For Carolina Rios, work used to mean the agricultural fields where her immigrant parents labored outside Stockton, California. An internship changed her life. Rios now works with the Rising Sun Center for Opportunity, helping families like hers access home upgrades to save money, energy and water. “I’ve learned a lot, like how to be more green and how I can help my community,” Rios said. The internship turned into a job as a project manager with Rising Sun, and Rios’ new income has helped her family of five move from a one-bedroom place to a more spacious home. Both the internship program and the energy- and water-saving projects were funded by a grant from California’s Transformative Climate Communities (TCC) program. New reports from the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation illustrate how TCC has funded development and infrastructure projects to achieve environmental, health and economic benefits in the state’s most disadvantaged communities. UCLA researchers tracked progress in five communities that have each received tens of millions of dollars from TCC: Fresno, Ontario, Stockton, and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Northeast San Fernando Valley and Watts. Many of the projects enable households to help the environment while helping their pocketbooks, including the installation of solar panels on low-income homes and improved mobility options for getting around without an expensive, polluting car. The first round of TCC grants is nearing the end of implementation in 2025, but the increase in federal climate funding through the Inflation Reduction Act has the potential to unlock additional investments.

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