Page 8 - Healthcare News August 2021

The Sky’s the Limit
Initiative Aims to Tackle Climate Change, Health as Equity Issues
DBy JOSEPH BEDNAR
ozens of stakeholders in what’s known as
the Live Well Springfield Climate Justice
Initiative had been meeting regularly
to discuss strategies for combating climate change from a social-justice perspective when the pandemic suddenly disrupted those efforts, as it disrupted everything else.
“We had great meetings, then all of a sudden
we couldn’t meet in person,” said Sarita Hudson, director of Programs and Development at the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts (PHIWM), a key player in Live Well Springfield initiatives. And shutting down those meetings was the least of participants’ concerns, at a time when some of them were suddenly stressed about losing their jobs and being able to pay for food and rent, or wondering how they were going to work while keeping their kids focused on remote schoolwork at home. “There were so many other urgent issues.”
But Samantha Bilal, program manager at PHIWM, was reminded by one of those residents that the discussions had to continue.
“She said, ‘this work is still important. Climate change is still important to me’ — even though she’s an older adult who was figuring out what life would look like and how to stay safe,” Bilal told HCN.
“It’s kind of a balancing act — how can we think about these climate-change issues, which are global and at times overwhelming, while you’re still trying to address your emergency needs in the midst of this pandemic?” she went on. “I appreciated that all of our residents and stakeholders didn’t stop being involved, even though they had a clear, life-changing issue that could have taken them out of participa- tion.”
Momentum has returned, however, with a recent $600,000 grant to PHIWM from the Kresge Founda-
Sarita Hudson says local offi- cials began paying more attention to climate change, and the people it affects, after the freak weather of 2011.
you turn on the lightbulb, you’re making a conscious decision that your energy is being sourced with renewable or clean energy.”
tion, to advance policy solutions aimed at combating climate change and equitably reducing health risks in low-income communities.
The Public Health Institute of Western Massa-
chusetts is one of 14 community-based nonprofits
nationwide receiving grant funding as part of the
Kresge Foundation’s Climate Change, Health and
Equity initiative. With this fun“ding, PHIWM will Bilal said. “We’re holding builders and developers work with Live Well
SAMANTHABILAL
As for the race and health-equity impact assess- ment, when the city is involved with building new in- frastructure or development, “how do we assess the equity impacts and health impacts of these ideas?”
Springfield coalition
members including It’s kind of a balancing act — how
the Resident Advisory Board, Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, Way Finders, Arise for Social Justice, Neighbor to Neighbor, the city of Springfield, and partners from other sectors to develop multi-year
work plans that address community-defined
health and climate priorities.
can we think about these climate- change issues, which are global and at times overwhelming, while you’re still trying to address your emergency needs in the midst of this pandemic?”
“Climate change, health, and equity, all these policies are interconnected in how they impact com- munities, and especially communities of color,” Bilal said. “Exorbitant changes in the climate and weather patterns are going to have a significant impact on lower-income families, transient families, and com- munities of color that are still struggling in other ways to meet their basic health-equity needs going forward.”
Jessica Collins, executive director of PHIWM, noted that “Springfield has tremendous assets to overcome challenges created by societal issues. With this funding, residents in partnership with Live Well Springfield can advocate for policy changes as they
have done before on different issues like community gardening and Complete Streets. Springfield is a model for this type of action.”
As part of the three-year, grant- funded initiative, the Live Well Springfield Climate Justice Initia- tive will advocate for the city of Springfield to adopt the Commu- nity Choice Energy program and a race and health-equity impact assessment requirement for city development, aiming to address the climate crisis, systemic racism, and their resulting impact on health for communities of color, particularly black and Latinx.
Community Choice Energy addresses how a city sources the energy that fuels homes and municipal buildings. “The goal is to work with municipal govern- ment,” Bilal said. “We’re the City of Homes, so why not be the city of energy-efficient homes? So, when
accountable for making sure that we are representing the voices that would say, ‘hey, you’re pushing my community out by building this here,’ or ‘we would love to have this building here, but can you build
a community center as part of this infrastructure development?’
“That makes it possible for us to build better com- munities and be more thoughtful in our building,” she added, “so we’re not disproportionately pushing aside certain groups of people by building something in a place that would disenfranchise someone.”
Stormy Weather
In 2019, the coalition was awarded a planning grant by Kresge to identify one or two policy ideas that could significantly impact greenhouse gas emissions, health, equity, and racism. The coalition partners worked closely with about 160 stakeholders, resident advocates, and residents, representing every neighborhood in the city, to narrow down 156 pos- sible policies to two. The partners created a variety of engagement projects like community conversations, surveys, and workshops to gain community input and feedback.
Hudson’s involvement in climate-justice initia- tives goes back to her work with the Pioneer Valley Asthma Coalition at PHIWM, which asked the city in 2013 to create a climate-resilience strategy in the wake of the multiple freak weather events that struck the region in 2011, including a tornado, floods, and the pre-Halloween snowstorm.
Finalized in 2017, that project was titled Strong, Healthy & Just: Springfield Climate Action & Resilience Plan, and plenty of city residents were engaged after experiencing the effects of that string of events, Hudson said. “It was all part of extreme weather that is related to climate change. And when
Please see Climate, page 59
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