For the past year, Esperanza has been leading a neighborhood-wide effort to prepare a climate resilience plan for Hunting Park to reduce climate risk locally. This planning project is funded by the William Penn Foundation. Esperanza and its partners for the climate resilience plan hope that it will be:
- A strategic roadmap that protects quality of life in the face of climate change and extreme weather.
- A guide for designing future programs and directing resources.
- Responsive to the needs and goals of residents, businesses, community leaders and organizations.
- Developed in collaboration and partnership with local stakeholders, including residents.
Since the project was launched in 2025, over 200 surveys have been collected from the community, neighborhood walks with residents, youth and block captains, interviews with residents, and stakeholder meetings with local businesses and neighborhood groups like the Environmental Steering community have been completed. Most recently this year, working groups were established and convened to discuss emerging areas for the plan, which include emergency preparedness/community leadership, home repairs and energy burden reduction and public cooling and air quality.
On September 1st, Esperanza’s Housing and Economic Development division, alongside Drexel University and Penn Praxis (who are supporting the plan’s development) gathered with community stakeholders to preview the plan and ask for feedback. The priority areas for the plan so far were revealed and discussed. These included: building local climate leadership capacity and reducing climate impacts through neighborhood improvements, among others. For each priority area, specific strategies and real-world examples of work happening in Hunting Park were highlighted.
A diverse group of stakeholders attended the meeting, including local youth, neighborhood organizations, block-level leaders, and staff from other divisions at Esperanza. The conversation was rich and full of insights. Stakeholders were able to share what they felt was missing from the plan, ideas for additional strategies, and how they envision participating or supporting the plan once it is complete. Ivelisse Vázquez, Senior Project Director of Faith & Capacity Initiatives at Esperanza said, “For me, it was a great meeting; everyone had time to express their thoughts and questions about what they want to see in the community. We felt heard, especially when it comes to the faith community.” Moving forward, the project team will incorporate the feedback from the meeting and continue working on a written draft of the plan, which should be ready by the end of the year, with a public release in early 2027.
