Ana Avendaño, Executive Director of El Concilio of San Mateo County, is on a mission to transform climate change awareness into action, equipping frontline communities with the knowledge and tools needed to combat environmental challenges. With the support of the Leadership Council SMC’s Community Acceleration Project (CAP) Team, El Concilio reached a significant milestone that has advanced Ana’s vision. 

The CAP Team strengthened El Concilio’s Climate Ready Ambassadors program — an initiative that trains community members about climate change, local vulnerabilities, and resilience-building strategies.

CAPs are the hands-on component of Leadership Council SMC’s Immersion Programs: Emerging Leaders Program and the Leadership CORPS Program. All participants complete a CAP, enabling them to make an immediate impact on organizations across San Mateo County while applying skills they are learning in the program. During the 2023-2024 program year, one Emerging Leaders CAP Team served El Concilio, a nonprofit, community-based organization committed to increasing education, employment, and access to quality-of-life services to underserved communities. 

With her vision in mind, Ana identified a pressing need for this CAP: to create a sustainable climate justice and environmental justice curriculum that resonated with the voices of promotores working in the community. The promotores are trusted community health workers who facilitate access to vital resources for Spanish-speaking populations. The CAP goal was for the Leadership Council SMC CAP Team to provide a thorough course assessment and actionable recommendations for enhancing El Concilio's Climate Ready Ambassadors program. 

To achieve the project goal, the CAP Team — Bryan Albini, Lilliana Cifuentes, Rachel Curtis-Robles, Teresa Perez, and Kate Rozzi — examined El Concilio’s existing climate change coursework, evaluated content from a variety of sources to determine what to include, and incorporated feedback from the promotores who had already participated in El Concilio’s pilot program funded by Silicon Valley Community Foundation. In addition, the CAP Team made recommendations as to how to engage partner organizations from San Mateo County and utilized El Concilio’s new style guide to brand the course materials. 

“I am very happy with the finished product delivered by the CAP Team,” Ana said. “They provided us with a tangible, El Concilio-branded, climate change curriculum of four courses, with presentation materials and facilitation guide that our team can confidently teach.”

In November 2024, El Concilio graduated the first cohort of 13 community leaders from North Fair Oaks from the two-month program. These leaders can now expand the program by facilitating it in additional San Mateo County neighborhoods. 

The success of the CAP stemmed from the team’s ability to listen deeply and ask questions to clarify El Concilio’s needs and Ana’s vision. They embraced multi-layered resource sharing and pursued opportunities to enrich the course with value-added content. They made it a priority to clarify deliverables early on and benefited from Ana’s guidance throughout the project.

“Ana’s feedback was both encouraging and constructive, guiding us to a result that would meet the need,” said Rachel. “In addition, our team was passionate about including the perspectives of the promotores, whose knowledge and skills are vital to our communities.”

This CAP proved to be an excellent partnership.

“If I mentioned a resource to the team, they ran with it,” said Ana. “They were great at follow-through and went above and beyond. Their commitment to the project created connections and opportunities for El Concilio and I trusted them.” 

The Climate Ready Ambassadors program has been well received by many partners of El Concilio who brought additional resources and helped them facilitate their first program including Catholic Charities USA, Peninsula Clean Energy RethinkWaste (aka South Bayside Waste Management Authority), San Mateo County Sustainability Department and County of San Mateo Environmental Health Services. The Multicultural Institute (MI) promotores joined the training and Saúl Miranda presented the graduates with a certificate from Josh Becker’s office.

Ana can see many possibilities ahead. “When participants of the course gain critical knowledge about climate change, emergency preparedness, and local advocacy, they are equipped to champion environmental justice in their communities,” she said. She envisions launching a cohort in neighborhoods across San Mateo County and is seeking funding to collaborate with interested nonprofits to expand the reach. She looks forward to including the members of the CAP Team in the program's future initiatives.

This story illustrates the power and potential of leadership development in San Mateo County. Leadership Council SMC is proud of our commitment to empowering a diverse community of leaders who collaborate across sectors to create meaningful change.

Learn more about El Concilio, Leadership Council SMC, and Community Acceleration Projects.