CLIMATE SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS

What does housing discrimination have to do with climate change? The climate crisis threatens to make our communities hotter and more prone to flooding than they have ever been before, but not all neighborhoods within a city will suffer the social, health, and financial consequences equally. Many neighborhoods subject to government-sanctioned racist housing practices in the 1930s and 1940s are most at risk today for experiencing extreme heat and flooding. The Climate Safe Neighborhoods (CSN) partnership, a collaboration between Groundwork USA and nine Groundwork trusts, examines neighborhood disparities in vulnerability to climate change in the context of segregationist housing polices of the past century. The CSN approach centers on creating maps that explore the legacy of these polices and providing them to local advocates who organize for equitable investment in their neighborhoods. This model, which has been successfully implemented in cities across the country, was piloted in Richmond as a collaboration between Groundwork RVA and the Science Museum of Virginia! Check out the story map below to learn more about Groundwork RVA’s climate resiliency efforts.

CSN Story Map

GET INVOLVED

For more information about Groundwork RVA’s Climate Safe Neighborhoods efforts please contact info@groundworkrva.org.