ACE-CH teams help communities prepare for extreme heat

Extreme heat is the most dangerous type of weather in the United States, causing more deaths than hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes combined, according to the research team of the Prioritizing Local Action for Climate Equity (PLACE) Study. PLACE is a community-academic partnership among the University of Southern California (USC), Occidental College, Physicians for Social Responsibility Los Angeles (PSR-LA), and the Leap-LA Coalition. Many communities, especially those near factories, highways, or oil and gas facilities, including some in the Los Angeles area, face more pollution and have fewer resources to plan for extreme heat events.

The PLACE Study team and others from CEAL’s Alliance for Community Engagement – Climate and Health (ACE-CH) are actively engaged in helping local community policymakers, leaders, and residents plan for extreme heat and identify preparedness gaps to make sure that the people most vulnerable to the impacts of extreme heat are supported in the face of future extreme weather events.

USC PLACE Study directly empowers community residents

PLACE Study team members conduct extreme heat workshops to build residents’ abilities to address the health risks of extreme heat. The popular education workshops bring together collective experiences and expertise to talk about how best to share existing resources and find better ways to improve household, neighborhood, school, and workplace-level responses to the threat of extreme heat.

The team co-created these workshops with community-based organizations to make sure residents understand the actions they can take to help keep them safe during very hot weather. These co-learning events build knowledge and spark community engagement in local decision-making about how agencies and organizations respond to and support people in climate emergencies.

Residents from the San Fernando Valley, Wilmington, and South Los Angeles, as well as members of the Indigenous communities across Los Angeles County, have attended workshops. 

Interest and engagement in these workshops continue to grow. The series has even earned recognition from the City of Los Angeles Climate Emergency Mobilization Office. After participating in the city’s Heat Relief 4 LA Community Campaign Launch at the invitation of the city Chief Heat Officer, the team has received even more requests for workshops. These future presentations will expand the PLACE Study team’s reach to more communities needing this information.

Participants in PLACE Study workshops often cite one key segment — a dramatization or role-play scenario — as their favorite activity. Here’s what one person had to say about it: 

“La dramatización y la forma en como guiaron la información de una manera sencilla y entendible utilizando educacion popular.” [“The dramatization and the way in which they guided the information in a clear and understandable way using popular education.”]

CHARM Lake County forms connections to improve coordinated heat response

The Climate Health Adaptation and Resilience Mobilization (CHARM) Lake County team in California, led by the Tracking California program of the Public Health Institute and the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians and in collaboration with California Tribal Emergency Response and Relief Agency (CAL TERRA), held a tabletop extreme heat/heat emergency simulation just as temperatures started to rise for the summer this year. The event gathered more than 25 agencies and organizations that have a role in the community’s response to extreme heat events.

Participants included the typical emergency response organizations, such as utilities, county emergency responders, and county health and social services teams. This event also engaged representatives from the community-based groups supporting people most vulnerable in extreme heat — seniors, people with disabilities, and those from local Tribes and immigrant families.

Using a series of theoretical scenarios, the event was designed to allow these diverse organizations to share their roles and responsibilities in a crisis and then work together to address challenges that could arise in such situations and identify coverage gaps.

Participants noted that developing a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities of those involved in the exercise was critical. They also expressed excitement about the opportunities and connections created by the event that will empower future collaboration.

Interestingly, the CHARM Lake County team tried to create scenarios that seemed to be worst-case scenarios unlikely to happen. For example, the simulation included extreme heat, a power failure, a small fire, and a harmful algae bloom, all occurring at the same time. However, the team was surprised to hear from attendees that something similar had happened in the past. That detail further reinforced the relevance of the exercise, as it allowed them to revisit past responses and better plan cross-sector communications and teamwork moving forward.

A follow-up survey 4 months after the event showed that participants continued to use what they learned in the weeks and months after the simulation. Overall, as one person summed up, “This exercise was great…I think we are all more prepared for this kind of disaster/event.”

These extreme heat-related efforts are important real-world examples of how community-engaged research through CEAL’s ACE-CH can work with the communities themselves to help mitigate inequities related to climate change. Future efforts by these teams will continue to empower people and make connections between the organizations that support them to ensure that, as extreme heat events increase, vulnerable communities have the tools they need to meet these challenges. 

Everyone responding to the survey said they learned something new at the CHARM Lake County Extreme Heat Tabletop Exercise. Here’s what some of them had to say:

“We need more planning/coordination written down.”

“Planning for natural disasters prior to them happening is key for a successful outcome.”

“Thank you for getting us all together…to build better collaboration among organizations.”