Community Navigators Initiative Q&A with Thérèse d’Auria Ryley
The Western Forestry Leadership Coalition (WFLC) connected with Thérèse (Tess) d’Auria Ryley from Coalitions and Collaboratives Inc. (COCO) to answer commonly asked questions about the Community Navigators Initiative. This blog post is intended to help answer these questions and share resources of interest.
What is the Community Navigators Initiative?
Thérèse d’Auria Ryley: The Community Navigators Initiative is an initiative of the USDA Forest Service intended to ensure Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funds are directed to frontline communities. We know that frontline communities have the leadership, knowledge, and skills to address the climate impacts they’re facing within their communities and more broadly across the country. Historically, however, federal agencies such as the USDA Forest Service have underserved and under-resourced these communities. I want to really commend my Forest Service colleagues because they are recognizing the strengths of our communities and the ways they, and other federal agencies, of today, have inherited mistakes from previous eras. With this in mind, the Community Navigator Initiative seeks to course correct a history of undeserving these communities and build healthy relationships to address the climate crisis.
What is the vision of the Community Navigators Initiative?
Thérèse d’Auria Ryley: I think that for so many of us who work for nonprofits, and who have historically operated in these frontline community spaces, we’re trying to do so much with so little. We’re trying to center and uplift our communities while addressing the challenges that are impacting us, whether that be climate issues like heat zones in urban communities, water access in western rural communities, or social issues that are tied to these environmental impacts. So I think that when we hear, or think about ‘funding’ it often invokes a feeling of scarcity, which is real, and part of the reason for this scarcity is a historical lack of investment in our communities.
I now live in Colorado, but I grew up in Philadelphia, which is cited as "America's poorest big city". And you can really see that lack of investment in the failing infrastructure throughout the city, feel it when buses don’t come, when your neighbors die from heat exposure because they don’t have air conditioning and there are no trees on their block to provide shade and absorb ozone emissions. But what you do see in places like Philadelphia, where there is this clear historic lack of investment on the part of our federal and state entities, is you see the community coming together to respond to challenges, support one another, and develop innovative solutions to the problems we’re collectively facing. We too often overlook the incredible leadership and innovation taking place in communities like the one that raised me.
So, with that in mind, the vision for the Community Navigator Initiative is to support this leadership and innovation that already is at play within our frontline communities, by providing the resourcing that our communities have historically gone without, due to no fault of our own. This isn’t just about allocating funds, but shifting the narrative and strategic approach to the climate crisis, ensuring a better future for both the land and people.
What are the key services provided?
Thérèse d’Auria Ryley: While the primary focus of the Community Navigator Initiative is to connect frontline communities to federal funding needed to launch and successfully execute climate related programs of work, our scope is much broader than that. We really focus on the following three pillars:
1) Federal Funding Navigation: We are able to provide one-on-one coaching to support those interested in exploring competitive grants in identifying, applying for, and implementing awards. Sometimes the biggest barrier to accessing funding is being able to understand and navigate the lingo, systems, and short turnaround timeframes that are often characteristic of federal funding programs. Our navigator team is able to provide support to overcome these barriers.
2) Program Development Support: We provide support for organizational and program development including support with how to design and scale up community-based programming. So often, our community leaders have these incredible, very attainable visions for how to best serve their communities in light of the climate crisis, but figuring out how to get from the starting point to that end goal can feel overwhelming. Through employing some great resources, we help to break down these bigger goals into smaller steps. As someone who has built and launched new programming, I know how challenging it can be, and enjoy being able to provide the support and resourcing I sometimes wish I’d had in the past.
3) Building Capacity: So often community-serving organizations have limited capacity to build their own team because funds go directly to the community. This means that often organizations forgo training, hiring new staff, and doing other things to build their internal capacity because they see how great the need is for funds in their communities. We are able to provide trainings at no cost to organizations. We also are able to provide some staffing support through our fellowship program, where we are able to embed fellows in community-based organizations and initiatives at no cost to them.
Who are the Community Navigator partner organizations?
Thérèse d’Auria Ryley: I really want to uplift the incredible organizations that comprise the Implementation Partner team of the Community Navigator Initiative. It is really wonderful to be doing this work from a place of community and connection, and I really feel that the implementation partner team has grown into a community in just the short time we’ve been operating.
