In 2017, Assembly Bill 617 was signed into law, which created the Community Air Protection Program run by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).

The Community Air Protection Program empowers California’s most polluted communities to monitor their air quality and guide investments to reduce carbon emissions and improve public health in frontline neighborhoods.

Through this program, CARB has awarded a two-year Community Air Grant to a group of local nonprofit organizations – Valley Vision, WALKSacramento, Breathe CA Sacramento Region, and Green Tech Education – to help the Old North Sacramento/Norwood and Oak Park neighborhoods monitor their air, understand how air quality impacts health, and develop a plan to reduce exposure to air pollution. Click here to read the CARB press release announcing this grant award, and here for more information about why these neighborhoods were selected.

The project, called Sacramento Neighborhoods Activating on Air Quality (SNAAQ), will empower residents, business owners and educational institutions in these two communities to identify solutions for achieving cleaner air and to take ownership of environmental decision-making processes that affect neighborhoods. The project involves four primary components: 1) air monitoring outreach and siting; 2) education; 3) community workshops; and 4) coalition building. Implementation is expected to last through March 2022.

Click here to watch an interview with Patrick Guild on Fox40 talking about the SNAAQ project
Click here to read an article about it in the Sacramento Bee
Click here to watch an interview with Patrick Guild and Neighborhood Coalition member, Matthew Ampersand on Univision

For questions about the program please contact Carolyn Tran at ctran@sacbreathe.org or Mia Machado at mmachado@sacbreathe.org.