LANCASTER, Pa. — Climate change activism can often feel overwhelmingly big when you think about it, though it doesn’t have to be.
In Lancaster City, there’s a group of neighbors who are coming together to create change in their own backyards; it’s called a Climate Action Neighborhood, or CAN for short.
“It’s basically people who’ve decided to work together to find solutions that are actionable and can be replicated by other people too. That’s really our goal, to find actions we can do that we can replicate and bring to other neighborhoods and make a difference,” says Melissa Snavely, director of the College Park CAN. “I just felt that between the college, with businesses, and a lot of residents here, I thought it was the perfect mix to put one of these neighborhoods together here.”
Snavely followed the lead of another CAN, Hamilton Park in Lancaster Township. These groups are affiliated with the local non-profit RegenAll, an organization driving climate activism in Lancaster County.
The College Park CAN started as a group of 24 people in Snavely’s living room. It quickly grew for the organization’s kickoff event in January.
“When we did our chili cookoff and launch we had over 75 people at that and that was, to me, really exciting because it meant people were really interested,” Snavely tells FOX43. “And they came from all over, different ages. We had a lot of professors. Students were there and involved. All ages. A lot of people said they can’t come but [to keep them] informed, so that was really validating as well.”
Snavely’s neighbor, Zach Fedor, is part of the group and helped develop their website. He says there are many avenues the College Park CAN can take to help create a more green and sustainable neighborhood.
“There’s a lot of green space around here and I think we can utilize that even more,” says Fedor. “Preserving some of these trees. Growing more of them. Shared gardens [and] composting. Looking to bike with some of our neighbors to and from work. Just the little things that you might not think about on a day-to-day basis, but when you start doing them on a day-to-day basis it just adds a little bit more positivity to your daily life.”
Other plans for the group include an education series teaching neighbors how to garden year-round and how to cook and eat with a vegetarian diet. They even have goals to make their neighborhood a wildlife corridor.
“We’re trying to see what works and what doesn’t. And we’re trying to focus our efforts on things that are showing actionable changes in our lives and the little microcosm of the neighborhood that we live in,” says Fedor.
One of the goals of this Climate Action Neighborhood is to share what they’re doing with other neighborhoods across the area. Melissa invites anyone looking to do something where they live to get in touch so they can continue spreading change across Pennsylvania.
To learn more about the College Park CAN, you can join their group on Facebook or check out their website.