Currently, there are six Community Navigator partner organizations. We do a lot of coordination on the backend, but each of our organizations has different offerings, structures, and primary focuses in terms of the public-facing piece of our work. This allows us to better meet communities where they are at, and provide collaborative support at times via multiple implementation partner teams. I want to strongly encourage interested readers to explore their Community Navigator landing pages and reach out to their program leads; they’re great people. I’m also happy to make introductions:
- American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association
- Federation of Southern Cooperative
- First Nations Development Institute
- Hispanic Access Foundation
- The Watershed Research and Training Center
- Coalitions and Collaborative
All organizations are featured and described in greater detail on the USDA Forest Service Community Navigators webpage.
Can you only work with one Community Navigator partner?
Thérèse d’Auria Ryley: I really want to stress that we’re collaborating on the backend, not competing. So we strongly encourage communities to connect with services from various implementation partners as they align with your goals and needs. For instance, the Hispanic Access Foundation has this great grant management training program called Cultivando Side-by-Side. This is a 3-month long program that covers the world of grant writing, and compliance management & reporting. My program in COCO is providing a USDA Forest Service pass-through grant called the Community Catalyst Fund. It might feel right for some organizations to have a staff member participate in the Hispanic Access Foundation’s Cultivando Side-by-Side and apply for Coalitions & Collaboratives’ Community Catalyst Fund grant.
Who would you encourage to access these services?
Thérèse d’Auria Ryley: I would encourage any frontline community leader who is either currently or has aspirations to develop community-centered climate resilience programming. To know if your community is considered a frontline community, please explore the CEJST map. Communities that are in gray qualify for Community Navigator Initiative services. For more detail, we focus on serving Tribes and Indigenous communities, low-income rural communities, communities at extreme risk of climate impacts, and those at risk of catastrophic wildfire. I want to highlight that we know via data that communities of color are disproportionately impacted by climate change.
How do I request a Community Navigator?
Thérèse d’Auria Ryley: You’re welcome to email us at cnpinfo@co-co.org, especially if you aren’t quite sure what kind of support you’re needing. You can also fill out our request form, which has a checklist of options and will help us narrow down the best navigator with whom to connect you.
Is there a cost for the services?
Thérèse d’Auria Ryley: There is no cost for any of our services - and that goes for all implementation partners. This is a free service to provide community leaders with technical assistance and support in exploring potential funding opportunities. Our goal is to help connect you to funding, not deplete it.
How does it relate to CWDG?
Thérèse d’Auria Ryley: The Community Wildfire Defense Grant (CWDG) was one of the first USDA Forest Service competitive grant programs that the Community Navigator teams stepped in to support communities in applying for, and now excitingly helping to implement successful awards. We’re excited to continue providing application support for CWDG Round 3, which we anticipate being announced in the coming months. Any applicant can request assistance with their applications or find available resources on the Community Navigator website.
CWDG has provided an opportunity for state and federal program managers to plug in to the Community Navigators Initiative. Program managers are uniquely positioned to refer communities in need of additional support or resources, and can also help to network the benefits of the Community Navigators Initiative. The increased coordination between the Community Navigators Initiative and state and federal staff can further help to bridge the gap in capacity and knowledge.
What other grant opportunities do you support applicants with?
Thérèse d’Auria Ryley: We’re invested in supporting communities to apply for competitive grant opportunities in addition to CWDG. Here are a few other federal grant opportunities - both direct and passthrough - that we’re supporting applicants with:
Wood Innovations: https://www.fs.usda.gov/science-technology/energy-forest-products/wood-innovation#:~:text=Temporary%20Bridge%20Funding%20Opportunity%20Program
Various Grant Opportunities with Deadlines throughout Fall 2024
Trees in Your Community Grant: https://www.greenlatinos.org/request-for-proposals-trees-in-your-community-grant-for-community-based-organizations/
Deadline: October 11, 2024
Rooting Resilience: https://www.rivernetwork.org/rooting-resilience/
Deadline: October 23, 2024
Action, Implementation, Mitigation: https://co-co.org/get-involved/grants/aim-grant/
Deadline: October 27, 2024
Wildland Urban Interface: https://www.westernforesters.org/wui-grants
Deadline: December 20, 2024
We can also help do some dot-connecting by identifying awards in your area that might have funds you can tap into. For example, the Urban & Community Forestry grants that have been awarded to municipalities across the country often have an earmark for workforce development programming. If you are trying to develop a workforce development program, you may be able to tap into those funds without going through a grant application process, and we can help you do that.
Where can I find additional resources?
Thérèse d’Auria Ryley: Additional resources include:
- USDA Forest Service Community Navigators webpage
- Sign up for the Community Navigator newsletter
- View recorded webinars
Contact COCO’s Community Navigator Initiative team at cnpinfo@co-co.org.