Increasing recovery funding in Los Angeles through the Community Economic Resilience Fund (CERF)

LA n Sync continues to support efforts to ensure that the Los Angeles region gets its fair share of Community Economic Resilience Fund dollars, a $600 million state fund which aims to build an equitable and sustainable economy across California’s diverse regions and foster long-term economic resilience in the overall transition to a carbon-neutral economy. CERF is designed to be issued in two phases. The first phase provides $5 million grants to each of the State’s 13 regions for planning a local High Road Transition Collaborative while the second phase provides approximately $500 million in rolling, competitive grants starting in Fall/Winter 2022 to October 2026 for implementation.

Early in the CERF pre-planning process, LA n Sync convened community-based nonprofits to share their knowledge of CERF and the challenges they faced in participating in the CERF planning process. These convenings led to the establishment of the CERF CBO Engagement Fund, a pooled fund housed in LA n Sync and aimed at supporting the meaningful engagement of equity leaders in the CERF planning process. This fund established a table of community-based equity leaders encompassing 16 organizations across LA County representing disinvested, BIPOC communities.

Most recently, LA n Sync lent its support to the Economic Development Corporation of Los Angeles County (LAEDC), which has been leading a cross-sector coalition of over 100 organizations, including the 16 nonprofits funded through the CERF CBO Engagement Fund, by providing a grant writer to assist in applying for LA County’s planning grant. LAEDC additionally reached out to the California Community Foundation (CCF) requesting they serve in a fiscal agent role for this project, to which they agreed.

On July 25th, CCF (as Fiscal Agent) and LAEDC (as Regional Convener) responded to the State of California’s Employee Development Department’s Community Economic Resilience Fund (CERF) PY 2022 – 2024 Solicitation for Proposals on behalf of the 100+ cross-sector coalition. If funded by the State, CCF and LAEDC will be responsible for administering the $5 million CERF planning grant. The State has indicated that it estimates making award notifications on or by August 8, 2022 with an implementation start date of October 1 later this year.

To access the proposal on the LAEDC website, click here.