The Rhode Island Department of Health recently awarded $42,000 in grants to 10 local groups, including $4,900 to Barrington, to work on projects related to climate change education and community resilience. The grants are aimed at helping communities prepare for, respond to, and recover from the adverse health effects of climate change.

In alignment with the RIDOH's Climate Change Program’s mission, Barrington officials intend to use the grant to assist in the creation of a multi-faceted community outreach program that will "function to both raise awareness of and motivate actions to mitigate the harmful health risks from climate change that are associated with extreme heat, mosquitos and ticks, storms, and flooding." 

The outreach program will be a week of workshops that will be held in August.

"The PROJECT will be designated as 'Barrington Emergency Preparedness Week: Health Risks in a Changing Climate,'" stated a recent press release. 

"It is the town’s intent that this initial emergency preparedness week program lay the foundation for an annual event. The workshops will be educational, participatory, build community connectedness, and several will have a hands-on or skills sharing aspect. All workshops will be open to the public with several targeted for seniors, students, and homeowners."

Barrington Town Manager Jim Cunha and Town Planner Phil Hervey helped in securing the grant. 

“The wide ranging public health effects of climate change impacting Rhode Islanders include harm to our food and water supply; increases in diseases transmitted by mosquitoes, ticks, and other insects; and increases in extreme weather events," said RI Department of Health Director Nicole Alexander-Scott, MD, MPH. 

"The Department of Health is funding these 10 innovative projects because public health is most successful when it is grassroots and community-driven. The entire state needs to mobilize together if we want to create a healthy, sustainable, and resilient future for all Rhode Islanders.”