, heat, and stormwater mitigation. A simple curriculum will be provided to teachers to educate about the importance of trees and to monitor the trees’ progress in spring and fall seasons. The project will plant 93 trees in six heat island hot-spot locations throughout the EJ community.

Climate Resilience Impact: Increased tree planting will help reduce heat-related illnesses and issues as a result of urban heat island effects and increasing frequency and duration of extreme heat days as identified in the town’s MVP report.

Medford: Resilience Hubs

Project Partners: Medford Housing Authority, Climate CREW, Medford Health Matters, Wayside Youth & Family Services, Safe Medford, Medford Food Security Task Force, Regional Mystic Collaborative

Grant Amount: $29,330

Short description: Conceptualization and community-building for equitable, community-driven resilience hubs

Project Type: Capacity Building

Project Description: This project has the following objectives:

Invest in community engagement by assembling a team of BIPOC Community Liaisons who are established within their Medford communities to build relationships with Medford residents and to spearhead a Climate Resilience Task Force (CRTF) involved in designing community-led resilient policies.
Further engage community-based organizations to develop a coalition of providers that work to enhance communication and to strategize a co-location system to co-host services in the manner of Resilience Hubs.
Involve City of Medford offices and departments in advocating for, and committing to the equitable, anti-racist resilient policies designed by the CRTF.

Climate Resilience Impact: This project advances implementation of the 2019 Medford Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment (CCVA) by supporting community resilience and bolstering the adaptive capacity of socially vulnerable groups. The 2019 CCVA revealed that climate hazards disproportionately impact Medford residents experiencing low income, experiencing houselessness, living with disabilities or chronic illness, older adults, and residents who speak languages other than English. Moreover, Environmental Justice communities in Medford are likely to be exposed to higher heat and flood risk than other areas in Medford. The continual progression of climate change will exacerbate existing hazards and stressors including social inequities. As such, responding to social vulnerability is not only a priority for climate change preparedness, but also imperative in upholding social and environmental justice in the community.

Revere/Saugus/Lynn/Everett/Malden: Regional Resiliency Working Group

Partners: Municipalities – Revere, Saugus, Lynn, Malden and Everett; Saugus River Watershed, Alliance for Health and the Environment; Riverside Association; Point of Pines Beach Association

Grant Amount: $46,000

Short description: Establish a regional resiliency working group with a focus on regional flood protection.

Project Type: Technical Assistance & Capacity Building

Project Description: The five municipalities propose to establish a regional resiliency working group with a focus on regional flood protection, with technical assistance of a planning consultant. Supported by a consultant, the core working group shall identify the key stakeholders and work collectively to focus outreach methodology to make participation feasible to all impacted populations.

Climate Resilience Impact: The goal of the working group is to mitigate the dangerous conditions presented by sea-level rise to the vulnerable populations and restore the marsh to improve wildlife habitat the in the watershed.

Salem: Mack Park Farm and Food Forest

Partners: Salem Pantry

Grant Amount: $45,019

Short description: Construct a solar-powered storage building and water catchment system as part of the Mack Park Farm & Food Forest municipal agriculture project.

Project Type: Capital

Project Description: The project proposes to construct a solar-powered storage building and water catchment system as part of the City’s Mack Park Farm & Food Forest (MPF) municipal agriculture project. The storage building and water catchment system are critical to accommodate food production increases and associated irrigation needs. In addition to water conservation, the storage building will reduce transportation costs and increase efficiency by allowing food and supplies to be stored on site. The MPF municipal agriculture project will rehabilitate an underused and overgrown area of a city park in a low-moderate income neighborhood and turn it into a vibrant recreational space where all residents will have the opportunity to enjoy the food forest, weekly farmers’ markets, and volunteer. The Farm will partner with the Salem Pantry to distribute fresh produce directly to low-income neighborhoods, public housing sites (including senior housing) and public schools.

Climate Resilience Impact: The MPF enhances community resilience, particularly the physical stresses on the food system due to extreme temperatures, increasing intensity and frequency of flooding and drought), and subsequently the social stresses due to food shortage or insecurity facing the vulnerable populations in the community. In addition, increasing food production at the farm will also help reduce dependence on long supply chains, therefore reducing the community’s carbon footprint while also strengthening local and sustainable production of food.

Stoughton: Community Pollinator Gardens

Partners: Mass Audubon Museum of American Bird Art; Recreation Dept, Environmental Affairs and Conservation Commission, Stoughton Public Library, Youth Commission, and Stoughton Diversity and Inclusion Organization, Public Works, and Council on Aging

Grant Amount: $20,000

Short description: Create three pollinator gardens accessible to the town's senior population.

