This week on “The Climate Divide,” how community organizations are becoming climate resilient
By hola | Published | No Comments
As climate change brings more extreme heat and intense storms, some cities around the United States are opening resilience hubs to help their residents cope when disasters strike.
(photo by Famartin, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Residents in need of a refrigerator or air conditioning during a power outage could go to a resilience hub, which is equipped with backup energy. These hubs can offer essentials such as bottled water, other basics that might be in short supply and information from government agencies for the community during and after emergencies. Year-round, these centers can also help residents meet many other needs such as job training. In its ideal form, a resilience hub is an already established and trusted community center with additional upgrades, such as solar panels or a kitchen.
Here in D.C., we are about to get our first resilience hub.
The season finale of “The Climate Divide” will report on recent progress with the District’s first resilience hub and feature an interview with Dr. Sacoby Wilson, the director of the Center for Community Engagement, Environmental Justice and Health at the University of Maryland School of Public Health.
For the past several years, a community-led initiative collaborating with the D.C. Department of Energy and Environment has been working on forming a resilience hub at the FH Faunteroy Community Enrichment Center in Deanwood.
Earlier this year, the Faunteroy Center hosted a ceremony to kick off the buildout stage of the project and celebrate recent funding milestones, such as the $540,000 award from the D.C. Department of Energy and Environment for the development of a resilient power system.
(photo by Isabella Béjar Tjalve)
The event featured remarks from many collaborators of the resilience hub pilot, including Faunteroy Center executive director Dr. Estelle Marie Montgomery and Dennis Chestnut, who grew up in the Hillbrook neighborhood and advised the Department of Energy and Environment on resilience hubs in 2018 as a part of the equity advisory group.
“What you’re seeing here today was a labor of love for over seven years,” says Chestnut, speaking in front of the crowd at the ceremony.
In the second part of the episode, Dr. Wilson speaks with host Marcelo Jauregui-Volpe about the need to ensure that vulnerable residents are the first to receive government dollars addressing environmental hazards.
The Center, along with a handful of other organizations in the Mid-Atlantic, received $12 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to help community groups successfully apply for competitive federal grants.
“This is community science,” says Dr. Wilson. “Folks in the community who know their community… getting skills and training on various environmental health topics, environmental justice topics, acting as the social-technical infrastructure, to help build up capacity, help raise awareness [and] help empower folks who live in those communities.”
About “The Climate Divide”
In this third season of “The Climate Divide,” we’ll cover solutions that foster sustainability and resilience in the District. Since environmental burdens aren’t felt the same, many people are working to ensure that the climate transition is equitable and that vulnerable residents have a healthy future and the resources to face natural disasters. Season three will examine how numerous grassroots initiatives, city government programs and federal grants will impact residents.
“The Climate Divide” is hosted, produced and edited by Marcelo Jauregui-Volpe. Claudia Peralta Torres provides additional editing and sound mixing support. Christine MacDonald is the series editor and executive director of Hola Cultura. Members of the Society and Culture team, part of Hola Cultura’s Storytelling Program for Experiential Learning, also contribute to this podcast. “The Climate Divide” is supported by Spotlight DC and the Pulitzer Center.
– Story by Marcelo Jauregui-Volpe
– Copy edited by Michelle Benitez
Recent Stories
