Delray Beach Pilot Project

The goal of the canvassing and meetings in Delray Beach was to provide education and training to reduce public health risks associated with increasingly severe storms and sea level rise associated with climate change in South Delray Beach.

Delray Beach Community Partners In Delray Beach, UUFBR partnered with Toussaint L’Ouverture High School for Arts and Social Justice. Toussaint L’Ouverture High School for Arts and Social Justice (TLHS) provided a letter of commitment that was attached to UUFBR’s January 2016 EPA grant application. TLHS provides motivated students of diverse ability levels a unique secondary school experience using arts as a vehicle for social justice and individual change. The St. Matthews Episcopal Church Elders supported the project by participating in the survey at one of their regularly scheduled meetings. The founder of Sow Share, a non-profit that establishes and runs community gardens, contributed the name “Rising Together: Temperature, Water, Health and Strength,” after a discussion of the goals of the project.

Resident Engagement EPA notification of funding was received in November 2015, and organizing meetings began in the community in January 2016. Dr. Diane Allerdyce, the Co-Founder of the Florida-based non-profit organization Center for Education, Training & Holistic Approaches, Inc. (CETHA), which operates TLHS, served as liaison to UUFBR’s Green Sanctuary Committee. She located personnel, and secured outreach and translation opportunities. A series of meetings at TLHS provided feedback for the simplification of outreach materials. Mr. Dieunet translated the Health and Climate Change handout that appears in Appendix B into Creole. Twelve of Dr. Ashley Ridley’s TLHS students were trained to survey their parents and neighbors about their perceptions and concerns related to sea level rise, and to educate them about strategies to protect themselves from the health impacts of climate change.

Professional Supervision Project Manager Phase I ,Dr. Ana Puzkin-Chevlin, a hazards mitigation specialist, conducted a training session at TLHS on the causes and public health effects of climate change. Dr. Sandra Norman, an environmental historian, conducted an oral history training session on the same day.  Both sessions were simultaneously translated by faculty member Mr. Demosthene Dieunet into Haitian Creole. Project Director Janice T. Booher, conducted training on the forms and tracking methods used in the project. Project Manager Phase II, Dr. Debra Weiss-Randall, a Certified Health Education Specialist, conducted additional field training on the protocol for data collection, and supervised all data collection; she worked together with Project Director Janice T. Booher on data analysis (see Rising Together South Delray Beach Presentation Sept. 22, 2016). Dr. Weiss-Randall also prepared a Delray Beach Community Meeting Flyer, a Delray Beach Press Release,  and a Program of the Delray Beach Final Community Assembly.