Two people relax at Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida, in 2023. The Florida Public Health Association is helping reduce extreme heat in the city.
Photo by Jeffrey Greenberg, courtesy Universal Images Group/Getty Images
Six public health associations across the U.S. have been working to build climate resilience and improve public health in their states, thanks to a partnership with APHA and the Smart Surfaces Coalition.
The APHA Affiliates —located in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Oregon and South Carolina — are finding ways to prepare residents in their states for the growing impacts of climate change.
The Affiliates received grant funding to develop work plans, build strategic partnerships and hold focus groups to assess the impact of extreme heat in six cities: Charlotte, North Carolina; Portland, Oregon; New Orleans; Atlanta; Columbia, South Carolina; and Jacksonville, Florida. The end goal was to drive adoption of smart surfaces — such as trees, cool roofs and porous pavements — which can help cool urban areas.
For the Georgia Public Health Association, becoming part of the APHA project marked the first step in addressing extreme heat as a pressing public health issue.
“It was new territory for us,” Jimmie Smith Jr., MD, MPH, GPHA president told The Nation's Health.
As a large agricultural state, extreme heat in Georgia threatens not only the crops the land produces, but also the health of farmworkers. At the local level, public health workers often lack protocols to address climate and health, Smith said.
The Georgia association used a series of focus groups to assess the impact of extreme heat on public health in Atlanta. Participants said they were forced to sit outside due to unbearable indoor temperatures in buildings without air conditioning, worsening asthma and other chronic conditions.
“They may speak about it in very different terms than someone with a medical or public health background,” Smith said. “Whereas we study it, they feel it.”
Four key recommendations came out of the focus groups in Atlanta: increasing visibility of energy assistance programs, promoting renewable energy initiatives, strengthening community education and outreach, and developing policy interventions.
In June, the city gained a major smart surfaces win with the adoption of a “cool roof” ordinance that requires all new and replacement roofs to be built with light-colored, reflective materials. The victory was made possible thanks in part to support from the Georgia association.
Children play in a Centennial Park fountain in Atlanta in 2014. The Georgia Public Health Association conducted focus groups to learn ways to tackle extreme heat in Atlanta.
Photo by Blulz60, courtesy iStockphoto
“We can certainly take those lessons learned from Atlanta and from the other states that have been part of this coalition, and then move that work into different parts of the state,” Smith said.
Another coalition member, the South Carolina Public Health Association, has been engaging with residents from Columbia on how extreme heat is impacting their health.
The city is no stranger to the urban heat island effect, which causes downtown temperatures to rise 18.5 degrees above outlying areas. In focus groups hosted by the association, Columbia residents reported relying heavily on public spaces that have air conditioning, such as movie theaters and libraries. They also said extreme heat hampered their physical ability to pick up medications at a pharmacy and then store them safely in a cool place.
As part of its action plan, the South Carolina association held outreach events in Columbia, hosted webinars, gave presentations and connected with local news media.
When many environmentally focused nonprofit organizations in Columbia lost federal funding this year, SCPHA stepped in, providing mini-grants to local organizations and neighborhoods to implement nature-based solutions to heat, such as rain gardens and urban meadows.
“It just made perfect sense to support our community partners with some of the initiatives that they have going on,” Beata Dewitt, MPH, project coordinator for the SCPHA team, told The Nation's Health.
Across state lines, the North Carolina Public Health Association has been working with a diverse range of Charlotte residents affected by extreme heat — including community members, faith leaders and health care professionals such as doulas, nurse practitioners and emergency responders.
Many people voiced concerns about rapidly intensifying extreme heat, Bethany Milford, MPH, strategic initiatives program manager for the North Carolina Public Health Collaboration, which represents the NCPHA, told The Nation's Health.
“It's definitely a shift in how people are socializing and building community because they're having to stay home,” Milford said.
The South Carolina Public Health Association held outreach events in Columbia, including a planting event emphasizing how trees and gardens can reduce the city's urban heat effect.
Photo courtesy South Carolina Public Health Association
The South Carolina team held its last focus groups in August and plans to use the findings to shape awareness efforts, health education and outreach, and advocacy in Charlotte.
Besides the connections with residents, many of the Affiliates involved in the smart surfaces projects said there was another benefit to the work: partnership.
For Keisha Long, project manager for the SCPHA Smart Surfaces Team, building a diverse and extensive network of partnerships and friendships in South Carolina was essential.
“‘Friend raising’ is just as powerful and helpful if you have a project or initiative you want to accomplish,” Long told The Nation's Health.
Milford, who collaborated closely on its focus groups with CleanAIRE NC — a nonprofit organization that focuses on climate change, air quality and environmental justice in the state — echoed the value of building strong relationships across networks.
“Having these relationships built has just been incredible,” she said. “And that is one thing I will definitely take away.”
For more information on APHA's smart surfaces work, visit www.apha.org/smart-surfaces.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