Project Type: Capital

Project Description: This proposal seeks funding to purchase materials such as plants, soil, educational stanchions; to hire a consultant; and to pay for any additional labor associated with building the gardens that cannot be done in-house or by volunteers. The pollinator gardens will be multi-departmental and widely accessible, making information about climate resilience accessible to all members of the Stoughton community and surrounding towns. The gardens will be designed to be accessible to accommodate the town’s senior populations (20% of Stoughton’s population).

Climate Resilience Impact: The gardens will serve as refuge to pollinators (such as bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds), model as a climate smart park, promote local food systems, and provide educational space for community members to learn more about nature-based solutions to climate change.

Stow: Climate Resilience Coalition

Partners: OARS, Sudbury Valley Trustees, MetroWest Conservation Alliance, municipalities – Acton, Bedford, Bolton, Boxborough, Lexington, Lincoln, Stow, SuAsCo Wild & Scenic River Stewardship Council (RSC), Massachusetts Ecosystem Climate Adaptation Network (MassECAN)

Grant Amount: $15,000

Short description: Establish a Climate Resiliency Coalition with the 13 MAGIC municipalities in the SuAsCo watershed.

Project Type: Capacity Building

Project Description: The project’s goal is to build capacity to accelerate climate resiliency in the Sudbury-Assabet-Concord (SuAsCo) watershed starting with the MAGIC sub-region. This will be done through establishing a Climate Resiliency Coalition working with the 13 MAGIC municipalities in the SuAsCo watershed, including Lexington (a Resilient Mystic Collaborative member).

Climate Resilience Impact: The Coalition will function as a standing body across the watershed for coordination, information-sharing, and implementation of cross-boundary climate resilience projects, based on the priority actions and strategies identified in the MAGIC Climate Change Resilience Plan (2017) as well as in the participating municipalities’ MVP findings.

Funded Projects: First Round of FY2021

Beverly Strategic Tree Planting Initiative

Partners: Karen and Thomas Blair-Urban Horticultural Consultants

Grant Amount: $75,000 one-year grant

The Beverly Strategic Tree Planting Initiative proposes a targeted approach to planting trees in environmental justice neighborhoods and parks that serve low-income neighborhoods. Tree planting will help reduce the damaging effects of Beverly’s heat islands, counter extreme heat within the community, and mitigate stormwater runoff in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods. The grant will support location confirmation, permitting, tree purchases, installation, maintenance, and community engagement.

Cambridge: Charles River Floating Wetland Phase II Expansion

Project Partners: Charles River Conservancy, MIT Sea Grant, Cambridge Public Schools, Cambridge Dept. of Public Works

Grant Amount: $52,250 one-year grant

The Cambridge Department of Public Works, in partnership with Charles River Conservancy, Inc., will install an additional floating wetland after successfully installing the first 700 square foot floating wetland on the Charles River in June 2020. Floating wetlands improve water quality, control toxic algal blooms, and improve fish habitat and health. They advance the City’s and CRC’s goal of restoring the Charles River as the quintessential urban beach that it was in the 1950s where, during the hottest days of the summer, families of all incomes and backgrounds gathered to swim and cool down. Generations of pollution and urban development degraded this public amenity rendering it unsafe for human contact. Cambridge and surrounding urban area are highly exposed to extreme heat.

This Accelerating Climate Resiliency Grant will support:

planning and permitting an additional floating wetland pilot in the Charles River
outlining and disseminating a permitting road map
engagement with the community about water quality and the expansion process

Canton Resilience @ Home

Partners: Canton Housing Authority, Neponset River Watershed Association, MA Audubon, Canton Public Schools

Grant Amount: $42,817 one-year grant

Resilience @ Home will build public knowledge about project climate hazards and what homeowners can do to minimize the impacts, focusing on vulnerable populations such as the elderly, low-income households, and person with disabilities. The program will include:

Three interactive virtual workshops “Know Your Hazards,” “Climate Proof Your Yard,” and “Beat the Heat”
Guides and brochures online and in print that address flooding, heat/drought, and climate resilience @home (interior and exterior)
Incentives like programmable thermostats, reusable straws/food storage containers, good climate behavior magnets.
Demonstration projects at Housing Authority

The grant will allow Canton to hire a consultant and fund outreach/engagement materials.

