The Spokane Community Resilience Collaborative
Started in early 2024, the Spokane Community Resilience Collaborative (SCRC) is a group of Spokane-area organizations committed to creating a thriving and resilient community. The group is comprised of representatives from diverse fields such as healthcare, education, government, and nonprofits who use their shared knowledge and expertise to support each other's work and jointly pursue new work to support a Spokane regional community that is prepared for and adaptable to change. Facilitated by the Gonzaga Climate Institute, the SCRC primarily focuses on resilience to extreme heat and wildfire events and all their interconnected challenges.
Interested in joining the collaborative as a member organization or learning more about our work? Visit the SCRC webpage.
The City of Spokane
The City of Spokane has been an instrumental partner in our work to build structural change to protect community members from extreme heat and wildfire smoke. This work includes:
- Clean air infrastructure for city community centers
- Creation and implementation of city-level heat and smoke readiness plans with the Office of Emergency Management
- Development of the Spokane Community Resilience Hub Network
- Policy reform
The Coeur d'Alene Tribe
Thanks to funding from the Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative, the Climate Resilience Project and the Coeur d’Alene Tribe were able to launch an official partnership in spring of 2024 to begin understanding how Tribal members are impacted by extreme heat and wildfire smoke. In the coming years, the two groups will provide air filtration devices to vulnerable Tribal members and develop educational materials specific to the needs of the Tribe.
Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency
Made possible by an EPA Wildfire Smoke in Community Buildings grant, the Climate Resilience Project is partnering with Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency from 2024-2026 to research, design, and deliver a wildfire smoke community outreach and education campaign.
Spokane Regional Health District
SRHD has worked with us to develop extreme heat educational materials in multiple languages (English, Spanish, Russian, Marshallese, Ukrainian), which are available on their website. Currently, they are also supporting our wildfire smoke community outreach and education campaign with SRCAA.
WA Department of Health
The WA DOH contributed to the creation of the report In the Hot Seat: Saving Lives from Extreme Heat in Washington State, which used data from our urban heat island mapping initiative to develop strategies for reducing heat death in Washington. The Climate Institute is also a member of DOH's Climate and Health Adaptation Initiative and received a grant from them in 2024 that supports our community-based work in the East Central Spokane neighborhood.
The Carl Maxey Center
In spring of 2024, the Climate Resilience Project began working with the Black-led and Black-serving Carl Maxey Center in East Central Spokane to research the climate resilience needs in the neighborhood and collect community-engaged feedback on the desired response. This work involves distribution and analysis of a neighborhood survey, a community symposium event, building infrastructure review, and the creation of educational materials and a community resilience plan for the Carl Maxey Center. This work will be foundational for building an understanding of the neighborhoods specific needs and resources as it prepares to join the Spokane Community Resilience Hub Network as a L2 Hub in 2025.
Spokane Neighborhood Action Partners
The Climate Resilience Project has historically promoted SNAP's Cooling Fund, which collects donations that are used to buy air conditioning units for low-income Spokane community members. In 2025, SNAP and the Climate Institute will launch a heat pump funding program supported by our EPA Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grant. This program will provide electric high-efficiency heat pumps for 300 low-income households in Spokane. More information will be available on SNAP's website in 2025.
University of Washington
The University of Washington (especially the Collaborative on Extreme Event Resilience) has been a consistent and invaluable partner for the Climate Institute for an array of projects, including:
- Planning, execution, and analysis of Spokane community symposiums on both extreme heat and wildfire smoke
- Creation and analysis of Spokane extreme heat and wildfire smoke surveys
- Development of In the Hot Seat: Saving Lives from Extreme Heat in Washington State
- Partnership through the Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative, which funds our research with the Coeur d'Alene Tribe
- Planning, execution, and analysis of the East Central Community Resilience Symposium with faculty from the UW/GU Health Partnership
Gonzaga University
The Climate Institute partners with staff, faculty, and students from diverse areas of Gonzaga University. This includes but is not limited to the following partnerships:
- Senior Environmental Studies and Sciences students compiled research on extreme heat and wildfire smoke in Spokane, which can be explored on our Student Impact page.
- Senior Nursing students helped design our resilience hub training program.
- School for Engineering and Applied Sciences faculty provided vital assistance for the installation of air quality monitors in community buildings.
- Department of Public Health faculty and students are supporting the collection and analysis of research on community resilience needs in the East Central Spokane neighborhood.
- Starting in 2025, Environmental Studies and Sciences faculty member Jon Isacoff will be leading new work with the Climate Resilience Project focused on improving air quality in overburdened communities.
The Climate Resilience Project could not do all of our work to support climate resilience in the Inland Northwest without funding from our generous donors and the following organizations:
WA Department of Ecology
Environmental Protection Agency
- Wildfire Smoke Preparedness in Community Buildings Grant
- Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grant
WA Department of Health
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative Grant
- National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) Urban Heat Island Mapping Grant