Look For a Project

The Climate-Ready Home workshop will educate Philadelphians about the relationship between outdoor and indoor environments; how homes are part of the larger climate; and what Philadelphians can do to reduce CO2 loads while also keeping families safe and healthy. Many cities are catching onto the idea of being “climate-ready” by making existing infrastructure more sustainable, such as energy efficient and disaster proof. The proposed project will develop a model of the climate-ready home for Philadelphia specifically. This means making the home more energy efficient, addressing basic home repairs and mold, and developing an emergency preparedness plan for households in the event of severe weather.

The Climate-Ready Home workshop will be held in three different Philadelphia neighborhoods that are vulnerable to climate change due to old housing stock: Kensington, West Philadelphia, and Mayfair. Workshops will run approximately 2-2.5 hours and will include presentations on climate change science and local impacts; local energy systems and energy efficiency in the home; healthy home strategies and emergency preparedness. Workshop participants will receive resource folders, which will include information from all presentations, survey question answers, a climate change glossary, at-home activities, and information on local resources. During the workshops, we will facilitate interactive group discussion about relevant, community topics; run a demonstration on energy efficiency in the home (using the new climate kit from The Franklin Institute); and facilitate a mold identification activity. The workshops will be supported by pre- and post-workshop surveys that assess participants’ existing knowledge of climate change, energy literacy, home environments, and local resources. Drexel students will conduct participant observation at the workshops to document the findings of large and small group discussion.

In addition to educating Philadelphians about climate change impacts and resources to prepare for a warmer, wetter city, our project team is committed to hearing from Philadelphians about their knowledge of climate change and their experience with existing local resources. By documenting and analyzing community-based knowledge, data from our project will help our partners develop programs and resources for Philadelphians, and also contribute to broader social science research on public health projects that address urban climate change.

Alison Kenner

06/30/2019

We are looking for students who can conduct participant observation during workshops; process and analyze survey data; code interviews; and draft reports.

Clean Air Council, Energy Coordinating Agency, The Franklin Institute, Liberty Lutheran, National Nurse-Led Care Consortium, Philadelphia Department of Public Health