From the start of UCLA’s partnership with the Blue Ribbon Commission on Climate Action and Fire-Safe Recovery in February 2025, a critical part of our responsibility—in addition to providing relevant, up-to-date academic research and expertise—was to spearhead a robust community engagement effort that ensured the voices, concerns, and perspectives of fire survivors could inform the Commission’s recommendations.

The UCLA team knew that to do this work right would be a challenge, but also critical to the mission. 

No roadmap for recovery would be complete without meaningful engagement and inclusion of those who lived through the disaster and who are now navigating its aftermath. 

Relevant and cutting-edge academic knowledge was necessary, but not sufficient, for the Commission to produce policy recommendations that would reflect the long-term needs and interests of the impacted communities.

A Lean Team Working on an Accelerated Timeline

The UCLA team faced two primary constraints: time and resources. 

The core UCLA team responsible for the community engagement was led by Sustainable LA Grand Challenge (SLAGC) Research Program Manager Alice Chen, assisted by an SLAGC PhD student, and Luskin Center for Innovation Co-Executive Director Colleen Callahan—with the guidance of the Luskin Center Innovation Director Megan Mullin, and support from SLAGC Associate Director of Research Development Sophie Katz.

While this small but dedicated team brought with it deep expertise and experience, given the scale and dedication necessary to responsibly and rigorously engage fire survivors, this was a lean team. Additionally, for the Commission’s recommendations to be able to influence legislation, it was vital to work on a highly accelerated timeline. 

As a practical matter, the UCLA team only had about three months to accomplish this task. Wasting no time, the team jumped in.

Working through Existing Engagement Efforts to Build Trust

The first step of the community engagement work was to survey the landscape of existing, ongoing community engagement efforts—led by members of the affected communities—to learn what issues community members were most concerned about and what topics were emerging organically.

The UCLA team had plenty of opportunities. They attended 23 meetings government-hosted meetings and 14 community-hosted events to learn what issues community members were most concerned about. The team also conducted 17 private interviews with fire survivors and affected members of all impacted communities.

This was a delicate process. The UCLA team had to build trust as they engaged with fire survivors. Listening—to their stories, their needs, their challenges, and their frustrations—was key. 

The team’s approach put empathy and understanding first, recognizing that the people with whom they were engaging had been through a deeply traumatic experience and many had lost their sense of security along with their homes.

This process gave the team an opportunity to identify the topline concerns voiced by fire survivors and the leaders within the communities.

The bridges built during this process also allowed the UCLA team to organize four direct meetings between community members and Commissioners in May after the Commission released its draft preliminary recommendations. The goal here was to get honest, actionable feedback from fire survivors on the recommendations before they were finalized.

While the feedback sessions were the culmination of the team’s community engagement efforts, they had been providing the Commissioners regular updates on findings, themes, and trends from their observations leading up to and after these meetings.

Looking Toward Next Steps

The Commission’s full report and final policy recommendations came out on June 20, 2025 along with UCLA’s accompanying research context and considerations, which contains a more detailed account of the community engagement process.

The work accomplished through this intensive process made it abundantly clear that this was just the beginning. UCLA’s work will be ongoing as experts work to fill knowledge gaps, continue engagement with community members, and provide decision-makers with actionable, community-informed research to guide not only the recovery process but also planning for a more resilient future in the face of a changing climate.

Specifically, the UCLA team plans to build on the relationships they established through this process to continue their community engagement to help advance community-led, sustainable resiliency, especially by leveraging connections with and supporting the work already being undertaken by community organizations.

Read more about UCLA’s role in the Blue Ribbon Commission process; sign up for updates about this and more work from Sustainable LA Grand Challenge and partners.