Tamira Jones

It was a cold May when I had the thought: what if spring never came back? What they say about Ohio, my home state, is that if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes. But this felt different. Unrelenting. I felt the snow, which kept coming and coming, so keenly because my son was young, only just in elementary school. His school kept closing for an inch—or even the hint of an inch—of snow, leaving me with no childcare and no way to work.

Fresh produce. Milk. Even leftover pizza. These are just a few of the food items one might find in the most unusual of places: in a refrigerator placed out on the street. In recent years, Little Free Libraries, small structures where community members can leave books for others and take books for free, have become common in many neighborhoods.

How can frontline communities access public funding for climate solutions? The answers are, well, complex. But some needed elements are clear: these include expertise; values-aligned capacity-building partners; relationships that are built on trust, accountability, and transparency; and flexible funding. The same elements [needed for] BIPOC communities to benefit from public funding are also the most promising approaches to address…climate change.