Thriving Earth Exchange will join the California Strategic Growth Council (SGC) in a collaborative effort to enable vulnerable communities to work with leading Earth scientists to make their communities healthier, more resilient and more sustainable in the face of accelerating climate impacts.
SGC is a cabinet-level body chaired by the Director of the California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research. Under the collaboration, eight California communities will work with scientists to design and implement concrete projects that leverage Earth and space science to make a clear local impact. Community priorities will drive the projects, which will leverage the community’s strengths and assets, while also drawing on current scientific understanding to help guide new, actionable research.
“One of the biggest reasons we are so excited to work with SGC is because of their leadership in engaged research—research that is driven by community priorities, designed for action and designed through partnership with communities,” said Thriving Earth Exchange Director Raj Pandya.
The new collaboration was announced 5 November at the SGC Climate Change Research Symposium, “Science to Action: Engagement in Research,” where an afternoon workshop session on engagement was based on the Thriving Earth Exchange model to support community and partner-driven science. Thriving Earth Exchange Project Manager Melissa Goodwin served as a member of the symposium’s Program Committee.
“We are excited about this collaboration that will expand the reach of partnership-based research SGC’s Climate Change Research Program supports, particularly by engaging California communities that otherwise may not have the capacity to partner with scientists,” said SGC Executive Director Louise Bedsworth.
2 Comments
Sharon PfeiferNov 19, 2019 at 4:28 PM
I was just selected a new AGU/TEX Fellow and don’t know what to expect until I undergo TEX initiation Dec 7-8. Just as I retired, I was also selected to be a U of Minnesota, Institute on the Environment,Visiting Scholar. One idea I’d like to pilot in my state is to bring climate, biotic, and geologic information to small rural communities of less than 5,000. The initial focus might be on the state’s 13 tribal communities starting with a multilevel community capacity social measurement survey.
I don’t know what community as a Fellow ‘ll be aligned with, but in addition to that effort, I could learn much from tracking your project efforts. Might this be a possibility?
I just retired as a community assistance and natural resource state agency manager and am volunteering to continue to bring scientific information to local decision-making through both of these two new opportunities.
If you have some ideas, please contact me. I will be getting set up in my U of MN office in December. Until then I can be contacted at [email protected] or by home phone, 651-224-0599.
TeknoxNov 22, 2019 at 3:26 PM
nice work, keep sharing
thanks