From Idea to Reality: How the Community Climate Conversations have become a catalyst for community-driven climate action projects

ALI MARIKO DRESSEL
Jan 15
4 min read

Three years ago, Climate Action Campaign partnered with the County of San Diego to engage communities with the highly technical and ambitious Regional Decarbonization Framework (RDF). From the humble beginnings of jargon-heavy scientific PowerPoints to engaging, inspiring, art-filled, community-centered events, it has been quite a journey, all amid a rapidly changing federal government and political landscape.

Community Climate Conversations Event in Mission Bay

featuring the local community choir and jazz musicians

Amidst the chaos, however, the County of San Diego has become a real advocate for community-led climate action through the Office of Environmental Justice and Sustainability (OSEJ) established in 2024. In collaboration with OSEJ and in partnership with communities across the region, we co-created the Community Climate Conversations, an initiative designed to truly center, uplift, and support community-driven climate action projects. What began as a directive to “engage the public with the RDF” has now become a successful vehicle for tangibly connecting community-driven climate action projects with the financial support and capacity they need.

Beautiful PB leads a Community Bike Ride (left);

El Cajon Collaborative leads a community discussion (right)

Throughout our community outreach over the years, there has been a resounding obstacle across the board - the lack of funding. Being the squeaky wheel (or dare I say turbine) advocates that we are, we tirelessly encouraged the County of San Diego to help facilitate solutions for funding gaps for community-driven climate action projects.

Produce Good leads a feedback activity (left); Community connection in Oceanside (right)

Enter the San Diego Foundation as a philanthropic partner and a key turning point to help bridge funding gaps and support projects that reduce carbon emissions and foster healthier, more resilient communities. We often talk about how collaboration is vital to our collective vision of a cleaner, healthier, and truly environmentally just world. Now, the government-philanthropic-local community partnerships that evolved out of the Community Climate Conversations are living proof that not only is this vision possible, but it is also already happening ;)

South Bay communities, for example, have already experienced a sneak peek of what the South Bay Community Farm can offer, led by the local community-based organization, South Bay Sustainable Communities. Residents, youth groups, government agencies such as the National Park Service, and government officials alike went on a mini farm tour, learned about educational and compost programs, provided feedback on the farm's future direction, and even ate a truly farm-to-table meal.

Farm Tour at the South Bay Sustainable Farm

Meanwhile, residents, community-led organizations, and Indigenous youth from a variety of Reservations came together to create an experience in Mission Bay that included a community bike ride, artistic drawings that reimagined what the restored wetlands could look like, and even a kayaking adventure into a gorgeous sunset. For many Indigenous youth, it was their first time at Mission Bay and an incredibly vital opportunity to reconnect with water, ancestral wetlands, Indigenous science, and the broader community.

Kayaking Tour on Mission Bay for Indigenous Youth led by Excursiones Acuáticas, Coastal Defenders, and ReWild Mission Bay

Working with dozens of community partners, elected officials, government agencies, artists, community leaders, educators, and event spaces, we embraced our role at Climate Action Campaign as a community connector. We are proud to have helped link community initiatives and leaders to policy pathways, bringing residents and decision-makers into shared spaces and helping translate the technical world of climate action planning into the community-centered world of everyday experience. Meaningful climate action equals climate justice, and we are honored to have centered the voices of those who are too often excluded from policy-making, including Indigenous Youth across the County, South Bay residents in the Tijuana River Valley, and the communities of El Cajon, Mission Bay/Pacific Beach, and Crown Heights in Oceanside throughout 2025.

Dynamic presentations, interactive feedback activities, and map visuals at the Mission Bay CCC event (led by community-based organization, Beautiful PB)

Through grassroots efforts by local communities, it is clear more than ever how tangible climate action happens at the local level. While policies and governments may set ambitious goals, local cities, neighborhoods, businesses, and community organizations are the ones who actually implement the solutions. Resilience grows in the community gardens, in the safer, active transit-oriented streets, in the restored wetlands, and in the leadership guided by Indigenous wisdom and knowledge.

Kale (left) and Three Sisters Soup at the South Bay Community Farm (right)

Community Climate Conversations have helped shed a light of hope against the darkness of our chaotic times. Local projects are gaining momentum and the support they need to be successful. Governments, cities, and agencies are collaborating with local community leaders and businesses. Funding is actually reaching the people and projects that need it most. While we cannot predict what happens next, we can take solace in the fact that when we work with our fellow neighbors to push for local resilience, we can make change happen (even at the government level).