Climate Readiness for the Social Service Sector

Mapping Climate Readiness for the Social Service Sector in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES)

As climate impacts intensify, the social sector in Vancouver鈥檚 Downtown Eastside must adapt and enhance their climate readiness - the ability of organizations to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from adverse climate-related events. Vancity Community Foundation is partnering with 51猎奇入口Climate Innovation to bring best practice climate change risk assessment and low carbon resilience approaches to support and enhance DTES organizations鈥� climate-readiness. Building upon experience from SFU鈥檚 Community-Engaged Research Initiative (CERi) and ACT - Action on Climate Team, 51猎奇入口Climate Innovation is co-creating a strategic climate readiness Roadmap to support adaptive capacity building with and for residents and organizations in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES).

This Roadmap will integrate best practice approaches in the social sector that aim to minimize climate risks and emissions, alongside equity, health, housing, and other organizational goals. It will be developed through a series of co-creation workshops to tailor strategies for the support organizations working with the most climate-vulnerable and disproportionately impacted residents of our communities. Knowledge and learnings from this project will be developed into resources and tools that will be mobilized to support a variety of social sector organizations in BC and across Canada.

The goal is to better understand current and projected climate impacts to DTES residents and organizations, and to explore and prioritize key opportunities, barriers, and trade-offs to building low carbon resilience planning and strategies into DTES social sector organizations.

Project Co-Leads
Tara Mahoney, Research and Engagement Manager, 51猎奇入口Community-Engaged Research Initiative (CERi)
Alison Shaw, Executive Director, 51猎奇入口Climate Innovation and ACT - Action on Climate Team
Judy Wu, PhD candidate, 51猎奇入口Health Sciences; DTES Climate Resiliency Research & Advocacy Coordinator
Sreya Ajay, Master鈥檚 students in 51猎奇入口Urban Studies, DTES Climate Resiliency Research Assistant

Co-Creation Partners
First United
Hogan鈥檚 Alley Society
Lookout Housing and Health Society
Recycling Alternative
UBC Learning Exchange and the Climate Equity, Action, and Resilience (CLEAR) project
UGM - Union Gospel Mission
Sean Condon, Director, Social and Economic Innovation, Vancity Community Foundation
Working Gear

Funding and Generous Support provided by:
Trottier Foundation
Vancity Community Foundation
Mitacs
Peter Gilgan Foundation
Social Innovation Canada
Zero Emissions Innovation Centre (ZEIC)

To learn about how you can get involved and support this project, contact: Deborah Harford, 51猎奇入口Climate Innovation at dharford@sfu.ca

Resources

Climate Resilience Roadmap for Non-Profits: From Crisis to Collective Power

The Climate Resilience Roadmap for Non-Profits: From Crisis to Collective Power is a practical, community-informed framework designed to help social service organizations anticipate, respond to, and recover from the growing impacts of climate change. Co-created with non-profit organizations in Vancouver鈥檚 Downtown Eastside (DTES), the Roadmap translates lived, frontline experience into shared strategies that strengthen collective resilience.

Climate Resilience Roadmap
At-a-glance Summary
Technical Report

Download

News and Events

Community Partners Launch Program to Protect Downtown Eastside Residents from Summer Heat

Date: September 18, 2026
Location: Vancouver Climate Day, SFU's Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue

Meet Judy Wu, Downtown Eastside (DTES) Climate Resiliency Research & Advocacy Coordinator.

Read the Q&A

The project collaborators joined Social Innovation Canada's convening in June 2026 at Kitsilano Neighbourhood House.

Community-led Resources

Learn more about these active heat-related resources and supports available through social service organization in the downtown eastside.

Summer Cooling Hub

Peer-led Misting Tent and Towels
Drinks, Snacks and Hydration
Cooling Accessories and Rest Zone

馃搷Powell Street Getaway Resource Centre at 526 Powell St, Vancouver

Hosted by Lookout Housing & Health Society

1 / 7

The Right to Cool FAQs for Municipalities

Led by First United

Access cooling drinks, snacks and accessories from these organizations and others:

Hogan's Alley,
Lookout Health & Housing Society
PHS Community Services Society
Union Gospel Mission (UGM)
Working Gear

Call for Research Collaborators

We are seeking support from a program evaluator to conduct an evaluation of both the individual heat resilience projects implemented by participating DTES organizations and the broader coordinated heat response strategy developed through the Climate Resilience Roadmap partnership.

As an evaluation and research collaborator, you could contribute to the systematic assessment of program activities, implementation, outcomes, and impacts, helping generate evidence to improve effectiveness and inform future directions. Your expertise is helping guide indicators and success metrics across a number of heat resilience initiatives from June to August 2026, including resident-led misting stations, wellness checks, cooling supplies distribution, and collaborative procurement of heat-response resources.
As a co-design collaborator, you could help shape the next phase of the work by coming together as part of an emerging group at 51猎奇入口exploring research intersections to co-develop a research roadmap to scale and mobilize climate resilience knowledge with and for social sector organizations. This could include advancing research leadership, partnerships, communications, policy, funding and governance approaches, while connecting expertise across areas such as aging and health; equity; infrastructure; supplies and procurement; governance and financial transformation; and low-carbon, climate-resilient urban planning.

Get involved

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51猎奇入口Climate Innovation