Bridging Tempe Youth and City Staff Through Youth-Led Action Projects: Strategies in Support of the Neighborhood Justice Project

Extreme heat, a widespread environmental hazard, is experienced disproportionately by historically disinvested and marginalized communities in Tempe. The City of Tempe has thus identified the importance of preparing the City’s youth to move into positions of power within the community to prepare for a future of rising temperatures and climate uncertainty, specifically as it relates to intergenerational community resilience. The City’s long-term Cool Kids, Cool Places, Cool Futures project plans to accelerate the City’s existing climate action by activating and empowering local youth as change agents in the co-creation of cooler, more equitable, and healthier futures. This MSUS project aims to develop strategies for the youth and the city that work together to advocate for and implement youth-designed and neighborhood-focused climate action projects in the Escalante and Victory Acres neighborhoods. The envisioned solution for this project is the creation of a dual strategy to connect youths’ visions for the future of Tempe with the City’s capacity (resources, funding, etc.) to adequately implement them. To complete this, the MSUS team facilitated a visioning workshop for local youth at McClintock High School to brainstorm potential climate action projects. As a result of this workshop, an action guide was then developed by the MSUS team with strategies to help jumpstart these youth-designed projects, highlighting the necessary social and physical assets and infrastructures needed for the projects to succeed. In turn, the City received a report outlining how they can best support the youth in the realization of these action projects. Both of these strategy guides will be used in parallel to begin the implementation of the climate action projects in the Fall of 2022.