Community Capacity Assessment for Climate Health

Assessment of Local Public Health Department Capacity to Adapt to Climate Change and Build Community Partnerships to Protect Public Health: View the Report

This report, released in September 2020, details the assessment of 21 urban jurisdictions’ capacity to prepare for and address the potential health effects of climate change, including increased heat-related illness, waterborne disease, shifts in vector-borne disease and the physical and mental effects of extreme weather events. Additionally, the report features best practices for implementing climate and health programs at the local level, existing barriers, the role of partnerships between local health departments and community-based organizations and recommendations for future programming.

View the Executive Summary

The Kresge Foundation, the CDC Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) presented a webinar in September 2020 discussing the results of the report.

About the Program: The CDC Foundation’s Community Capacity Assessment for Climate Health project assessed communities’ capacity to prepare for and address the potential health effects of climate change, including heat-related illness, waterborne disease, shifts in vector-borne disease and the physical and mental effects of extreme weather events. The two main goals of the project were to:

1. Assess climate and health capacity and needs to address health inequities in a subset of urban communities and local health departments, and
    
2. Assess the best ways to support and build the capacity of these communities working to prepare and implement strategies to reduce the adverse health effects related to environmental changes within their communities, with a focus on communities and people who are disproportionately at risk

A project team comprised of subject matter experts from The Kresge Foundation, the CDC Foundation and CDC conducted these assessments. Using a stakeholder-driven approach, the project team used a mix of quantitative methods and qualitative data in its landscape analysis: an online survey, key informant interviews and a review of climate and health indicator data from public sources. Data from these sources were triangulated to paint a comprehensive picture of current and future climate vulnerability in this subset of 21 urban jurisdictions, existing enablers of, and barriers to, adapting to climate change.

This analysis also assessed existence and/or strength of partnerships between local health departments and community-based organizations, as well as how local health departments can fill programming gaps to address the needs of communities disproportionately at risk for the health effects of climate change. Finally, the team crafted recommendations for how philanthropy and public-private partnerships can support future efforts to build local climate and health capacity.