Building climate resilience in Spokane requires more than infrastructure; it calls for active community involvement. When residents are engaged, their local knowledge shapes solutions tailored to their unique neighborhoods, enhancing effectiveness. Community involvement also empowers residents to make informed decisions and boosts preparedness for wildfires, heat, and other extreme events. Importantly, it ensures that resilience efforts are inclusive, addressing the needs of vulnerable and historically underserved groups to promote equity across the city. Together, Spokane’s communities can create a future where everyone is equipped to face climate challenges—building a safer, more resilient city for all.
Why Community Surveys?
Community surveys are a vital tool in climate resilience work. They provide direct insights from Spokane residents about how climate challenges are impacting their daily lives, from air quality to AC access. By gathering diverse perspectives, surveys help identify priorities and gaps in current efforts, ensuring solutions reflect the needs of all communities. They also foster inclusivity by giving every resident a voice in shaping Spokane’s future. This data-driven approach builds stronger, more tailored strategies for a resilient city.
Spokane Extreme Heat Survey
In the summer of 2022, the Gonzaga Climate Institute partnered with the University of Washington Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences to create and distribute a community-wide survey asking Spokane community members about their experiences with and perceptions of extreme heat events. We received 1,799 completed surveys. The results were analyzed by our partners at the University of Washington.
We acknowledge and thank the Indiana University Resilience Institute for allowing us to make use of portions of their survey.
Key themes from the survey:
- The majority of respondents rated heat as a moderate-severe threat to the health of Spokane’s community (84.3%) and Spokane’s economy (71.7%).
- 8.5% of all household members had been hospitalized or visited the emergency room or urgent care because of a heat-related health issue
- Overall, 84.4% of all respondents had access to home AC. Among those with home cooling systems, 23.0% (307/1337) reported usage limitations including: cost of utilities (79.0%), cost of repairs (9.2%), and broken cooling (8.2%) as three most common reasons.
- When asked about leaving one’s home on very hot days, 88.8% (1213/1366) of respondents indicated they prefer to “stay home” compared to going generally “somewhere else” to cool (10.4%).
- Familiarity and accessibility were two major barriers expressed in regard to accessing cooling centers.
If you're interested in accessing the survey instrument or raw survey results for a research project, please contact Climate Resilience Program Manager, Dante Jester (jester@gonzaga.edu).
East Central Spokane Survey
As part of our work with the Carl Maxey Center (CMC), a Black-led and Black-serving community center in the East Central Spokane neighborhood, in fall of 2024 we distributed a community survey in four different languages seeking to understand heat and smoke impacts in the community and how CMC can help people stay safe. The results of this survey are currently being analyzed with support from our partners at the WA Department of Health, and the analysis report will be available in spring of 2025. These results will be used to create a community-informed and neighborhood-specific plan to develop CMC as an Level 2 Relief Hub as part of our Spokane Community Resilience Hub Network.
Coeur d'Alene Tribe Resilience Survey
In summer of 2025, the Climate Institute will partner with the Coeur d'Alene Tribe to create and distribute a survey aimed at understanding extreme heat and wildfire smoke impact in the Tribe. This research is made possible by funding from the Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative as part of a larger program seeking to grow Tribal climate resilience.
If you're a Tribal representative interested in learning more about this program or partnering with the Climate Resilience Project, you can visit our Tribal Partnerships page or contact Dante Jester, jester@gonzaga.edu.
Smoke Ready Spokane Survey
With funding from an EPA Wildfire Smoke in Community Buildings grant, the Climate Institute will partner with the University of Washington to distribute and analyze a Spokane-wide survey on experiences and perceptions of wildfire smoke in fall of 2025. Stay tuned for updates on this survey!