Climate change creates and exacerbates risks to personal and financial wellbeing, particularly for low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities and communities of color. This includes more frequent and severe shocks and stresses such as fires, floods, droughts, and extreme heat, which tend to have a disproportionate impact on the health and economic wellbeing of LMI communities and communities of color. There is an important opportunity for those in the community development field—including the financial, government, philanthropic, and nonprofit sectors—to understand how climate-related risks impact the economic health of communities and their ability to fully participate in the economy.
To help build that understanding, today we launched a survey of community development practitioners in the western states and territories that make up the Twelfth Federal Reserve District—Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Our survey asks about climate-related risks to underserved communities and adaptation and resilience activities that aim to address them. Gathering these perspectives will help inform our Community Development team’s research and outreach promoting community investments and economic participation. We will share the survey results on our website and with community development practitioners.
The survey is open through July 30, 2021. We encourage people and organizations who work on issues of poverty and economic inclusion across all sectors—whether they work directly on issues of climate-related risk or not—to take the survey.
If you have questions, please contact us.
You may also be interested in:
The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the management of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco or of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.