By Jamie Durana
In communities throughout the United States, the health impacts of climate change are far from a future threat—they’re a present reality. The climate crisis affects human health in acute ways, like rendering hospitals unable to care for patients due to power outages from storms, and in less obvious ways, like air pollution from uncontrolled wildfires worsening respiratory illnesses.
In these same communities, local leaders and organizations are designing innovative solutions to protect public health. The National Academy of Medicine’s Climate Communities Network (CCN) is building on this foundation of local-level expertise. By connecting CCN Members from community-based organizations with Strategic Partners from government, philanthropy, academia, nonprofits, and industry, CCN is fostering a new model of collaboration—one where communities lead the way in addressing local climate-related health inequities and work alongside strategic partners to expand their impact.
Beyond Traditional Partnerships
Programs aimed at advancing health and combatting climate change at the local level too often follow a top-down approach where institutions develop solutions and seek community input only after key decisions have been made. Short-term or project-specific partnerships may come to an end when funding cycles conclude and can also frame communities as recipients of services instead of equal partners in creating long-term and holistic solutions.
The CCN model takes a different approach: one that positions communities as drivers of solutions and ensures their involvement from the earliest planning stages. Working alongside the CCN Members are 11 Strategic Partners: the American Geophysical Union, the American Public Health Association, the Aspen Institute, the Association of American Medical Colleges Center for Health Justice, AstraZeneca, Deloitte, the Environmental Defense Fund, the National Academies Gulf Research Program, the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and its Center for Indigenous Health. The strategic partners represent a range of sectors, which is a critical part of the CCN model. Strategic Partners and Members each bring something different to the table and are equipped to tackle issues from multiple angles—a significant strength of the network model.
CCN Strategic Partners include representatives from government, philanthropy, academia, and industry.
But what drives organizations like these strategic partners to participate in this community-centered model? For many, the opportunity to learn directly from communities has proven invaluable.
Building Relationships That Last
For large institutions seeking to make a difference through climate and health initiatives, community partnerships can help ensure those efforts have a meaningful impact. Building relationships with people on the frontline of the climate crisis is essential for understanding community priorities.
According to Zorie Valchev, director of U.S. sustainability and government affairs at AstraZeneca, this CCN model reveals insights that might not otherwise be accessible to the company. “Engaging in community-based climate and health initiatives gives us the opportunity to learn about unmet needs, ongoing efforts, and challenges,” she says, which helps AstraZeneca be more impactful as a partner. This insight gets to the heart of why strategic partners choose to participate in the CCN.
The learning process created through the CCN’s collaboration model represents a significant shift from some conventional approaches. Rather than assuming what communities need, Strategic Partners can learn directly from the Members’ community expertise—creating the foundation for more effectively and equitably co-developing solutions that work.
Co-Creation in Action
What does meaningful partnership between CCN Members and Strategic Partners look like in practice? One example comes from Phylicia McCalla, director of operations, and Anthony Nicome, environmental justice research fellow, of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Center for Health Justice. The Center is developing an environmental justice resource for academic medicine institutions. Thanks to the CCN, McCalla and Nicome say they had the opportunity to engage with CCN Member Laprisha Berry Daniels, executive director of Planet Detroit, at the Center’s inaugural convening on environmental justice in 2023. The convening brought together representatives from academic medicine, environmental justice organizations, and other key groups and will inform the co-development of an environmental justice playbook for academic medical institutions, incorporating insights from the participants, including Berry Daniels’ community expertise.
McCalla and Nicome explained that Berry Daniels “offered invaluable insights” and that her “contributions will significantly inform the development” of the playbook, which will be released next summer. Berry Daniels’ perspectives helped them “better understand community needs and highlighted actionable strategies that academic medical centers can adopt to cultivate trustworthy and sustainable relationships with communities” to help advance environmental justice.
This collaboration exemplifies the power of co-creation and is a tangible example of how CCN’s partnership model can transform how larger institutions approach their work.
Building Momentum
The CCN Strategic Partners are excited for what the network will achieve in its next phases. Throughout 2024, Members have been developing action plans to address a priority climate-related health inequity within their respective communities. In parallel, strategic partners have identified ways they can support the implementation of those plans starting in 2025. Valchev is looking forward to seeing the action plans come to fruition: “We’ll be able to see what is working and where we can pivot to strengthen positive outcomes and better inform on policy solutions.” Nicome and McCalla are thinking about how they can employ what they’re learning through the CCN to “strengthen relationships with frontline communities, enabling us to foster partnerships and link these communities with [AAMC] member organizations and their resources as well as the resources of the Center.”
As the CCN collaboration model demonstrates value in addressing climate-related health inequities, it is also creating a roadmap others can follow.
