The Douglas County, KS, Sustainability Office is working on a community-wide climate action and resilience plan. The plan will be tailored to the community’s priorities across Lawrence, Eudora, Baldwin City, Lecompton, and the unincorporated areas of the county. Outreach efforts included a community survey, interviews with community members, and targeted focus groups, all before putting pen to paper on the plan. The community involvement process being used for the climate action plan has been inspired by the Douglas County Food Systems Plan adopted by the City of Lawrence and Douglas County in 2017.

Participants will hear from Jamie Hofling, sustainability impact analyst and Connie Fiorella Fitzpatrick, food systems specialist for Douglas County. Jamie is co-leading the climate action plan process and Connie served as a community coordinator and was instrumental in the development of the Douglas County Food System Plan. They will present their work of including community voices in county plans. Then participants will get to experience a focus group and or community interview before workshopping applicability in their own work.

This event is part of the Building a Resilient Wichita series hosted by the Environmental Finance Center at WSU, League of Women Voters of Wichita Metro, and the City of Wichita.