Building Capacity Around Climate Change Preparedness in African Nova Scotian Communities

Dear Community, Partners, and Colleagues,

We are pleased to share the report for our project Building Capacity Around Climate Change Preparedness in African Nova Scotian Communities. The report details the findings from workshops we held in 12 African Nova Scotian communities in 2023.

The project detailed in this report addresses the underrepresentation of African Nova Scotians in conversations and actions on climate change, despite their disproportionate vulnerability to its impacts. The overarching goal of this project is to collaborate with grant partners the African Nova Scotian Western Service Providers Network, Inspiring Communities, and CLIMAtlantic to build capacity in 12 African Nova Scotian communities around climate change preparedness. This involves providing them with information and practical supports to better identify and propose strategies to support their communities in addressing the impacts of climate change.

The overarching goal of this two-year project is to build capacity in 12 African Nova Scotian communities around climate change preparedness by engaging them in conversations about climate change preparedness at workshops across the province. Climate change preparedness involves increasing community members’ understandings of the factors that lead to climate impacts and devastation and providing them with guidance on how to prepare for and address these impacts and the devastation that often occurs.

Workshops were held in the following 12 African Nova Scotian communities in 2023:

  • Beechville
  • Bridgewater
  • Cherry Brook
  • Digby
  • East Preston
  • Greenville
  • Liverpool
  • North Preston
  • Shelburne
  • Weymouth Falls
  • Whitney Pier
  • Yarmouth

The project has five objectives:

  • Assess the level of awareness and knowledge that African Nova Scotians have about the impacts of climate change and climate change preparedness.
  • Determine the resources and experts they have access to for addressing climate change impacts.
  • Support them in developing a climate change preparedness plan.
  • Share information and findings from the project in diverse ways to diverse audiences, including presentations delivered to participants by Dr. Waldron, the Clean Foundation and others, the final report, a policy brief for each community, and online resources ad information.
  • Invite workshop participants to participate in the African Nova Scotian Climate Justice Ambassadors Program, the second phase of this project, which will center around 12 monthly modules on climate change and climate-related issues in African Nova Scotian communities. These modules will launch in 2025 and will further build participants’ knowledge and practical skills for preparing for and addressing climate impacts and devastation in their communities.

Our next steps include:

  • Collaborating with workshop participants, our project partners, and other interested individuals in developing a policy brief for each of the 12 communities.
  • Sharing the policy brief with MLAs, climate policymakers, workshop participants and others.
  • Delivering a presentation on the project findings to MLAs and engaging them in a discussion on the policy brief.
  • Delivering a presentation on the project findings to climate policymakers and engaging them in a discussion on the policy brief.
  • Inviting workshop participants and our partners to attend a meeting with the Clean Foundation to identify actions and projects African Nova Scotian communities can engage in to address urgent and impending climate disasters and risks in their community.
  • Inviting participants from the 12 workshops that took place in African Nova Scotian communities in 2023 to join participants from the 13 additional workshops that took place in African Nova Scotian communities in 2024 (Kentville, Windsor, Amherst, Haliafx, Lucasville, Upper Hammonds Plains, Dartmouth, Spryfield, New Glasgow, Antigonish, Upper Big Tracadie, Glace Bay and Truro) (a total of 25 African Nova Scotian communities) to participate in the African Nova Scotian Climate Justice Ambassadors Program, the second phase of this project. This phase will launch in 2025 and will center around 12 monthly online modules on climate change-related issues in African Nova Scotian communities. There will be an opportunity during the modules for workshop participants (i.e. Community Ambassadors) to develop a Climate Resilience Community Plan for their community.

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