Chelsea Energy Resilience: Neighborhood Grid

Project Partners: Greenroots, Inc., The Neighborhood Developers

Grant Amount: $142,500 two-year grant

The Accelerating Climate Resiliency Grant will help create a micro-grid to improve building efficiency and resilience. Chelsea plan to install microgrid assets (battery storage, on-site renewable generation, and controls) in a cohort of buildings, including affordable housing, Chelsea's city hall and 911 center, the police station, and neighborhood health centers. Building improvements will also include energy and water efficiency retrofits and upgrades to create resistance to outages once renewable components are installed.

Improvements will allow building residents and employees to shelter in place without fear of extreme heat or cold, loss of medication/medical equipment, or loss of elevator accessibility. All microgrid work will be accompanied by extensive public outreach efforts spearheaded by GreenRoots.

The City and GreenRoots are committed to a city-wide microgrid and have already invested substantial time and funds in its design. This grant will support community engagement, microgrid design, and pilot installation.

Framingham: Lake Waushakum Resiliency Design

Partners: Framingham Parks & Recreation Commission, Town of Ashland, Coburnville-Tripoli Neighborhood Association, Waushakum Pond Association, Downtown Framingham, Inc.

Grant Amount: $52,500 one-year grant

Funding will support feasibility, design, and permitting for retrofitting Waushakum’s public beach, installing green infrastructure, and enhancing the property and bathhouse to mitigate extreme heat.

The public beach at Lake Waushakum is susceptible to closures due to poor water quality. With a stormwater outfall located right in the beach area, Waushakum Beach closed from opening day of the 2020 season until mid-July. The high bacteria contamination is directly related to polluted runoff from storms and has intensified as the city experiences more extreme rain events. The neighborhood is a highly urbanized watershed: almost 50% of the watershed covered with impervious surfaces. Because the area is highly developed and has aging infrastructure, the stormwater system cannot handle extreme storms. Even moderate storms have big impacts. The large amount of impervious space creates an urban heat island effect and the area experiences higher temperatures than surrounding areas. The project will identify the most beneficial means of mitigating risks using nature-based solutions and strategies.

Malden River Works for Waterfront Equity and Resilience

Partners: Mystic River Watershed Association, MIT (Urban Studies and Center for Environmental Health), and the Malden Riverworks Steering Committee

Grant Amount: $52,500 one-year grant

The project goal is to transform the City’s Department of Public Works (DPW) yard on the Malden River for better climate change preparedness and to create a vibrant, climate resilient public riverfront park. This project will be a major step in reclaiming the Malden River after hundreds of years of contamination and neglect.

Led by a new coalition of community leaders of color, youth, environmental advocates, and government stakeholders as the newly formed Malden River Works Steering Committee, this project has already implemented a community-led design process that will continue into the upcoming phase: design and engineering development. Funding will support design for the project.

The MRW park will address sea level rise with an elevated greenway path and lawn area and the option to incrementally increase flood protection. It reduces urban heat island effect with green infrastructure solutions: bioswales, bioretention basins, permeable paving, and over 75 new trees.

Growing Food and Social Resilience in Natick

Project Partners: Natick Housing Authority, Natick Service Council, Natick Community Organic Farm, Keefe Tech High School

Grant Amount: $141,793 two-year capital grant

The Town of Natick plans to reduce food insecurity and build social resilience among vulnerable populations who are disproportionately impacted by climate change with a three-pronged approach:

Construct a community garden with 55 ADA accessible raised beds at the Natick Housing Authority’s main campus.
Ensure vulnerable populations have multiple ways to access affordable, healthy food.
Foster relationships through educational programs and community cohesion best practices that prepare vulnerable populations to respond to climate change through social resilience and organic food.

Funding supports community garden beds, donating and subsidizing output to vulnerable populations and food banks, and a portion of the salary for a farm coordinator to build community cohesion.

Somerville: Solutions to Build a Heat Healthy Community

Project Partners: Somerville Health and Human Services, Council on Aging, Shape Up Somerville

Grant Amount: $52,250 one-year grant

This project will build capacity for collaborative heat resilience planning and action among residents, community-based organizations, and City staff.

Through a Heat Health Assessment & Strategy Toolkit project with MAPC, Somerville has learned that overcrowded housing is a common issue for low-income, immigrant families, who often don't have air conditioners. The Somerville Homeless Coalition discussed the lack of access to water and public showers for unsheltered residents this summer due to restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The project will include:

Formalizing and supporting ongoing cross-jurisdictional engagement through a Heat Health Advisory Group.
Building the capacity of community organizations to work on heat resilience with Action Team Leaders from Somerville community-based organizations.
Engaging deeply with residents who are most impacted by heat through the creation of two Heat Health Action Teams.
Funding small-scale pilot interventions that respond to the needs identified by the Heat Health Action Teams.

