IHSI contributes to community-engaged research in Chicago public housing neighborhoods
Extreme heat – characterized by an increased number of hot days, longer, larger, and more severe heat waves, and elevated nighttime temperatures – is expected to continue increasing across the United States. Those responsible for urban design, like landscape architects and urban planners, may design cities with various types of green infrastructure (trees, vegetation, water, and more) to help mitigate the effects of extreme heat in their communities. However, according to William Sullivan, a professor of landscape architecture and director of the Smart, Healthy Communities Initiative at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, much of the knowledge around green infrastructure and extreme heat was developed using a general population, which may not account for the needs of older adults – especially those living in public housing and poverty.
Sullivan, an affiliate of the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute (IHSI), and Principal Investigator Dongying Li of Texas A&M University were awarded a grant from the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities to support healthy aging in place during current and future climate conditions. Their goal is to develop quantifiable measures and relationships between urban green infrastructure and heat-related health outcomes for older adults that can inform community planning and resilience policies.
A community-engaged approach
First, the research team led by Li completed heat-related health risk assessments with older adults using a framework that integrates exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. These factors were evaluated using a novel human heat stress model that accounts for the physiology of older adults, including more acute responses to temperature changes, and social and infrastructural stressors (isolation, dependency, limited access to cooling resources and healthcare, inadequate living environments, etc.).
For the next phases of the project, the team planned to collect data in public housing neighborhoods in Houston and Chicago. Sullivan knew he would need the expertise of community members living in these Chicago neighborhoods to ensure the research was conducted in a way that was safe, effective, and beneficial to those the research was intended to serve.
In “a moment of incredible brilliance,” Sullivan joked, he reached out to Brandi Barnes, a research scientist at IHSI, and Gill Synder, senior director of research and innovation at IHSI, to inquire about IHSI’s capacity and ability to help achieve the goals of the project. Barnes joined the research team in Spring 2025.
Using IHSI’s diverse health-related networks, which are becoming increasingly recognized and sought-after among Illinois researchers, Barnes and Snyder connected with University of Illinois Chicago’s School of Public Health and TCA Health, a non-profit, primary health care center adjacent to Altgeld Gardens/Murray Homes in Chicago’s south side.
“It's just keeping those connections – it’s what we do at IHSI,” said Barnes. “It’s networking, keeping track of individual interests and strengths and knowing who does what and who to reach out to when the time comes.”
With the UIC connection, Barnes was able to interview and select three outstanding graduate assistants from a pool of 17 applicants. She then connected with the workforce development team at TCA Health, provided an engaging description of the kinds of people they were seeking to hire for their project, and was able to hire four dedicated community members as citizen scientists to help them with data collection in the Chicago neighborhoods.
“It’s exactly what I had hoped for,” said Sullivan. “Our progress had been kind of stymied, but Brandi’s connection to the community and her network opened doors to hire both wonderful young folks from UIC and folks from the neighborhoods we would be working in.”
Centering community expertise for data collection
The data collection tools the team is using are far from inconspicuous. The first is a stationary sensor, described by Sullivan as a mini weather station that will sit for a year in one spot. The other four mobile sensors will be carried in a backpack by one of the graduate assistants or citizen scientists. The sensors will take geolocated measurements every ten seconds on temperature, wind speed, humidity, and solar radiation as the carrier walks along the sidewalks and courtyards of 20 different public housing neighborhood during peak hours of sunlight on extreme heat days – defined in Chicago as days over 88.5 degrees Fahrenheit. This will allow for accurate, micro-variations in measurements as they encounter changes in environment and infrastructure.
The four citizen scientists hired through the TCA Health partnership will be accompanying the graduate assistants during data collection. One will stay with the stationary sensor, answering questions and handing out educational fliers to those passing by. Another one or two will walk alongside the person carrying the backpack, offering guidance and experiential knowledge in the neighborhood, and addressing concerns.
“Brandi, Gill, and I talked about how important it would be to have members of the community who have experience with these neighborhoods to come with us because they would have insights on all kinds of things that we might be ignorant of,” Sullivan said. “Also, we’re taking data from these neighborhoods, and we wanted to make sure we were including people from these communities to participate in this research and be paid for contributing. We completely expected they would help shape the protocol, process, and our approach, and that’s exactly what’s happening.”
The final part of data collection will come from in-depth surveys with older adults living in the identified neighborhoods, who will also be paid for their participation. Researchers will learn about their experiences with extreme heat – how they cope, how they feel, their reliance on others, where they go, etc., using daily diaries and in-home sensors. The hired community researchers will also work with the team to share the information learned with community members in a way that is accessible and usable.
Barnes expresses enthusiasm for the project and deep gratitude for the community members they are working with.
“We really appreciate their input. We could not complete this work without the valuable insights from community members and TCA Health. I look forward to a meaningful and reciprocal partnership with this agency.”