Trauma-Informed, Healing-Centered Climate Adaptation Planning with Youth in Roanoke, Virginia

Climate change is increasing the frequency, intensity, and duration of heat waves and is expected to increase their impact on human health and the economy. Urban planning interventions can help communities reduce risk. However, community capacity and trust must be built in a way that recognizes the lived experiences of historically marginalized communities. 

In this talk, Dr. Theo Lim will present his experiences leading a one-year, $1M USD participatory action research project in a predominantly African American community in Roanoke, VA. The project involved building contexts of sense-making and organizing strategic collaborative action between government, nonprofit, academic partners, and youth and adult residents. In the work, which centered working with youth in planning, trauma and healing emerged as major themes that we continuously worked to define and redefine. This is still work in progress, but the talk will probably touch on: emotionally-engaged planning, community-engaged teaching and learning, and meanings of "resilience."

More about Theo Lim, PhD

Theo Lim joined UBC SCARP as an associate professor this summer. Prior to that, he was a faculty member at Virginia Tech's School of Public and International Affairs for 6 years. 

His research and teaching interests include: climate adaptation and resilience planning, community engagement, and the use of scientific and technical information in urban and environmental decision-making.

Event format

• Speaker Series events are open to the public. 
• Light lunch will be served. 
• Speakers will present for 30-45 minutes, each followed by 15 minutes of Q&A and then an open session of networking and chat. 
• While these events are exclusively in-person, presentations will be recorded and available online for those who can't attend personally.