La Familia Counseling Center was recently recognized as Sacramento’s first climate resilience hub by federal officials.
These places are meant to provide resources and shelter for community members during extreme weather events. It’s the fifth hub recognized in California, and one of over 100 scattered throughout the country.
La Familia runs two South Sacramento buildings that fall under this label — the Maple Neighborhood Center and the Opportunity Center, which is still under construction. As part of that construction, the Opportunity Center will be outfitted with showers, a kitchen and reliable energy sources. The buildout is funded by a California grant given last year, when both buildings were recognized as resilience centers by the state.
Rachel Ríos, executive director of La Familia, said community members have helped inform what should be included in the new building.
“Part of this is recognizing that a lot of community members, especially in disadvantaged communities, have been going without services and not having a place where they can go,” said Ríos.
She said she’s heard from community members that during extreme weather events — like heat waves or wintertime atmospheric rivers — it’s often difficult to get to pop-up shelters run by the city.
With that in mind, she said it’s important that these centers are places where community members are already used to congregating, even before disaster strikes. That’s why resilience centers are frequently located in libraries and religious spaces.
“That's really part of this initiative —looking at what are those trusted centers that people will go to and ask for help,” she said.
Alexis Pelosi, senior advisor for climate with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said La Familia worked well as a hub since it’s already deeply rooted in the area it serves.
“We're not looking to reinvent the wheel here with resilience hubs,” Pelosi said. “We’re looking, really, to build upon the great work that’s already happening in the community.”
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