Baldwin Hills Community Resilience and Access Plan

In partnership with the Baldwin Hills Conservancy, South Los Angeles Transit Empowerment Zone (SLATE-Z), Sumire Gant Consulting, and Adam Wheeler Design, Climate Resolve developed a Community Resilience and Access Plan for the Baldwin Hills Parklands over 18 months.

The Baldwin Hills Community Resilience and Access Plan highlights the existing climate impacts in the area surrounding the Parklands, details the stakeholder engagement approach, provides a design and transportation analysis for potential sites for resilience centers and spaces, and gives recommendations to move forward.

Parks can be a powerful and innovative space to reimagine social equity and climate resilience. Parks are naturally public spaces that boost the quality of life by providing a place to recreate and rest. Moreover, during extreme events, such as a heat wave, parks can offer shade, water, and indoor/outdoor cooling places. Parks are places that can welcome individuals during everyday use and in emergencies. Therefore, park authorities and partner organizations need to work together to make parks, such as the Baldwin Hills Parklands, as resilient, welcoming, and accessible to the community by enhancing infrastructure, developing programming, and improving transportation.

The plan was mainly funded by the Baldwin Hills Conservancy Proposition 68, with additional funds provided by Climate Resolve, American Society of Adaptation Professionals, and California State Parks Foundation.

Since the plan was released in 2022, Climate Resolve has been working to implement key recommendations, from pursuing funding for climate-resilient infrastructure to leading Camping 101 and Emergency Preparedness classes in the Baldwin Hills Parklands. Enhancing community programs at the Parklands was a central tenet of the Resilience and Access Plan, which recognized that any improvements to resilience infrastructure should be coupled with educational programming to better prepare communities for climate change. Read more about our programs here.