Heat Resilience Workshops Offered Across Hawaiʻi Island
The County of Hawaiʻi invites residents to attend Heat Resilience and Cooling Solutions workshops that are being held across the island.
Each workshop — hosted by the County’s Office of Sustainability, Climate, Equity, and Resilience (OSCER) and the Hawaiʻi Public Health Institute (HIPHI) — is free and open to the public. They will include nurse-led education on heat safety and warning signs, a community-driven discussion of cooling solutions, free household cooling kits (up to 30 per workshop), and food and refreshments.
Hawaiʻi’s consistently high humidity makes it harder for bodies to cool down, raising the risk of heat-related illness even on days that might not feel extreme. To address the growing health impacts of extreme heat, OSCER launched its Heat Resilience Program, which aims to build community awareness and action.
In summer 2025, OSCER partnered with Vibrant Hawaiʻi to install 12 heat sensors which measured temperature and humidity levels across the island to better understand where and when communities experience the greatest heat burden. Heat sensors are currently redeployed across the island, and the workshops will build on those findings by bringing the data directly to communities, offering practical tools for staying safe in the heat, and creating space for neighbors to identify cooling solutions that work for their own communities.
Workshops will be held at the following locations:
- Kohala: Thursday, Sept. 17 at the Kohala Intergenerational Center, 4-6:30 p.m.
- Hilo: Friday, Sept. 25 at Kamanā Senior Center, 1:30 p.m.-4 p.m.
- Ka’ū: Saturday, Sept. 26 at the Ocean View Community Center, 9:30 a.m.-12 p.m.
- Kona: Saturday, Oct. 3 at La’i’ōpua 2020 Community Center from 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
- Puna: Friday, Oct. 16 at Pāhoa Neighborhood Facility, 9 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
- Puna: Sunday, Oct. 18 at the Star of the Sea Painted Church, 1 p.m.-3:30 p.m.
The workshops are made possible through a partnership between OSCER, HIPHI, and the Climate & Health Hawaiʻi network, a statewide network of clinicians, public health professionals, researchers, and community leaders working at the intersection of climate change and health.
Community members are encouraged to register in advance at tinyurl.com/hiheatworkshops. Seating is limited.
For more information, visit tinyurl.com/oscerclimateresilience, email OSCER@hawaiicounty.gov, or call 808-854-3129.
