Chinatown is a diverse and vibrant community in downtown Boston.
Small businesses serve as a backbone of the community and a source of social and financial capital for residents. These businesses serve as meeting places, cultural institutions and employers in the community.
With limited green space and a densely built environment, Chinatown is Boston’s hottest neighborhood, reaching higher temperatures and cooling off more slowly than any neighborhood in Boston.
Partnering with Chinatown Main Street and the Resilience 4 Communities program, Chinatown residents came together with the City to codesign a Community Heat Action plan and shape solutions to meet their needs.
Distributing air purifiers directly to local businesses is improving indoor air quality and reducing indoor heat at local restaurants and small businesses.
For local businesses and their employees, hotter days bring fewer customers and lower earnings. Improved air flow and air quality is good for everyone’s health, owners, staff and customers included
Chinatown’s Heat Action Plan is a roadmap for the community to prepare for and respond to heat emergencies.
The plan was developed in collaboration with residents, local community organizations, partners and city agencies who are committed to coordinating and responding to extreme heat together.
These transformations are being powered by a diverse group of organizations. Together, we are creating a stronger, more resilient community.
Keep scrolling to meet our partners!
The Chinatown Community Land Trust
The Chinatown Community Land Trust helped create initial connections between the Resilience 4 Communities program and other community organizations and supported the community engagement process that informed Chinatown’s Community Action Plan.
Tufts Medical Center
Tufts Medical Center and Dr. MyDzung Chu, a public health expert, are supporting heat and health workshops in Chinatown and contributing to the recommendations of the Chinatown Heat Action Plan.
Asian Community Development Corporation
As a partner of the Heat and Health Workshops, Asian Community Development Corporation helped recruit community members to attend and identify community members to support with outreach and facilitation.
CHIC Community Engagement Consulting
CHIC Community Engagement Consulting supported the creation of accessible, multilingual outreach materials and growing awareness about the Community Heat Action Plan through multilingual messages on platforms used widely throughout the community like WeChat.
Main Street America
Main Street America is sharing insights from the Chinatown Heat Action Plan and small business microgrants program with its network of hundreds of business associations nationwide.
Z Zurich Foundation
Z Zurich Foundation provides global leadership and core funding for the program, lending its expertise through tools like Climate Resilience Measurement for Communities to ensure projects reflect community priorities ands contribute to a broader impact.
Zurich North America
Zurich North America is sharing resilience expertise with cities and communities, helping assess projects developed by community members and bringing volunteers to community events.
Architecture for Public Benefit
Architecture for Public Benefit provided design support to creating an accessible and visually compelling guide to the Chinatown Community Heat Action Plan, as well as a foldable, bilingual pamphlet explaining the plan in Chinese and English.
Resilient Cities Network
R-Cities employs tools to assess community resilience, develop solutions with community members and mobilize funding for resilience action through Resilient Community Impact Funds (RCI Funds).
Chinatown Main Street
Chinatown Main Street supports local businesses in Boston’s Chinatown and has led the implementation of heat and health workshops, the Chinatown Heat Action Plan working group and the distribution of air purifiers to local businesses.
City of Boston Climate Ready Team
The Climate Ready Team has supported the Resilience 4 Communities program in Boston since the very beginning, helping collect survey responses from community members, convening relevant organizations and supporting the implementation of community climate initiatives.
