{"id":19880,"date":"2025-04-17T16:07:02","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T23:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/eri\/?p=19880"},"modified":"2025-04-17T16:09:47","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T23:09:47","slug":"interview-david-diaz-activesvg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/eri\/2025\/04\/17\/interview-david-diaz-activesvg\/","title":{"rendered":"What losing federal funding looks like on the ground: An interview with David Diaz, Executive Director of Active San Gabriel Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/eri\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2025\/04\/ActiveSVGheaderblog-768x432.png\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/eri\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2025\/04\/ActiveSVGheaderblog-1920x1080.png 1920w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/eri\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2025\/04\/ActiveSVGheaderblog-1280x720.png 1280w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/eri\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2025\/04\/ActiveSVGheaderblog-768x432.png 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  alt=\"Text reads: \"What losing federal funding looks like on the ground: An interview with David Diaz, Executive Director of Active San Gabriel Valley\" By Austin Mendoza, ERI Data Analyst and Vanessa Carter Fahnestock, ERI Project Manager\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>What losing federal funding looks like on the ground: An interview with David Diaz, Executive Director of Active San Gabriel Valley<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n    \n          <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span>Austin Mendoza, ERI Data Analyst and Vanessa Carter Fahnestock, ERI Project Manager<\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">April 17, 2025<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"content-wrapper\">\n    <span class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list\" style=\"line-height: 32px;\">\n      <span class=\"title\">\n        Share\n      <\/span>\n                        <a class=\"a2a_button_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" 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visually-hidden\">Email<\/span>\n          <\/a>\n                  <\/span>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n \n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--rich-text \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--rich-text\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the new Federal Administration, environmental funding has been cancelled or held back from grantees across the nation. This has been particularly harmful as many organizations were encouraged to go after new federal funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) that was earmarked for \u201cdisadvantaged communities\u201d through President Biden\u2019s Justice 40 Executive Order. On March 25th, 2025 \u2013 according to an email from the Environmental Protection Network \u2013 two internal US EPA documents were released, including a <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1Bfq08WBcX1i8W2vCBUw46UiIpDwZSZXqR4PA2aUT4ts\/edit?gid=692713654#gid=692713654\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">list<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of 400 grants that the EPA was planning to or actively considering terminating \u2013 despite, in some cases, such action violating terms and conditions on already-executed grant agreements.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the grants on that list includes <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.activesgv.org\/get-involved#donate\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Active San Gabriel Valley (ActiveSGV)<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as a grantee. ActiveSGV is a local environmental justice organization that helps to support a more sustainable, equitable, and livable San Gabriel Valley. The following is a transcript of a conversation between Active SGV\u2019s Executive Director, <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.activesgv.org\/people\/david-diaz\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">David Diaz<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and USC ERI staff Vanessa Carter Fahnestock and Austin Mendoza. We discuss the impact of recent uncertainties around federal funding on their work and planned investment in their region.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length. It took place on April 2, 2025.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Vanessa:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Just to start, can you share with us what ActiveSGV was awarded through the EPA Community Change Grant?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>David:<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.godayone.org\/donate\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Day One<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is the lead partner, but we\u2019re a coalition of nonprofit organizations that serve the San Gabriel Valley. Together with our partners, we proposed a myriad of strategies that would bring environmental justice and public health outcomes to the San Gabriel Valley. Our team consists of several folks \u2013 Day One is the lead, ActiveSGV is the statutory lead, and we also have <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/treepeople.org\/?campaign=430396\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TreePeople<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/sustainableclaremont.org\/support\/donate\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sustainable Claremont<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/gridalternatives.org\/support\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">GRID Alternatives<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.watershedhealth.org\/donate\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Council for Watershed Health<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, as well as the City of South El Monte that\u2019s included as part of this project team, at least for implementation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TreePeople was going to plant thousands of trees in the SGV. They would have also been able to distribute thousands of fruit trees to residents in the San Gabriel Valley. Sustainable Claremont are working on green schoolyards, so they had about 10 campuses that they were going to transform into green schoolyards. GRID Alternatives was going to lead our Clean Casas initiative that included rooftop solar, battery storage, cool roofs, and induction stove technology to switch out those toxic gas stovetops.