Supporting Youth-Physician Networks in Response to the Health Effects Climate Change and Environmental Disruption

The proposed activities build on the results from the CCEDARR project, which explored how the lessons learned from the pandemic could be applied in resilient responses to climate change in rural Canada. The findings of this qualitative work suggest that community connection and rural networks are influential to rural community resilience, whether in response to the pandemic or challenges related to climate change. As a result, the overarching objective of this work is to support networks of engaged advocates who have the potential to be key leaders in climate change and health. This grant would support two events to bring together youth, secondary school educators, medical students, and rural physicians to strengthen relationships within a multidisciplinary framework and develop climate change education, all while fostering youth leadership. In addition, the grant would support the research and writing of an online learning hub focused on sharing strategies for rural resilience in response to climate change and its impacts on rural health systems. This work would be completed in partnership with educators and medical students and include the outcomes of the proposed networking events.