In Madrid, on 9 June, the last day of the outdoor intervention took place in the neighbourhood of Zofío, whose activities began on 19 May in the garden of the San Juan de Ávila Parish, with the participation of neighbours, SEPAs, volunteers from Barrios Más Joven and the team from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. This space, which has now been transformed into a climatic shelter for the households in the area, is available to the community and its use will continue over time.
On the other hand, the first demonstrations of the summer kits were given to the families who participated in the workshops on heat culture and optimisation of energy bills. These demonstrations consisted of showing the use of the 5 summer kits available and identifying the different needs and conditions of each household in order to choose the kit that best suits each case. There are 5 kits available to choose from and they include the following: kit 1: a fan and a cooling towel; kit 2: a smart power strip, a timer plug, a water flow reducer and a pack of 3 LED bulbs; kit 3: solar filter for windows or alicantine blinds; kit 4: a slow cooker, a smart plug and a water flow reducer; kit 5: a smart power strip and a smart plug.
In total, 5 demonstrations were held throughout June in different places: Senara Foundation, San Fermín neighbourhood branch, in which 3 households participated; Krecer Association, which works with families at risk of social exclusion in Vallecas, in which 5 households participated; Alucinos La Salle Association in the San Fermín neighbourhood, in which 11 households participated; CESAL Foundation, organisation that works with refugees people, in which 10 households participated; and CEPAIM Foundation, that also works with refugees, in which a total of 6 households participated. The kits chosen by each of the households are expected to be delivered in July.
In Barcelona the activity continued with more workshops, mapping activities and the diagnostic sessions of some of the outdoor interventions.
The team delivered six heat culture workshops at amunt!, 3 Turons, Comunitat Activa l’Hospitalet, Bellvitge 2030 and Escola de Vida Les Planes – La Florida. In addition, there were three electricity bills workshops at amunt!, the Sabadell Civic Center and at the Lotus Residential Integral Center. The women at Mamalyona program attended a mixed workshop, where they learned how to read and adjust electricity bills as well as how to maintain a comfortable temperature and avoid the summer heat at home.
All in all, up to mid-june, a total of 538 households were advised through workshops and interventions and 277 questionnaires were completed by citizens. These questionnaires will be used to gather information about the house where the participants live, their incomes, their expenses… and compare the impact of the information received through the Cooltorise activities over the time.
There was also a mapping activity at the Lotus Residential Integral Center, a housing service for homeless people with addictions, which completed the community mappings done during this year.
Two diagnosis sessions took place in the Bon Pastor Civic Center and the public football field Cruyff Camp Jordi Alba. In the first one, the diagnosis involved multiple groups using the space who identified on a board the sources of heat and shadow, presence of water and cooling needs to develop the daily activities. The solution proposed consists of a shadow device to create a fresher corridor on one side of the patio, leaving the central space open for different activities. In the second one, at the football pitch, the participants (coming from various groups of the neighbourhood, including adolescents from an educational project) used flags and tags to point out sun and shadow spots, sources of water and suggest solutions such as adding more fountains, trees, etc.
Here’s the reel video created to communicate the intervention at football field Cruyff Camp Jordi Alba (June, 27th).
Both interventions will aim at providing shadow to the space and will actively involve the municipality to ensure effectiveness and safety.
Another initiative launched in June was the collaboration with the participants in the job reinsertion program of the Barcelona City Council Amunt!. The participants called 1,400 citizens in vulnerable situations to raise awareness and share advice in front of upcoming heat waves.
Read the articles (1 & 2) and watch the reel to learn more about the activity.
Finally, during the month of June started the preparation of the Heat Alert System for Heat Waves. This is an alert that will be sent through email to users of the Energy Advice Points (PAE) of Barcelona and Santa Coloma de Gramenet, warning them about the arrival of heat waves as well as torrid days and nights. The preparation included the design of infographics to inform the users in a visual way and the management and inclusion of the contacts in the database to send the first newsletter- which was finally sent in July due to the first upcoming Heat Wave announcement in Spain.
Cooltorise was also present in the media. The Catalan national TV (TV3) did a piece about the effects of the climate emergency on the houses and buildings and the digital platform for the Social sector Xarxanet recorded and published a report about the Cooltorise workshops.