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We, ActiveSGV, were going to continue expanding our electric bikeshare program. We currently operate the largest electric bikeshare program in the United States. It\u2019s a monthly rental program, not a daily rental program, so you can check out a bike like you would a book at a library. And so, with the grant, we were going to expand it to offer<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">300 vouchers of $2,000 for folks to be able to purchase electric cargo bikes. And then, we were also going to install bicycle repair stations for things like putting air in your tire or fixing something simple on your bike. And then, ActiveSGV was going to be working on retrofitting 60 homes with rain gardens to capture stormwater and create multiple benefits.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Day One was going to work on meeting a very basic need for the community by installing clean water refill stations at public parks and school sites. They were also the ones leading a lot of the project administration and community engagement for the project. Last but not least, there was about $3 million in gap funding for the Merced Avenue Greenway Project, which is a 1.1-mile multiple-benefit greenway located in South El Monte. That\u2019s the first at-grade bike path in the San Gabriel Valley.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So all these strategies together, coupled with really meaningful community engagement, was what we were funded for $20 million to do under the GREEN SGV Project \u2013 that stands for Green, Resilient, Energy-Efficient Neighborhoods.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_19884\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19884\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-19884\" src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/eri\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2025\/04\/ActiveSGVstaff-1024x764.jpg\" alt=\"A group of five young people smiling, some carrying shovels, standing around a tree they just planted.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"764\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/eri\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2025\/04\/ActiveSGVstaff-1024x764.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/eri\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2025\/04\/ActiveSGVstaff-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/eri\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2025\/04\/ActiveSGVstaff-768x573.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/eri\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2025\/04\/ActiveSGVstaff.jpg 1446w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-19884\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">ActiveSGV staff planting a Desert Willow tree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Vanessa:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> What would have been the impact on your organization? What would this look like in terms of staffing up? What part of that $20 million was going to ActiveSGV itself, as originally intended?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>David:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> For us, it was nearly $5 million over three years \u2013 but a lot of that money was going back out into the community. So again, with the electric cargo bike voucher program, we had scoped 300 of those $2,000 vouchers going back out to the community. All of the equipment for lawn conversions for rain gardens, those were going to go back out into the community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We had already staffed up. We were one of the first organizations nationwide to submit an application, back in February 2024. And so we came out as one of the first rounds of awardees nationwide, and as one of a handful in California that was awarded. And so since November or December, we had been staffing and planning and going through the onboarding process with folks. And so, we have what we call our rain garden team, that\u2019s about seven folks. And then we also have our GoSGV team, which is another five to seven folks that were going to be working on this for the next three years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And so it has a big impact on the organization. Nonprofits do our best to be able to project cash flow and operating dollars so that you can staff accordingly. Because you want to avoid burning people out, you want to make sure you have proper capacity, you want to make sure that you\u2019re managing and strategizing and aligning all of your other programs so that you can operate efficiently. So it has a tremendous impact.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was like losing $2.5 million overnight, basically, for the projected year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Vanessa:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It takes an incredible amount of work to even consider putting forward an application for public dollars \u2013 hundreds of hours, sometimes. Do you know, roughly, how much effort it was for you just to get it all put together?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>David:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I mean, the actual grant application itself, I wouldn\u2019t say it was hundreds of hours for any one individual. Maybe hundreds of hours in the collective. But we really thought of it as a result of decades\u2019 worth of work for each respective organization to position ourselves to even be eligible, to have the capacity and bandwidth and expertise and partnerships in the community to be able to receive such an award that we felt comfortable that we could deliver.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So really, I think the award itself and what we were able to put forth speaks to the decades\u2019 worth of work that each organization was putting forward.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Vanessa:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> So what\u2019s the status right now?