Wenham: Development Regulations for Climate Resilience

Grant Amount: $49,875 one-year grant

The Accelerating Climate Resiliency Grant will support a project to evaluate and update by-laws, regulations, zoning ordinances, and other planning instruments to increase resilience against the effects of climate change. One goal will be to reduce the effects of flooding through low impact development and stormwater management.

Land use regulations in Wenham are out of date and updated on an ad-hoc basis. This project seeks to review and overhaul its land use and zoning regulations to reflect climate change projects and:

Require low impact development and green infrastructure in new development
Create new standards for parking, driveways, and streets to reduce impervious surfaces
Prioritize and incentivize the conservation of open space as flood storage
Apply FEMA floodplains standards to areas of known, documented local flooding

The project includes a robust community engagement approach to educate the pubilc and encourage approval of regulations. Community engagement will include a mapping tool, webinars, online community workshops, and meeting with municipal boards and commissions.

Winchester Sustainability Director: Rapid Implementation of Winchester's Climate Action Plan

Partners: Winchester Climate Action Advisory Committee

Grant Amount: $52,500 one-year grant for capacity-building

This Accelerating Climate Resiliency Grant would support the salary of a sustainability director who would implement Winchester's 2020 Climate Action Plan.

The plan includes enhancing community resilience (public health, green infrastructure, resilient town operations) and reducing carbon pollution. The Spring 2020 Wincheter budget included a line item for a Sustainability Director, but it was deferred by Finance Committee due to COVID-19 budget shortfalls. Funding would support the salary and immediate hire of the director, and Winchester is committed to matching funds for a competitive salary.

Woburn Senior Center Community Garden

Grant Amount: $29,376 one-year grant

Woburn plans to develop raised community garden beds at the Senior Center. Beds will be elevated so seniors can sit or stand easily. 22% of Woburn senior live in environmental justice neighborhoods. Community gardens will help create social cohesion, and the green infrastructure will help address urban heat and manage stormwater and flooding. The grant will support site preparation, four raised garden beds, rain barrels, and irrigation.

Funded Projects: FY2020

Strengthening Social and Climate Resilience in East Boston

Grantees: Boston Public Health Commission & The Harborkeepers

Grant Amount: $44,995

East Boston is a coastal low-lying neighborhood that is highly vulnerable to climate impacts and with a diverse socioeconomic makeup. East Boston must accelerate resiliency-building to prepare for increasing climate risks and meet the city's Climate Action Plan goals.

This project aimed to educate local residents about climate impacts and community and emergency preparedness. The Boston Public Health Commission and The Harborkeepers developed four community preparedness workshops, three document-scanning events, and more activities to build relationships and encourage social cohesion.

Tree Box Installations for Stormwater Management in Braintree

Grantee: Braintree Department of Public Works

Grant Amount: $38,755

Using grant funds, the Braintree Department of Public Works installed three tree box filters at three different locations in town: Hollingsworth Park, Daughraty Gym, and Stetson Street. Tree box filters are a stormwater management best practice, capturing runoff and cleaning it of pollutants before discharging it into a wetland area.

The Town installed signage at the Hollingsworth Park and Daughraty Gym locations (which are frequented by pedestrians) to educate residents and visitors about the benefits of tree box filters.

Sustainable Landscaping in Concord

Grantee: Concord Sustainability Division

Grant Amount: $26,000

Concord created three sustainable landscaping demonstration gardens located at the Concord-Carlisle High School, Junction Park, and the Concord Free Public Library. Each features three species of ground cover that require less maintenance and less water than standard turf lawn. They were planted with the help of 46 students and volunteers. The project also included creating a Sustainable Landscaping Handbook, workshop videos, 15 blog posts, and 17 social media posts all available on the Town's "Greenscapes" page.

Snug Harbor Resilience Master Plan in Duxbury

Grantee: Duxbury Planning Department

Grant Amount: $24,800

Duxbury's Snug Harbor is a significant cultural, recreational and commercial center. It contains the headquarters of one of the larger shell fishing companies in the state, the Duxbury Bay Maritime School, Harbormaster, public pier, marinas, and historic structures from the Shipbuilders era. Restaurants, inns, churches and other businesses create a vibrant and beloved hub of activity.

