Climate Advocacy at Y-Core
In 2022, I wanted to get more involved in the non-profit space in San Francisco. I applied to become a Fellow at Y-Core (now Full Circle Fund), a non-profit that connects young professionals with other non-profits in need of volunteers. Me and my group worked with an organization called 350 Bay Area, a grass-roots 501(c) organization focused on raising awareness for local and statewide climate related legislation, and mobilizing people to exercise their voices against fossil fuel interests. Working with 350 Bay Area, we were tasked with two main deliverables: an "Action Item List" and a "Promising Cities Report". For both of these reports, I focused on the Energy sections. This was a great experience, where I learned a lot about the power of local policy making in battling climate change.
The group at our weekly gathering. Join for the impactful work, stay for the after meeting beers!
The promising cities report was a collection of case studies on various cities within the US that are creatively tackling the problems associated with energy grid resilience, reducing fossil fuel emitting vehicles and improving legacy residential infrastructure. Specifically, we collated various local and state-level legislative changes that had proven positive outcomes for each city's Net Zero pledge.
Climate policy is an extremely complex and broad field, and it is easy to get lost in the details. 350 Bay Area wanted a quick, easily decipherable, cheat sheet of policy recommendations that volunteers could push their representatives towards implementing. The action item list condensed down some of the findings of the Promising Cities Report, and listed recommendations specific to the Bay Area.