Last week we sent out our first quarterly newsletter! Keep reading to hear what we've been up to this fall.
November 20, 2017
Dear CREW Community,
Happy (almost) Thanksgiving! Welcome to the first edition of CREW’s quarterly newsletter.
This fall has been a whirlwind of activity here at CREW. We launched our website, met with dozens of volunteers and collaborators to build local partnerships, and have been hard at work developing resources to help neighborhoods prepare for climate impacts. Keep reading for some news highlights, a fall preparedness tip, and a special Thanksgiving challenge!
Thank you once again for your support - we're looking forward to building climate resilience with you!
Cheers,
Craig Altemose
Preparedness Tip:
We all know that Thanksgiving is a time when family and friends can come together… but humans are often not the only creatures around (or under) the table. Do you have a dog, cat, turtle, rabbit, or any other friendly non-human companion? Now is the perfect time to make sure they - and you - are equipped for extreme weather events. Here are three steps to take to make sure your pet is prepared:
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Make an emergency preparedness kit for your pet. This guide from FEMA provides a list of items to include.
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Order a free emergency window decal for your pet through the ASPCA, to help alert first responders about your pets in the event of an emergency.
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Fill out the following emergency contact card, from the American Veterinary Medical Association, to organize important pet-related phone numbers.
Show us your prepped pet! Email a picture of your pet with their emergency contact card to [email protected] - or tweet at @climatecrews with the hashtag #mypreppedpet.
Don’t have a pet? You can still participate! Have a family member fill out a FEMA emergency preparedness wallet card - and send us a picture! (animal ears optional)
We presented at a regional resilience conference!
Photo credit: Rebecca Milaschewski, Executive Assistant of the Environmental Law Center at the Vermont Law School.
Photo credit: Rebecca Milaschewski, Executive Assistant of the Environmental Law Center at the Vermont Law School.
Last month, we presented at the ‘Localize it!’ Conference, a gathering convened by Building a Local Economy (BALE) in collaboration with the New England Resilience and Transition Network that brought together groups working on environmental and economic justice. In CREW’s breakout group, ‘Strategies for Building Neighborhood Climate Resilience’, we led participants - including former chairman of the U.S. Council on Environmental Quality James Gustave “Gus” Speth - in a stakeholder role-play to discuss the flood risk of a fictional renovated mill in a mid-sized New Hampshire town. Check out our blog post about the event!
We’ve also attended a number of other events this fall to learn about other work in the resilience and emergency preparedness fields. These include the East Boston Climate Summit, the 2017 Massachusetts All-Hazards Emergency Preparedness Conference, and UMass' Climate Adaptation Forum.
We have a twitter!
Our volunteer team is growing:
We received a great response to our outreach efforts earlier this month, with interest in starting pilot CREWs from across Massachusetts and the surrounding states. Stay tuned for updates on our neighborhood resilience pilot program.
Speaking of volunteers, meet Clara Wogram, the newest member of our volunteer team! Clara has worked in the field of climate mitigation and is excited to get involved in climate resilience. She holds a Master’s degree in public policy and lived in Germany, England, Spain, China and the Netherlands before coming to the Boston area this fall. She’s now based in Somerville and will be helping to develop CREW’s community resilience resources.
Applications for pilot CREWs are now open:
Interested in starting a pilot CREW in your community? We’re now accepting applications from interested individuals and groups. Find out more here.
Holiday giving!
Thinking about what nonprofits to support this season? Consider supporting CREW to help build neighborhood resilience across New England. You can donate on our website or send a check to 30 Bow Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138.
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