"Climate resilience is a crucial part of our daily work": How community organizations are driving climate action 

 King County Executive Climate Office (ECO) is now accepting applications for its Community Climate Resilience Grant (CCRG) program and celebrating the successes of the first grantee cohort. That cohort includes nonprofit Real Change, which used its funding to better prepare street newspaper vendors for harsh weather conditions. 

“The grant we received from King County last year allowed us to do a number of things to protect our neighbors from extreme weather events, to increase climate preparedness, and to empower our vendors to be out in the community to do outreach,” said Cat Munsen, who manages policy and campaigns for Real Change.

The CCRG program awards up to $30,000 per grantee to help frontline communities develop new or expand existing community-based climate resilience projects. ECO encourages applicants to tie projects to community health and emergency preparedness, energy justice and utilities, housing security and anti-displacement, food systems and food security, or another objective that aligns with the County’s commitment to support sustainable and resilient frontline communities, as laid out in the King County’s Strategic Climate Action Plan.

Along with Real Change, 2024 grant recipients included:

The organizations represent a wide variety of communities and missions. Mother Africa, for example, helped fund environmental justice promoters who speak a range of languages, including Arabic, French, Amharic and African English, to educate communities on waste reduction, curbing pollution, and preventing childhood lead poisoning. Learn more about past recipients here.

Real Change is a nonprofit aimed at providing opportunity and a voice to low-income and homeless people, while taking action for economic, social and racial justice. The organization used its grant to invest in support for its vendor program, which offers an immediate, low-barrier work opportunity in which vendors sell the weekly Real Change newspaper and receive access to services including case management, food assistance, service referrals, medical and veterinary care and more.

“I like it because there’s no barriers,” vendor Dhannie Crenshaw said. “You just go get the papers, pay your fees and you be your best pitchman. And it turned out to be more of a community involvement than I thought it would be; interacting with different people in the community, you become a part of people’s routines you didn’t even know. You learn to appreciate each other for that.”

Crenshaw says she gets to know the people she sees regularly while selling papers, often offering them encouragement or support on a difficult day. It’s more than a job, she says; in a sense, it’s a calling. But conditions aren’t always ideal for selling papers outside, especially during extreme heat or cold temperatures.

“Let us come in, let us come out of the elements,” Crenshaw encourages local businesses. “Most of the time people are making money and being part of the community the best they can. They’re making money, they’re not taking anything from you. If anything, they’re trying to give something back at the same time. That’s how it works.”

Real Change used the funding to train Climate Leaders and purchase supplies to help vendors weather the elements, such as spray fans and water bottles to help during hot stretches of time. King County released its first Extreme Heat Mitigation Strategy in 2024, and both experts and community members expressed the importance of protecting people who work outside using initiatives such as this one.

“Climate resilience is a crucial part of our daily work because of the intersection with our vendor population,” Munsen of Real Change said. “As climate crises become more frequent and more urgent, our unhoused neighbors and other vulnerable community members that have contributed the least to these crises often bear the brunt of them.”

Munsen says people can best support vendors by purchasing a paper – customers can even use Venmo, if they don’t have cash – and they will keep the profits. People can also donate to support Real Change as they continue to advocate for affordable housing solutions and policies that lift up vulnerable community members – including those that empower resilience to climate change.

“Whether we’re talking about heat waves, smoke from wildfires or rising temperatures, anyone who’s living unsheltered or in their vehicles and trying to work outside, they experience devastating consequences to their physical health, their mental health, their ability to be productive Real Change vendors, and ultimately their livelihood is impacted,” Munsen said.

Community Climate Resilience Grant applications for 2025 will be open through Wednesday, April 16 at 8am. You can learn more or apply here.