Co-developing resilience strategies for churches and their communities

This research is a collaboration between a researcher from the Tyndall Centre in Manchester and hosted by the Church of England's Cathedral and Church Buildings Division (CCB). It is concerned with identifying, collating, and disseminating successful climate adaptation strategies adopted by some of the Church of England's over 16,000 churches and other heritage buildings, and by their wider communities. Finding examples of what has worked on the ground, and the wider community impact of these actions.

The Church of England currently has a well-developed tools and resources for climate change mitigation strategies, however this is not yet true for adaption and resilience. Church buildings and the communities in which they are based are increasingly at risk from climate related changes and extreme weather events. This project will equip this organisation as well as thousands of individual churches with the information they need to (1) protect their church building and (2) utilise the building to enhance community climate resilience.

This will be done through three work packages. This first (Identifying Church and Community Climate Adaptation and Resilience Stories) will develop the researchers understanding of the climate risk that the church faces. It will do this through a comprehensive literature review and gathering case studies from churches around the UK; examples in which the church building itself is at risk and required adaptation measures (e.g. protection against flooding, stonework damage) and examples where the church creates community climate resilience in at-risk areas (e.g. protection from flooding, over-heating).

The second (Co-Production of Church Centred Climate Resilience) builds on this through a series of co-productive workshops with local stakeholders and diocese workers to build on these finding and ensure the outputs of this work reflects the communities it is producing guidance for.

Thirdly (Guidance Creation and Reporting) will utilise these findings to create internal guidance notes that will actively contribute to the work of the CCB as well as contributing to the Church of England's wider environmental plan and creating new online resources. Guidance notes and academic papers will be disseminated more widely through other heritage and faith bodies, as well as academic journals.

This project has an extensive dissemination plan and will be able to share new research (in the form of short case studies, online resources, and videos) through the Church of England, through regional workshops with diocesan staff, conferences, and website / social media. Churches and communities around the country will increase climate literacy and capacity to undertake new approaches to climate change resilience and adaptation in their community. This project has a potential audience of thousands as the Church of England continues to promote environmental issues, of which this work would be a key part, across the country