Getting Started > Step 1. > Step 2. Set goals
Co-Creating a Heat Campaign
One way of measuring heat won’t work for everyone. To determine what kind of heat monitoring campaign is right for you, it is important to identify what you hope to get out of a campaign, what questions you have, and how heat is already affecting your community. One approach that is widely used in participatory research and community engagement is referred to as “co-creation” or “co-creation of knowledge.”
The Center for Collaborative Heat Monitoring worked closely with 2025 Community Science Partners to conduct a sequence of open-ended exploratory inquiry sessions, which allowed us to co-create heat campaigns based on needs identified by community organizers and planners.
We define co-creation as a collaborative process in which groups with different areas of expertise or training work together as equal partners to develop new scientific knowledge.
The benefits of co-created heat campaigns include:
Recognizing and valuing local organizers’ knowledge of the place they live and their own experience with heat
Tailoring research questions to meet town, city, or county needs and answering questions that matter to the people who live there
Encouraging campaign organizers to develop new partnerships and broaden coalitions in advance of a campaign
Sample Questions for Listening Session and Workshops
The following are examples of the types of questions that have been helpful in community partner listening sessions.
What do you like about your community?
How is heat affecting your community right now?
In a best-case scenario, how do you hope this data will be used?
What would it mean to build community heat resilience?
Note: The CCHM’s approach to co-creation for citizen science is closely modeled on the Association of Science and Technology Centers’ (ASTC) Community Science Initiative toolkits and materials.
Heat science is better together.
The Center for Collaborative Heat Monitoring is working towards increasing our capacity to provide consultations and support for community-based heat monitoring campaigns.
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