Oakland, CA
Climate and environment, Community safety and policing, Built environment | 2025
Engaged youth to strengthen community resilience to extreme heat events.
Average maximum annual temperatures in Oakland are projected to rise between 3.3°F and 4.4°F by midcentury, according to California’s Fourth Climate Assessment. As a legacy of disinvestment in communities of color, the built environment in the neighborhoods of Fruitvale and West Oakland is characterized by heat-absorbing building materials and little tree cover, which intensifies urban heat islands. Youth and families affected by foster care, immigration, and the juvenile and criminal legal systems lack access to critical infrastructure and social safety nets for adapting to extreme heat events. Further, studies suggest that hotter temperatures are correlated with increased violent crime, potentially leading to punitive law enforcement in the face of rising temperatures. This finding implies that by shifting public safety funds to community-led climate resilience, governments could improve neighborhood safety while addressing conditions that exacerbate extreme heat.
Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ) is an organization led by and serving formerly incarcerated and systems-impacted youth. CURYJ engaged youth leaders from the Dream Beyond Bars Fellowship Program to research experiences in Fruitvale and West Oakland with heat and other climate emergencies, enabling residents to take an active role in local climate resilience planning and investments. As one component of this project, entitled HEATED (Homegrown Experts Aiming to Transform Emergencies and Disasters), CURYJ partner Ceres Policy Research trained the youth fellows to survey community members about where they seek information and support during heat waves and other climate emergencies.
Collecting more than 200 community surveys at community events, CURYJ found that 3 out of 4 residents viewed extreme heat as affecting community safety, but the same share didn’t know the location of their nearest cooling center. In partnership with StoryCenter, the youth fellows also created short videos documenting their own experiences with extreme heat, drawing connections between climate resilience and feelings of safety. CURYJ shared the survey results and digital stories at a Dream Beyond Bars festival attended by over 100 community members, local government emergency management staff, and systems leaders. The team noted the importance of hearing youth voices on the intersecting experiences of housing insecurity, foster system involvement, and extreme heat.
Young people in Fruitvale and West Oakland can use the evidence developed during this project to make a stronger case for shifting public safety resources toward green infrastructure improvements and community-based emergency preparedness and response. Citing their preliminary survey results, CURYJ submitted public comments in response to the City of Oakland’s draft Local Hazards Mitigation Plan. The youth team urged the Emergency Management Services Division to prioritize heat mitigation, an issue inadequately addressed by action strategies in the draft. Oakland will incorporate public feedback into a finalized plan anticipated in June 2026. In the long term and in collaboration with other local organizations, CURYJ will also use the data to establish a community resilience hub that will connect residents with the information and resources they need during climate emergencies.