Building Partnerships to Address the Health Impacts of Wildfire Smoke and Extreme Heat

From December 2021 to February 2024, the PRISE Center partnered with the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH), the Office of Resilience and Capital Planning (ORCP), and GM Consulting, LLC—a Latina-owned community engagement firm in the Bay Area—on a participatory research project focused on building a community-academic-local government partnership and conducting a survey on wildfire smoke and extreme health with climate-sensitive populations to inform city-wide climate adaptation planning efforts in San Francisco.

The team formed a Community Stakeholder Group (CSG) made up of seven representatives from organizations serving populations most affected by extreme heat and wildfire smoke in San Francisco. Through collaborative research, the team identified groups most sensitive (called ‘priority populations’) to wildfire smoke and extreme heat health impacts , developed conceptual models to visualize potential health risks experienced by priority populations during wildfire smoke and extreme heat events, developed and implemented a community survey, and conducted interviews to better understand strategies of interest to priority populations to prevent negative health impacts during wildfire smoke and extreme heat events.

All project partners reviewed the survey findings and co-developed a research agenda focused on community-based strategies to mitigate the health impacts of wildfire smoke and extreme heat.