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>David:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> We were one of the first applications and we had signed a funding contract. Immediately after January 20th \u2013 I want to say that was a Monday or Tuesday \u2013 our account was already suspended or frozen, unable to access dollars. And then there were things that were temporarily available for a few weeks. And so we had four to six weeks where it was actually open. And now for the last three weeks, it\u2019s been suspended, so we haven\u2019t been able to draw down. And there\u2019s no reason that\u2019s been provided for why that is.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And so, we\u2019ve just been trying to stay in compliance while trying to manage it day-to-day, in terms of what we can do for the work. We are connected to cohorts of folks \u2013 the Environmental Protection Network, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.libertyhill.org\/how-we-work\/partnerships\/ej-ready\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">EJ Ready<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and others \u2013 getting constant advice and counsel around what to do. And one of the things that keeps coming up is to just do the work. The work will be a testament of why the funding is needed \u2013 so continue to do the work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But unless you\u2019re a large nonprofit or you have some major endowment somewhere that can just front all the cash that\u2019s required while you wait for reimbursement, it\u2019s very hard to do that. And we\u2019ve been reaching out to foundations and other partners, and more or less the sentiment is like, \u201cDo you really expect us to trust the federal government?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Austin:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> They don\u2019t want to front you the money because they don\u2019t trust the government will reimburse it?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>David:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Not in those words exactly, but that\u2019s pretty much it. Because we\u2019re looking at exploring getting general operating dollars, or recoverable grant programs. But environmental justice is classified as \u201cDEI work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some of our program partners have literally paused all work related to any federal funding completely, because again, they don\u2019t trust the federal government, right? So are you going to put your organization in fiscal danger while hoping that the federal government comes through with a contractual agreement? Are you willing to tolerate that risk?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Austin: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How is this uncertainty impacting residents\u2019 political consciousness? Do community members know what\u2019s happening with funding?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>David:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Oh yeah, we\u2019ve put out a bunch of communication pieces. But it\u2019s like compounding crises, right? So there\u2019s not enough time or bandwidth for people to focus on this one thing. The San Gabriel Valley is majority-minority, 50% foreign-born in some communities. We have kids that are scared to go to school, we have parents that are scared to go anywhere in their community because of ICE and the fear of deportation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So in the grand scheme of things, talking to them about our Community Change Grant where you can potentially get public health or environmental justice action in your community\u2026against deportation, that\u2019s a hard contrast in terms of prioritizing what\u2019s happening. We have a lot of people that are in crisis right now. People are facing environmental injustices now, there\u2019s real threats and violence that people are experiencing every single day. It\u2019s not about later, it\u2019s about now. And so that\u2019s what we were hoping to deliver is some climate action now at the local level, for folks to get just the tiniest of respite \u2013 but it seems more difficult now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We have a lot of people that are in crisis right now. People are facing environmental injustices now, there\u2019s real threats and violence that people are experiencing every single day. It\u2019s not about later, it\u2019s about now. And so that\u2019s what we were hoping to deliver is some climate action now at the local level, for folks to get just the tiniest of respite \u2013 but it seems more difficult now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><b>Vanessa:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Is there anything that you want people to know that we didn\u2019t ask about?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>David:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Yes. If people have time and bandwidth and you care about these issues, write to your Congress Members. If you think environmental justice and public health is still a priority, continue to call your Congress Member letting them know that nonprofits in their region are being affected.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And if you\u2019re in a position to contribute financially to any of the organizations we discussed today, please do. We count on general operating support dollars to help us do what we do. We\u2019re not here to enrich ourselves or make profit for anybody else, but to do good and to do well on behalf of the community that we serve.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n  \n      \n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-related-stories \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-related-stories\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--section-title\">\n\n    \n  <h2>\n          Explore other articles\n      <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n                  <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/eri\/2023\/05\/02\/the-eri-team\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >Meet the ERI Team<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/eri\/2023\/06\/01\/welcome-eri-site-2023\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >A new look for ERI&#8217;s website!<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n            <\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":19883,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[279,26],"tags":[18,47,66,354],"class_list":["post-19880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ej","category-blog","tag-climate-equity","tag-environmental-justice","tag-interview","tag-san-gabriel-valley"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - 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