Featured: The Public Health Institute (PHI) is pleased to release a Request for Applications for Creating a Climate for Health Pilot Projects.
With funding from the Kresge Foundation, PHI will support pilot projects in three geographically diverse, urban communities in California to demonstrate approaches to incorporate climate change into current public health program practice and/or to enhance public health participation in on-going local climate change mitigation, adaptation, and resilience work. Each grantee will be awarded $20,000 for 12 months of work within the state of California. The purpose of the pilot projects is to develop models that can be held up, scaled up, and replicated that simultaneously address climate change and community health and health equity. Projects can be new or complement existing projects.
The deadline for applications is July 1, 2013. The Request for Applications is attached and can also be found at http://climatehealthconnect.
CFJC’s Climate Change Work
CFJC is expanding climate change activities, building on the work we completed in 2011 (see our Public Policy Action Plan below). Our focus is on the nexus of food and nutrition, public health, and the effects of climate change on our most vulnerable communities.
Climate change has major impacts on public health, direct and indirect, including: heat, extreme weather events, increases in air pollution and allergens, impacts on food availability and price, declines in water quantity and quality, and displacement. These impacts are taking place now, and will increase in frequency and severity as climate change proceeds. The heath effects of climate change disproportionately impact low-income communities and people of color, acting as a stress multiplier in communities with already high burdens of disease and food insecurity.
The Public Health Institute (PHI) is building its climate change capacity, and CFJC is taking a lead role as Executive Director Y. Armando Nieto steps into the role of co-Director of the Climate Change Program. CFJC will establish a robust national network of public health and community-based organizations working on climate change and health, partnering with California-based organizations working on climate change mitigation, adaptation, and resilience expertise; including organizations that work with local governments on climate action planning, who will serve as resource experts for the project staff and pilot projects.
By framing climate change as a health issue, CFJC and PHI can show how it is relevant and significant, as well as understandable to the public. Climate communications with a public health focus will also be more likely to reach people and motivate them to support and take climate change action for themselves and their communities.
Fact Sheet – Climate change and human health
Fact Sheet – How to reach out to your local officials
Fact Sheet – Sustainable food systems for cc and health
Factsheet – How to get involved in climate action planning