Evaluation Plan
TCC includes mechanisms for accountability, including oversight from community members and third-party evaluation from academic researchers.
As part of this, the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation and UC Berkeley evaluation team worked with the Round 1 communities of Fresno, Ontario, and Watts to create the:
Transformative Climate Communities Evaluation Plan
Published in late 2018, this evaluation plan provides a research roadmap that is now used to track and assess local progress and results of TCC investments over a five-year period in the three Round 1 sites. The UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation has since developed supplemental evaluation plans for TCC investments in Northeast San Fernando Valley and Stockton, which are available upon request by emailing luskincenter@gmail.com.
What TCC Does
TCC is part of the suite of California Climate Investments funded by the state’s cap-and-trade program. It unifies many of the California Climate Investments project types into a single, place-based initiative. Specifically, TCC funds the following project types:
- Construction of affordable housing near transit;
- Installation of rooftop solar and energy efficiency improvements for homes;
- Purchase of electric vehicles, including buses, that can run on clean energy instead of fossil fuels;
- Expansion of bus service coverage or frequency;
- Improvement and expansion of bike lanes and sidewalks;
- Planting of trees along bike and pedestrian routes and near buildings; and
- Implementation of waste diversion programs, such as the collection and reuse of food waste and neighborhood-scale composting.
To maximize the benefits of these types of projects, TCC community grantees also must develop and implement the following transformative plans:
- A community engagement plan to ensure TCC investments reflect the vision and goals of community members;
- A workforce development plan to bring economic opportunities to disadvantaged and low-income communities; and
- A displacement avoidance plan to minimize the risk of gentrification and displacement of residents and businesses following neighborhood improvements.
Annual Progress Reports
The UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation releases an annual progress report for each of the TCC sites where the center works (Fresno, Ontario, Northeast San Fernando Valley, Stockton and Watts). These reports highlight implementation progress, changing community conditions, lessons learned that can inform future action and results that can be attributed to TCC investments.
The annual reports include several components: background information, profiles of the transformative plans and projects, testimonies from residents and workers in TCC communities, and a wealth of baseline data on community conditions that could change as a result of five years of TCC implementation. This includes data related to demographic, economic, energy, environmental, health, housing and transportation conditions.
Ontario Together (Round I Grantee)
- Year 1 – 2020 Progress Report
- Year 2 – 2021 Progress Report
- Year 3 – 2022 Progress Report
- Year 4 – 2023 Progress Report
Transform Fresno (Round I Grantee)
- Year 1 – 2020 Progress Report
- Year 2 – 2021 Progress Report
- Year 3 – 2022 Progress Report
- Year 4 – 2023 Progress Report
Watts Rising (Round I Grantee)
- Year 1 – 2020 Progress Report
- Year 2 – 2021 Progress Report
- Year 3 – 2022 Progress Report
- Year 4 – 2023 Progress Report
Green Together/NE San Fernando Valley (Round II Grantee)
Stockton Rising (Round III Grantee)
News
Check out these annual summaries of community-led climate action:
- Investments in Local Climate Action Empower People on the Ground (May 31, 2023)
- California Is Making Big, Hyperlocal Investments to Fight Climate Change — and It’s Working (June 15, 2022)
- Transformative Climate Communities Build Resilience During Pandemic (May 26, 2021)
- UCLA Helps Launch California’s Transformative Climate Communities Program (April 1, 2020)
Resources for Researchers
LCI provides the following repository for open access to all code developed by LCI for the purpose of TCC evaluation:
TCC Evaluation GitHub Repository
This repository can be used by researchers to replicate our findings (for verification) or methods (for use in other evaluations).
Research Team
Principal Investigator
UCLA Project Director:
UCLA Researchers:
Elena Hernandez
Samantha Astudillo
Colleen Callahan
Graduate Student Collaborators:
Abhilasha Bola
Emma French
Lillian Liang
Xochitl Lopez
Linda Mitchell
Melody Ng
Photo caption/credit: Left: A GRID Alternatives crew installing solar panels on the Bridges at Florence affordable senior living apartments in the Transform Fresno project area. Photo credit: Fresno Housing Authority; Middle: Children in front of the Watts Towers. Photo credit: Orr, Los Angeles Times; Right: UCLA graduate student researcher Elena Hernandez (left) receives a tour of the Huerta del Valle Community Garden, led by an Ontario community leader, Beatriz Castro. Photo credit: UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation.