New resource responds directly to residents’ requests: more chances to gather and prepare for climate impacts together
PHILADELPHIA – Today, the Philadelphia Office of Sustainability (OOS) announced the launch of the Community Climate Resilience Toolkit, an online resource that helps Philadelphia neighborhoods prepare for and recover from extreme weather made worse by climate change. The toolkit is available at tinyurl.com/phlclimatetoolkit.
Philadelphia is already experiencing climate challenges, including extreme heat and flooding, to poor air quality and drought. The new toolkit gives residents and community leaders a flexible, no-experience-required framework to gather, learn, share, and plan for climate change. It provides free slides, guides, and activities to assist with speaking with neighbors, friends, and coworkers about climate change.
The toolkit was designed with feedback from more than 400 residents, in partnership with Hinge Collective, Creative Praxis, and community leaders from Climate Resilience Partner organizations representing each city planning district. The initiative grew out of resident feedback gathered for the upcoming update to Philadelphia’s Climate Resilience Plan, which will use recent climate data and community input to guide policies and solutions that help protect residents from the impacts of climate change.
“This toolkit reflects what Philadelphians told us directly, that a key piece of being prepared starts with relationships and knowledge-sharing to build community resilience,” said Abby Sullivan, Chief Resilience Officer, Philadelphia Office of Sustainability. “Our job was to listen and build something that responds to that.”
Over the past year, Climate Resilience Partners led 30 community workshops for residents to share how extreme weather is affecting daily life and identify solutions to climate challenges in their community. This input will be used to update the Climate Resilience Plan. Across neighborhoods, residents wanted structured ways to connect with neighbors before an emergency hits. The new toolkit, using a “train-the-trainer” model, teaches residents how to host a neighborhood gathering and offers meeting materials, facilitation tips, and City resources to support their climate conversations and planning efforts.
What’s in the toolkit
The Community Climate Resilience Toolkit includes:
- Resources on climate hazards: Local information, links to emergency resources, and action ideas organized around Philadelphia’s climate challenges. This includes extreme heat, flooding, storms, air quality, drought, and cold and winter weather.
- Climate education: Learn about different climate hazards, what the City is doing to address them, and how residents can take action.
- A step-by-step guide to host a gathering: A complete facilitation kit, including a step-by-step gathering guide, a visual walkthrough deck, a participant workbook, and a deeper guide for navigating hard climate conversations.
- Youth voices: Work from Philadelphia’s youth art and poetry competition, “Change Depends on Youth,” which invited students ages 14 to 21 to share their vision for a more resilient city.
- A growing network: Connections to the community organizations that helped build the toolkit, and pathways to subject-matter experts across City departments for gatherings that need extra support.
“We believe planning only works when it starts with the people who live the outcomes. This toolkit isn’t a document handed down, it’s a set of tools shaped by residents, for the neighborhoods that will use it,” said Alexa Bosse, Founder & Principal, Hinge Collective. “That’s the kind of design we’ve always believed in: co-created, community-led, and built to last beyond any single plan.”
Local community organizations involved with the Climate Resilience Partners emphasized the importance of the toolkit in preparation for climate change:
“Residents along the river and Northeast told us they wanted more than information, they wanted a reason to come together,” said Stephanie Phillips, Riverfront North Partnerships. “This toolkit gives our community that starting point.”
“This toolkit works because it’s easy to access and understand, and now it’s also something community leaders like us can use to hold these conversations, so people have the knowledge to make decisions for their neighborhood together,” said Desiree Riley, The MasterMind Cooperative.
“I’ve spent my whole life believing that a neighborhood without a plan will be planned for. Even planning for the weather is important in neighborhoods that have issues with flooding and heat resilience,” said Pastor Tyrone Williams, Strawberry Mansion CDC. “This toolkit puts the power to find help in the hands of residents who previously didn’t know where to look; now, there is a toolkit that can assist them during extreme weather events.”
“This toolkit shows us what it looks like when Philadelphians step up and organize. The climate crisis is scary, but our neighbors aren’t sitting idly by, “ said Sultan Smalley, Sunrise Movement. “I’ve seen neighbors who don’t know each other’s name come together and start planning. Now we’re inviting everyone else to join them, because we get the city we fight for.”
Philadelphia Climate Resilience Plan update
OOS is updating Philadelphia’s Climate Resilience Plan in partnership with Hinge Collective and ICF, using feedback from City agencies, sector leaders, and residents citywide. The plan will include goals, actions, and policy pathways to make the city more resilient to climate change. The plan will be released in 2027.
The Climate Resilience Plan update and engagement process is supported by the William Penn Foundation.
About the City’s Office of Sustainability
The Office of Sustainability (OOS) works with partners around the city to improve quality of life in all Philadelphia neighborhoods. OOS works to advance environmental justice, progress Philadelphia’s climate and energy goals, and prepare the city for a hotter and wetter future. For more information, please visit phila.gov/sustainability.
About Hinge Collective
Hinge Collective is a Philadelphia-based design practice focused on community engagement, socially-conscious, participatory design and environmental planning. Hinge is the lead consultant to OOS on the Citywide Climate Resilience Plan.
About Creative Praxis
Creative Praxis is an arts-based, healing-centered organization offering interactive training, workshops, and resources that support personal growth, community change, and systemic transformation. Creative Praxis led the Climate Resilience Partners Ambassador training and the youth art and poetry competition.
About the Community Resilience Partner Organizations and Ambassadors
The Climate Resilience Partners are 18 community-based organizations located in each planning district of Philadelphia. Led by a chosen Ambassador, each Partner organization is supporting the City’s effort to update the Climate Resilience Plan by collecting feedback from residents and hosting engagement events in their district. Using feedback from their communities, the Partners highlight the climate resilience solutions that matter most to residents.
About William Penn Foundation
The William Penn Foundation, founded in 1945 by Otto and Phoebe Haas, is committed to expanding access to resources and opportunities that promote a more vital and just city and region for all. We do this through funding programs in the Philadelphia region in arts and culture, children and families, democracy and civic initiatives, environment and public space, and workforce training and services. Learn more at www.williampennfoundation.org.