Inclusive Community Engagement: Some Best Practices from Climate Adaptation in NYS

People living in disadvantaged communities or who are marginalized are at greater risk to harm from climate change and also may have fewer resources to aid in recovery. Climate resilience and mitigation efforts can exacerbate existing inequities, but also offer an opportunity to improve these issues.

DEC’s Climate Smart Communities Program recently published new guidance for municipalities to improve engagement and consider equity in local decision-making. While written in the context of climate adaptation projects, the approaches are broadly applicable to local land-use planning.

This webinar will introduce the Inclusive Community Engagement Primer (PDF) and will include:

• an overview of the Primer and its content;
• discussion of the process, options, and some best practices for moving toward inclusive engagement at a community level;
• resources to support a more inclusive engagement process; and
• examples of how to implement these practices while developing climate resilience and mitigation plans.

The webinar will also profile examples of the inclusive community engagement strategies in practice. The Nature Conservancy’s New York Climate Adaptation Team is working to change how people think about the role of nature, striving for a future that makes way for water, rather than trying to control it. To help communities create a vision for vacant lands where managed retreat has occurred, they initiated a process that focuses on building partnership in community and providing a forum for a wide variety of voices in the community to generate a vision of how the land could be repurposed. This session will focus on how they transformed their typical work style and what has come of the projects to date.

Speakers:

• Kristen Hychka, Research and Outreach Specialist, NYS Water Resources Institute, CSC Equity Working Group
• Shameika Hanson, Climate Adaptation Specialist, The Nature Conservancy in New York

Webinar attendees will receive an email confirming attendance, which may be submitted locally for one hour of municipal planning or zoning board training credit.