OAKLAND – The Greenlining Institute released a new online tool designed to help Californians – individuals and families as well as community groups and local governments – access the many resources funded by cap-and-trade revenues through the state’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The UpLift Resource Finder is the latest update to UpLiftCA.org, the site created by Greenlining to tell the story of how California climate policies benefit underserved communities.

Until now, Californians have had no central, user-friendly place where individuals or community groups could find all this information assembled in a way that’s easy to access.

“California uses money from polluters to help communities plant trees and community gardens, build affordable housing near public transit, and much more, and helps families weatherize their homes, get solar power and purchase electric cars,” said Greenlining Institute Environmental Equity Manager Emi Wang. “But until now there’s been no central, user-friendly place you could go to learn what’s available that might meet your needs. The Resource Finder solves that problem.”

The new tool was designed to be easy to use, even for those with little knowledge of California’s climate programs: Users answer a few simple questions, and the Resource Finder directs them to a summary of GGRF-funded resources they’re likely to be eligible for, with links to the actual programs online. For more advanced users, a separate interface displays all the resources and lets users filter them in various ways.

“By using money from polluters to fund resources that offer real help to underserved communities and low-income Californians, our state has created an example for the world to follow,” Wang said. “By bringing this information together in one place, we’ve made all this help easier for everyone to access.”