Environmental Justice

Strengthening Families in a Changing Climate: Family Support in a Changing World 

The realities of climate change are increasingly clear, exacerbating exiting inequities in our society and bringing more awareness to act.  Along with the ongoing harmful effects of pollution in our water, and soil climate change is bringing a new set of challenges to keeping children safe, increasing parents’ eco-anxiety to do so.  Strengthening Families and a group of thought leaders from the family support and early childhood fields are working to develop a curriculum, resources and tools for family resource and early childhood centers who already have trusted relationships with parents, particularly in communities that have been marginalized and who stand to suffer the most in an environmentally unjust world.  This will provide the opportunity for parents to understand how they can teach their children to be safe in a world that continues to experience climate change. 

This initiative will accomplish the following objectives: 

• Develop a curriculum, resources and tools to provide to family support and early childhood program to educate parents on how to educate their children on how to combat climate change 

• Provide Cafés that bring a family centered lens, encouraging conversations regarding eco-anxiety, which facilitates their ability to learn and integrate the education they are receiving 

• Engage family support and early childhood programs regarding their role in emergency situations during climate change