Building Resilience Against Climate Effects

Plant growing in dirt outside its pot

BRACE Framework

The Building Resilience and Climate Equity (BRACE) framework is designed to support public health action to protect and promote human health in the context of climate change. 

Discover the BRACE Framework

What is BRACE?  BRACE Framework

BRACE helps health professionals and health departments at all jurisdictional levels partner with communities to assess climate and health threats, co-develop effective strategies, and act to promote health and climate resilience.

Justice, Equity, and Belonging

BRACE recognizes that climate action must center justice, equity, and belonging to address widening disparities in climate change harms, achieve true resilience, and create opportunities for all people to thrive. BRACE strongly encourages users to prioritize justice, equity, and belonging throughout each of the elements and associated tactics. In using this trio of terms, BRACE seeks to increase fairness, support a more equal society, and reduce the harms of systemic oppression and marginalization. 

Six Elements of BRACE

Each element guides users through a process for taking public health climate action and is organized by key tactics that detail how to implement the necessary activities. See the full Guide for resources and more. 

Take our BRACE Training

APHA’s Center for Climate, Health and Equity, in partnership with ecoAmerica, is proud to host an on-demand training featuring the newly updated Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) framework and implementation guide that aims to empower health professionals in advancing health equity and climate resilience.

In this two-hour training, you will be equipped with the tools to collaborate with partners and communities to identify climate and health threats, co-develop effective strategies and take meaningful climate action.

Register to enroll in the training here

BRACE Implementation Guide

The BRACE Implementation Guide provides practical, flexible, and action-oriented approaches to accommodate a range of contexts and organizational capacities. It also includes several useful worksheets and resources to help you implement BRACE. 

Access the guide here

More resources

Read AJPH's article on "A Flexible Framework for Urgent Public Health Climate Action."

Check out the Climate Change and Health Playbook: Adaptation Planning for Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI playbook)  

Funding Acknowledgement

The Building Resilience Against Climate Effects Framework was developed through a CDC Cooperative Agreement with the Prevention Research Center at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School (RFA-DP-22-003, U48DP006381). The contents are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the CDC/HHS or the U.S. Government.