About the BOOST Program

All Californians deserve to live in communities where they can have access to clean air and water, clean transportation, affordable housing, and economic opportunity. Yet many communities across the state lack the staff capacity and resources to develop projects and secure funding to make this a reality for their residents. To help address this need, we have partnered with the California Strategic Growth Council (SCG) on the BOOST Program ("BOOST" for short) to help local governments across the state build capacity to address those needs.

BOOST helps under-resourced cities, towns, and regions prioritize climate and equity issues by securing much-needed grant funding. But BOOST doesn’t just help cities chase grants — it transforms how they plan, lead, and grow. Through customized, on-the-ground technical assistance, BOOST helps communities:

• Build awareness of funding opportunities to address climate action;
• Organize projects to be best positioned to meet its goals;
• Optimize existing resources and build more capacity;
• Strengthen relationships with key stakeholders and identify new opportunities for regional engagement and collaboration; and
• Transform their approach to addressing climate action.

The BOOST Program is currently in its third round, titled "BOOST Imperial Valley." This is the first BOOST program round to focus on one geographic area: the state's Imperial Valley, consisting of seven cities and one county.

History of the BOOST Program

Since 2019, ILG’s BOOST Program has become a statewide catalyst for change: empowering under-resourced cities and regions to access critical climate and equity funding, organize more effective systems, and build long-term institutional strength.

The 2021 BOOST Program is based on the BOOST Pilot Program which helped 10 cities and two regions build capacity to advance their climate and equity goals. The 18-month pilot was designed to provide flexible and responsive technical assistance to address the varying and evolving capacity challenges of local governments, while also sharing best practices and lessons learned to help inform state programs.

In this round of BOOST, we have selected seven cities to receive tailored support in the form of trainings, partnership development, community engagement planning and implementation support, grant application assistance, and communications support.

Learn more about the BOOST Program participants in their profiles below, and learn more about the successes of the Pilot Program in the April 2021 Best Practices Report here.