SWAMPSCOTT – The Town is actively recruiting community liaisons to gauge a better understanding of how flooding, heat waves, and other climate impacts affect people throughout town.
Town Planner Christa McGaha, who’s spearheading the initiative with Community and Economic Development Director Marzie Galazka, explained the background of the initiative and how residents can work to make an impact.
“It’s really about expanding upon the other plans that have been done in the past for vulnerability, and the Municipality Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) 2.0 program will make the town eligible for different types of grants,” McGaha said. “There’s a lot of reasons to be excited for the town pursuing this.”
She continued, explaining how the initiative can fit into the broader planning and community development goals for the town.
She said, “It’s about more than infrastructure. … It’s about people, and looking at municipal vulnerability through an equity lens.
“We’re really trying to engage with the people in the community who are most vulnerable – and also the people that we don’t hear from as much – to make sure the plan addresses everyone, meeting the needs of everyone in Swampscott.”
McGaha noted that the Town is hoping to hear from environmental justice communities, older adults, non-native English speakers, and people with disabilities.
As liaisons, McGaha envisions participants taking on various roles, with a focus on public outreach to better connect with community members. This will also see liaisons attend public meetings, as well as identify and work to implement an environmental-based project – which was funded by the MVP 2.0 grant for $100,000 that the town received.
McGaha said participants will do “everything from raising awareness, talking about planning goals, but also doing community engagement.”
McGaha said the first phase of this initiative is “visioning,” i.e. working to determine what the future project may entail. This will be followed by the second phase, which will implement the funds from the grant to bring the project to life.
She said she anticipates the time requirement for participants is 5-10 hours per month.
“Anyone that’s interested can email me, and once they do, we’ll send back an application,” McGaha said. “We will also have the application posted to the town’s website so they can apply directly from there.”
