Civic Infrastructure

Civic Infrastructure is the informal and formal networks and processes through which community power, including problem-solving and decision-making, is carried out. Building successful civic infrastructure means investing in the capacity for communities to lead in establishing high road – just, sustainable, and democratic – policies, programs, and practices that foster collaboration and the creation of community assets that address and solve intersectional justice concerns.

ECC’s Civic Infrastructure Team manages a number of national programs and resources designed for communities to engage with equitable place-based planning and implementation, particularly in the energy economy

Sonia Kikeri, National Director of Civic Infrastructure

Sonia Kikeri MBA, MA, BSFS (they/she) is the National Director of Civic Infrastructure. Prior to working at Emerald Cities Collaborative, Sonia’s professional experiences include serving as a legislative director for a state senator in Pennsylvania, as a consultant working with anchor institutions on operationalizing equity through institutional policy, and as a program director managing international civic society research and development. They live on a farm located on the ancestral lands of the Susquehannock, where their family participates in sustainable land management and the local food economy.

Programs & Resources

Energy Community Capacity Building Program

The Energy Communities Capacity Building (ECCB) Program* provides training, funding, and technical assistance to support community-based organizations and frontline communities nationwide to more deeply understand, organize, design, and implement Energy Democracy policies and projects.

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Centering Equity in the Sustainable Buildings Sector

The CESBS Initiative brings together organizations and individuals from the fields of environmental justice, architecture, energy, affordable housing, transportation, economic development, higher education, sustainability, and more with the common goal to universalize access to sustainable, healthy

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Residential Retrofits for Energy Equity and the Buildings Upgrade Prize

R2E2 provides deep technical assistance to state, local, and tribal governments as well as community-based organizations to jumpstart energy upgrades for single family and multifamily affordable housing, especially in frontline communities. …

Equitable Implementation: The People’s Justice40+ Communtiy Benefits Playbook

The People’s Justice40+ Community Benefit Playbook offers low income, rural, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), frontline, and fenceline communities, and community-based organizations that serve these communities, guidance for developing Community Benefit Plans (CBP) that leverage …

Freedom Fellows:
New Jersey

The Freedom Fellows New Jersey program grew out of the national Freedom Summer Fellowship Program in 2023. This program collaborates with higher education institutions in New Jersey to provide technical assistance through graduate student fellows to local municipal governments to address critical infrastructure needs, such as high …

Other Collaborative Efforts

Past Programs

Just Transition PowerForce

The Just Transition PowerForce brought together environmental and climate justice leaders from across the country to align the climate commitments of corporations toward deep investments in the sustainability and climate resilience of frontline communities, enabling self-determination, economic security, and restorative and transformative justice.

Freedom Summer Fellowship National Program

The Freedom Summer Fellowship was launched in 2023 in response to the once-in-a-generation federal infrastructure funding from the Biden-Harris Administration. Inspired by the work of the 1964 Freedom Summer, the fellowship operates as a capacity-building and applied learning program to address the climate crisis and direct resources to historically underinvested communities.