MAPC Launches Accelerating Climate Resiliency Grants

If you had the chance to do one small project to prepare your city or town for climate change, what would you do?

Last week, MAPC announced the launch of our Accelerating Climate Resiliency Mini Grant Program. Generously funded by the Barr Foundation, the $15,000 to $50,000 grants will advance strategies protecting people, places, and communities from the impact of climate change.

The goal of the program is to fund smaller, low-cost projects, policies, and actions that will contribute to long-term resilience to climate change. While addressing the potential impact of climate change is daunting, MAPC hopes that the funded projects can begin to increase local preparedness.

Climate change is upon us and Metro Boston is already experiencing extreme weather - record-breaking snowfall in 2015, the worst drought in MA since the 1960s in 2016, the warmest year on record in 2017, and four Nor’easters in one month in 2018 (one similar to the Blizzard of ’78 in terms of coastal flooding).

MAPC recognizes the urgency in building community resilience today and seeks to leverage climate planning efforts into projects that enable communities to thrive in our time of climate change. These grants are a way to turn planning into implementation.

MAPC will award six to 15 grants to local and multi-municipal projects preparing for climate change impacts such as extreme weather, sea level rise, flooding, and extreme heat. While thinking of project proposals, cities and towns should consider how they support equity for vulnerable populations, advance regional collaboration, measurably improve resilience, and create opportunities for learning or development of best practices.

Projects must address at least one of the following program priority areas: