This fall, the Seattle Office of Sustainability and Environment (OSE) and our community partners wrapped up months filled with resident engagement to inform Seattle’s Citywide Resilience Hub Strategic Plan — coming in 2025!
Low-income and communities of color often live on the frontlines of extreme weather, making them hit hardest by climate change. These communities are already regularly overburdened, but extreme weather-related events bring their own harmful and costly effects. Preparing these neighborhoods for climate change increases safety while lifting up local communities.
Community members have been using their own unique and innovative methods to withstand, adapt to, and recover from, and be resilient to climate change. OSE worked closely with its Community Engagement Cohort to learn what “climate resilience” means to frontline residents of all ages through discussions, art, and fun gatherings. Cohort members are individuals from these neighborhoods with expertise in arts, academia, organizing, climate, and policy.
More than 300 community members across Seattle neighborhoods participated in zine (short for magazine), mapping, and photo-voice workshops, as well as community conversations and focus groups.
OSE hosted a photo-voice workshop in collaboration with nonprofit Lake City Collective‘s summer youth program. Youth were given disposable cameras and asked to take pictures according to the prompt: “photograph part of your community that feels impacted by climate change.” Youth went out into their neighborhoods to take pictures. Then, they reflected on their photos, chose their top two, and wrote descriptions for them. Photos ranged from images of community gardens, local leaders, streams, and hot sauce packets. The art exhibit, “Resilient Nature,” is open for visitors until December 13 of this year at Lake City Collective.
OSE learned a lot from residents across the 16 community events. One of the key takeaways was that community members need local spaces with heating, cooling, and air filtration during extreme weather. They also expressed that it’s crucial to have the ability to contact their families and neighbors during emergencies through reliable internet and communication lines. Many also want opportunities to learn how they can prepare themselves, their homes, and their families for climate change.
OSE is compiling residents’ feedback and recommendations to create the community-centered Seattle Citywide Resilience Hub Strategic Plan. The Plan will guide the City in how it can support resilience hubs, and how the facilities can best serve communities during emergencies and extreme weather.
Resilience hubs are trusted, community-serving groups or facilities that support communities in everyday life and before, during, and after an emergency. A group of neighbors, a faith- or community-based organization, and a community center can all be resilience hubs.
The City of Seattle began resilience hub work in 2022 after the Green New Deal Oversight Board recommended developing a plan for resilience hubs. Local organizations such as Puget Sound Sage have advocated for resilience hubs as a climate adaptation strategy for several years.
OSE is extremely thankful to the Community Engagement Cohort and to all the community members that gave their time and feedback. The City anticipates releasing the Resilience Hub Strategic Plan in late spring 2025.
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