Fire Adapted Communities Programs
As the umbrella organization for the national Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network, we help communities across the country live more safely with fire. This team also staffs the Community Navigators Project, which supports communities in building the capacity to partner with federal land management agencies.
Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network
The Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network (FAC Net) is a social impact network that helps communities plan and strategize to live more safely with wildfire.
Since its start in 2013, FAC Net has grown to include hundreds of people throughout the United States who represent the full gamut of organizations and agencies engaged in community wildfire resilience work. FAC Net contributes to positive change by offering practitioners personal development and professional training, facilitating strategic partnerships and collaborative planning processes, and investing in special projects and initiatives that improve fire outcomes on the ground.
FAC Net is stewarded by the Watershed Center and supported through a collaborative partnership between the Watershed Center, The Nature Conservancy, the USDA Forest Service, and the Department of the Interior. This collaborative partnership, known as the Fire Networks, has a website with more information here.
FAC Net produces a weekly blog that features stories about fire adaptation from practitioners, researchers and leading thinkers in the sector. Subscribe here.
Nonprofit organizations and Forest Service staff who are involved in the community navigator initiative gather at a 2024 learning summit.
Community Navigators Project
The Watershed Center and FAC Net are among a group of nonprofits partnering with the US Forest Service on a Community Navigators initiative.
The goal of this effort is to connect communities to Forest Service funding and partnership opportunities (in particular funding flowing from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law).
Key aspects of the Watershed Center’s community navigator work include:
Helping communities identify federal funding that meets their community priorities
Helping communities develop competitive funding applications
Providing guidance on staying in compliance with federal financial and reporting requirements
Community capacity building for these, and future, funding opportunities
Another important aspect of this work involves elevating community perspectives and feedback about the barriers that communities face in accessing US Forest Service support and partnership.
Other organizations working on the Forest Service community navigator initiative include Coalitions and Collaboratives, Hispanic Access Foundation, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, First Nations Development Institute, and the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association.
To get updates on new funding opportunities, guidance on applying for and managing grant awards, and resources for navigating federal programs and partnerships, sign up for our monthly newsletter.
Check out and sign up for our latest training opportunities.
Check the “Funding FAC work” page on fireadapted.org, a website where the FAC Net team and other partners compile tools and resources related to fire adapted communities.
Have you worked with a community navigator and want to share feedback? We’d love to hear from you! Your response will be used to improve our future services.
Information gathered via our CNP request and feedback forms are used by our staff to better assist clients and make program improvements. Data collected is not used by the USDA Forest Service or any other government agency.
This institution is an equal opportunity provider.