Sea level rise and storm surge have damaged buildings and infrastructure in the area and more is expected in the future. The Town worked directly with stakeholders to discuss their concerns, hopes, awareness, needs, and experiences to help set a vision of resilience for Snug Harbor. The plan identifies near- and long-term solutions for creating a resilient Snug Harbor that best serves the stakeholders' needs and protects this community asset.

Youth Stewardship of Northern Strand Green Infrastructure Sites in Everett

Grantee: Everett Office of Planning and Development

Grant Amount: $30,000

The Jon Norton Community Rain Garden transformed nuisance flooding along the Northern Strand Trail into a space for bees, butterflies, birds, humans, and native plants to grow together. The rain garden catches, absorbs, and infiltrates stormwater into the ground.

Lead artist Carolyn Lewenberg worked with a design team of eighth-grade students from the Madeline English School to identify goals three in addition to flood mitigation: to create a welcoming space, beautify the neighborhood, and help the environment. The garden includes cloud-shaped benches and three murals. Design implementation was offered in-kind by the Everett Department of Public Works and contractors from National Grid.

Integrating Land Use Planning and Water Conservation in Ipswich

Grantees: Ipswich Utilities Department & Ipswich River Watershed Assocation

Grant Amount: $19,550

The Town of Ipswich's public water supply is under threat due to supply limitations, water quality issues, increasing demand, and—increasingly—the current and anticipated impacts from climate change. This project sought to analyze the current situation and make recommendations to make the Town's water supply more resilient to these threats.

The project identified a series of measures the community can take to minimize the impact of new development and reduce water demand elsewhere in the community to offset new demand and make the current water supply more resilient in the future.

Community Gardens at Public Housing in Medford

Grantees: Medford Planning Department, Mass In Motion, and Affordable Housing

Grant Amount: $31,105

Medford worked with a garden contractor and residents to improve community gardens at Walking Court, a state-funded housing development for seniors and people with disabilities. The improved gardens include 10 raised beds and an accessible elevated bed. Additional improvements include improved soils and dozens of new fruit trees and berry bushes at Walking Court and the Willis Avenue public housing development.

Burke-Memorial Elementary School Rain Garden in Medway

Grantee:
Town of Medway

Grant Amount:
$50,000

Medway constructed two rain gardens at the Burke-Memorial Elementary School to reduce the impact of flooding on the school’s athletic fields. Increasingly intense and frequent precipitation events coupled with a larger impervious surface area has resulted in chronic localized flooding in the lower fields. The fields are unusable for sports or recess for much of the year due to the flooding. However, the new rain gardens are engineered to collect and store runoff from the playground and basketball courts, allowing it to slowly seep into the soils. This natural process helps to reduce flooding and also helps filter the runoff as it soaks into the ground and replenishes ground water.

The rain garden project will serve as an educational tool for students, parents, municipal staff and the general public to show how nature-based solutions can build our community’s resiliency to climate change.

Equity and Climate Resiliency in Needham

Grantees: Needham Public Health Division and Green Needham

Grant Amount: $26,089

The Town of Needham Public Health Division (NPHD) implemented the Needham Equity in Climate Change Resiliency Project to advance equity and increase protection of older adults with respect to climate change. NPHD’s project focused on extreme weather events – such as extreme heat, cold, and storms – because they are getting stronger and more frequent due to climate change.

During this project, NPHD: 1) hosted three interactive workshops for older adults on extreme weather events; 2) designed and distributed a relevant brochure; and 3) conducted comprehensive public outreach to actively engage older adults and their caregivers on the topic of extreme weather. Materials were translated in three different languages.

Long Beach Living Shoreline Project in Rockport

Grantee: Rockport Department of Public Works

Grant Amount: $32,500

For many decades, coastal storms and sea level rise have eroded Long Beach Road in Rockport where the roadway meets the shoreline of the adjacent Saratoga Creek. The Nor'easters of 2018 resulted in additional erosion that degraded a significant portion of the marsh at Saratoga Creek, damaged and undermined a sewer manhole structure, and caused increased erosion. This project created engineering designs and permitting for a living shoreline and infrastructure relocation to restore the eroded salt marsh area and maintain the adjacent roadway and utilities.

Peggoty Beach Managed Retreat Feasibility Study in Scituate

Grantee: Scituate Department of Planning and Development

Grant Amount: $35,000

Several residents of Peggotty Beach whose homes were eroding seaward approached the Town of Scituate with interest in determining whether it would be feasible to complete a managed retreat land swap with the town. Previous coastal planning assessments recommended pursuing managed retreat at this location.

This project provides a comprehensive outline and approach of all of the complexities in completing a land swap and catalogues residents' interests and concerns about their future at Peggotty Beach.