Using Storytelling, Voice Acting, and Modded Media to Engage New Audiences in Environmental Justice

Executive Summary.
The leadership project included the application for and participation in the implementation of a California Resilience Challenge grant for climate resilience efforts in California. Samantha, as consultant for Climate Resolve’s grant-making team, worked with the client, Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians (FTBMI), to flesh out a climate resilience project that fit the client’s sustainability goals and needs. With the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians’ (FTBMI) main goal to deepen its level of informed participation in government-to-government consultation with local and state agencies towards equitable outcomes that can positively impact the Tribe’s climate resilience planning. Samantha took the lead with the FTBMI to apply to the California Resilience Challenge grant in 2021. Within this leadership role, she brought together several project partners like the University of California Riverside’s Bourns College of Engineering Center for Environmental Research & Technology (CE-CERT), Climate Resolve (CR), and Council for Watershed Health (CWH) to works towards creating a Tribal Climate Resiliency Framework Plan for the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians. She took the lead on creating a project timeline, budget, scope of work, and project roles for all partners. With the collaborative effort, the FTBMI have been awarded the CRC grant, which was announced in late February. This project is very important as the tribal resilience planning will improve local and regional resilience to multiple climate impacts including droughts, flooding, extreme heat and wildfires.

Importance
This project is very important as the tribal resilience planning will improve local and regional resilience to multiple climate impacts including droughts, flooding, extreme heat and wildfires. In addition, I chose this project because Indigenous peoples have historically been disinvested in and their knowledge, land, and resources exploited, so I believe that a path forward in sustainable resilience planning must be forged by Indigenous peoples themselves, and grants provide the funds required for such resilience projects to come to fruition.

Impact and Reach
The Resiliency Plan goals include:
– Building local climate resilience for the Tataviam Tribe
– Collaborating with the Ventureño and Gabrielino Tribal Nations to respond to climate related hazards on a regional scale
– Collaborating with climate scientists, governmental, and non-profit organizations on the -use of local-and regional scale climate information and tools
– Adaptation planning, vulnerability assessments, and professional development to increase the skills and capacity of tribal staff and management
– Developing a resilience framework that can be effectively integrated into regional and statewide climate adaptation and resilience planning efforts on a long term

Success for these project goals includes a set of deliverables based on different tasks within the Scope of Work. Those deliverables include: Financial and Progress Reports, Final Case Study Report, Outreach and Engagement Plan, Key Stakeholder Contact List, Power Map, Assets Inventory, Community Resilience Vision, Climate Hazard Identification, Vulnerability Assessment for the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians Territory, Energy Resilience Plan, Water and Fire Resilience Plan, Extreme Heat Resilience Plan, and Tribal Climate Resilience Framework Plan.

Overall the ultimate goal for this leadership project was to have a research supported grant application, with a realistic budget, timeline, and scope of work. In addition, the metric of success for the leadership project was for the grant application to be evaluated and the grant to be awarded to the Tataviam Tribe. With the success of the project, the research and resiliency plan will reach the entire Tataviam Tribe dispersed throughout Southern California, in addition the non-Indigenous peoples who live within the Tataviam land boundarywill also benefit from the resilience planning initiated by the Tataviam tribe.

Collaborations
Samantha, as consultant for Climate Resolve’s grant-making team, worked with the client, Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians (FTBMI), to flesh out a climate resilience project that fit the client’s sustainability goals and needs in order to apply for the 2021 California Resilience Challenge grant. Climate Resolve is a Los Angeles based non-profit organization that builds collaborations to champion equitable climate solutions. CR connects communities, organizations and policymakers in the Los Angeles and the Southern California Region to address a global problem with local action. I recently worked with Climate Resolve over the summer of 2021 as an intern and my role evolved into a Grant Writing Assistance consultant. The client, FTBMI, is a sovereign nation of Los Angeles County, exercising inherent sovereign authority over its tribal citizens and territory. FTBMI actively engages in activities that protect environmental and cultural values of its traditional territory. The FTBMI’s main goal is to deepen its level of informed participation in government-to-government consultation with local and state agencies towards equitable outcomes that can positively impact the Tribe’s climate resilience planning.

Your Role Well Defined
Samantha, as consultant for Climate Resolve’s grant-making team, worked with the client, Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians (FTBMI), to flesh out a climate resilience project that fit the client’s sustainability goals and needs.Samantha took the lead with the FTBMI to apply to the California Resilience Challenge grant in 2021. Within this leadership role, she brought together several project partners like the University of California Riverside’s Bourns College of Engineering Center for Environmental Research & Technology (CE-CERT), Climate Resolve (CR), and Council for Watershed Health (CWH) to works towards creating a Tribal Climate Resiliency Framework Plan for the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians. She took the lead on creating a project timeline, budget, scope of work, and project roles for all partners. After the CRC grant has been awarded, Samantha will take a leadership role in the administrative management of the product to ensure the project stays on timeline with all project partners.