Bent/Haus Arts

Bent/Haus Arts created “Mistery Machine,” an interactive art installation incorporating music, cooling mist, and colorful animations.

• Two events at South Street Farm and Chuckie Harris Park drew a diverse audience, including families with children, and helped spread awareness of heat safety information to a much larger audience.
• Formed partnerships with Secret Boston, Boston Institute of Nonprofit Journalism, Groundwork Somerville, East Somerville Main Streets, and Friends of Chuckie Harris Park for outreach.

Clarendon Hill Towers

• Distributed 150 fans to older adult households through a lottery.
• Shared information about heat safety with all residents.

Community Action Agency of Somerville (CAAS)

• Distributed 17 air conditioning units.
• Assisted seven households with utility bills ranging from $165 to $480 and connected some to repayment plan programs.

Groundwork Somerville

The Groundwork Somerville Green Team consists of youth aged 14 to 19 who work at Groundwork’s urban farm and school gardens, learn about environmental justice, and develop advocacy and leadership skills.

This summer, the team:

• Developed and disseminated presentations, fliers, and short videos about their experiences with heat and ideas on mitigating heat impacts.
• Conducted outreach and collected surveys about extreme heat at a Mistery Machine event and at the group’s mobile market.
• Reached over 200 people with outreach activities.
• Used mini grant funding to purchase fan misters, shade structures, and sprinklers to keep youth cool at the farm.
• Planned to update future crops to account for climate conditions.

Somerville Fresco

A team of immigrant parents and grandparents met regularly to build their knowledge around the health impacts extreme heat and improve their advocacy skills to protect their families and neighbors.

The team:

• Advocated for improvements to local cooling spaces.
• Gave out over 150 bilingual booklets containing tips, recipes, and information on keeping cool.
• Distributed cooling kits containing the booklets, hats, insulated water bottles, and small coolers to 100 students in the Somerville English Language Learner summer program.

Somerville Housing Authority (SHA)

• Piloted an Air Conditioner Lending Program, distributing and helping to install 18 air conditioner units for families, older adults, and people with disabilities living in low-income housing.
• Distributed Keep Cool Toolkits with heat safety information and worked with other organizations to conduct outreach to residents in charge of cooling assistance.