Keep California Beautiful Inc

Clean California KCB manages the community and youth programs statewide for Clean California, an initiative of the Governors Office managed by Caltrans. We are a subcontractor with Sagent Marketing and a group of media partners developing awareness of litter prevention and community beautification. As part of a multi-pronged marketing campaign, KCB has recruited over communities to take the pledge to become designated communities and to guide them in completing at least 10 of 15 criteria to achieve the designation. The goal is to have up to 200 communities pledge by June 2026 and 100 complete the process. KCB created extensive outreach lists of potential partners, including cities, towns, counties, municipal districts, military bases, neighborhood groups, school districts, houses of worship areas, community group service areas, business improvement districts, watershed groups, and other unincorporated entities. KCB developed training materials, workshops, networking opportunities, online tools, and reporting to assist communities. The team provides ongoing opportunities for engagement and recognition. KCB developed K-12 educational materials and managed a $125,000 microgrant program, distributing funds to 750 educators and schools. Additionally, KCB created and managed a 2-year K-12 multimedia contest to encourage youth to design posters or videos to boost the Clean California message that Zero Litter is the Goal and Just One Piece Can Ruin the Picture. KCB also designed and implemented a research project to determine the effectiveness of litter infrastructure interventions, such as trash cans, recycling bins, ash receptacles, landscaping, and community gardens, in changing littering behavior. KCB distributed funding to the sites to purchase the intervention and conducted year-long monitoring, recording an overall reduction in litter across all sites. Project Highlights202 Pledged Communities and 83 Completed as of 4.1.26Distributed 750 microgrants to educators to educate over 50,000 youth in litter prevention and 12 infrastructure grants to communities. (April 2024 - April 2025)1000+ community-based organizations engaged.With funding received from KAB for reimbursement from Caltrans and Iheart.

SacState Partnership - EPA TRADE grant KCB is partnering with Sac State on our 2nd national grant. The non-profit conducts trash rapid assessments throughout the state and has been engaged in multiple projects, including a project to collect and analyze data for MS4 permittees in the American River watershed. KCB trains community-based groups involved in cleanup activities to conduct citizen science, including ranking the overall presence of litter, identifying the sources and types of litter, and documenting area conditions that may contribute to the accumulation or relocation of trash. By providing consistent training, appropriate technology, and quality assurance, the citizen science partners deliver frequent, ongoing data to reduce and manage waste entering waterways. KCB initially designed a litter assessment application in 2019, which became the base tool for the Trash Rapid Assessment Data Exchange (TRADE) dashboard created with the first EPA grant, which helps achieve trash-free waters by connecting Citizen Science to the monitoring and reporting needs of Municipal Storm Water (MS4) Permittees. The current project in the East Bay expands on the knowledge base KCB has developed through the TRADE and Department of Water Resources American River Basin grants, partnering with Earth Team and UC Berkeley on participatory science activities. Project Highlights:Conducted over 3,000 litter research projects using app designed by KCB team.Developed partnerships with watershed organizations, local and state government, youth, and community leaders to demonstrate the effectiveness of litter prevention education, cleanup, and intervention.