NH Audubon and the Climate and Health Initiative for Caregivers and Kids (CHICKs) are partnering to host a climate café for parents on April 28th at 10am at the McLane Center in Concord. Climate cafés are facilitated, small-group gatherings where participants are provided with a safe space to share their thoughts and emotions around the threat posed by global warming. This event will uniquely focus on the mental health of parents, who are presented with the burden of raising their children in the shadow of an uncertain and dangerous climate. The café is an opportunity to meet and connect with other local parents who are concerned about the impact of climate change.

The event will be co-facilitated by Maria Finnegan and Michelle Wagner. Ms. Finnegan is the Director of CHICKs with NH Healthcare Workers for Climate Action, where she leads the organization’s work around the physical and mental health impacts of climate change on children and caregivers. Ms. Wagner is a mental health educator and advocate here in New Hampshire, and holds both a Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling (MS) and Master of Theological Studies (MTS).

Registration is required for this event. If you sign up and are unable to attend, please let organizers know so that we can let others in from the waitlist.

Access to nature, including parks, greenspace, and blue space, has been associated with positive physical and mental health outcomes. Additionally, time spent in nature and nature-based therapeutic interventions have been associated with pro-social and pro-environmental behaviors, empathy, and emotional well-being. However, access to nature is often limited for many groups, including historically and structurally marginalized communities. This presentation from Dr. Semra Aytur will discuss relationships between access to nature and environmental justice, drawing from data collected in NH, nationally, and internationally. The role of conservation commissions in addressing environmental injustice will be discussed.

Sarah Kelly is a geographer with fifteen years of experience in community-based research on water and energy equity. As an applied researcher, she was trained in the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology at the University of Arizona. Sarah holds long-term research relationships with Mapuche-Williche communities in Chile, where she has investigated hydropower, cultural cartography, and Indigenous rights. In 2021, she co-founded the Energy Justice Clinic at Dartmouth College. Originally from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Sarah is excited to expand upon local collaborations in New Hampshire and Vermont to support making the energy transition more just and accessible for all. Sarah's research is published in Energy Policy, Energy Research and Social Science, and Geoforum, among other journals. 

In this Lunch & Learn session, Bob Feder will give a summary of the scientific evidence that exposure to green spaces improves health generally, and mental health in particular.  Christine Tappan will then describe her personal journey regarding exposure to nature and mental health, as well as the work she is currently doing with forest bathing.

Dr. Cheryl Anderson, MD is a pediatrics specialist in Lebanon, NH and has 16 years experience. She practices general pediatrics and serves as the medical director of the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center pediatric clinic in Lebanon. She is also an American Academy of Pediatrics NH chapter climate advocate with Dr. Carl Cooley.