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That’s when Garmon, then a civic engagement specialist at Kansas City (Mo.) Public Library, first thought, “We need a space to talk about the feelings related to climate change.”
Garmon researched ways patrons in her own community could share their emotions about the environment and discovered the work being done by Sami Aaron, founder of The Resilient Activist, a Kansas City–based nonprofit that offers community-building activities and programs for climate activists.
In 2022, Aaron started facilitating virtual climate cafés, forums where people could express their anxieties about climate change and connect with like-minded individuals without the pressure to turn sessions into activism. After Garmon invited Aaron to present at the American Library Association’s (ALA) 2023 Annual Conference in Chicago about climate resiliency and mental health, the two realized that libraries could be the perfect place for these conversations.
“If you want to talk about something, the library should be a space where you talk about it,” Garmon says, “and not expect anybody to solve it for you but just to realize that you’re not alone.”
Aaron has so far facilitated 32 virtual climate cafés—including several alongside ALA’s Sustainability Round Table (SustainRT)—and is in the early stages of developing in-person events for libraries. In recent years, dozens of other organizations, activists, and therapists have hosted similar cafés at libraries across the country.
“Libraries are full of resources,” Garmon says, “and we can be a part of the solution.”
Coping through conversation
The idea of the climate café is believed to have originated a decade ago in the UK and is modeled after the death café, which brings people together to discuss the concepts of death and dying.
Climate cafés are often hosted by a trained facilitator. For The Resilient Activist, that means a climate-aware therapist comes to the conversation with a series of prompts. In the first session that The Resilient Activist cohosted with SustainRT, Aaron opened the discussion by asking participants to name one thing they do for the Earth. In a second round of conversation, attendees discussed what was most stressful for them about climate change.
Cafés are not therapy or meant to replace therapy, but Garmon says it helps to have a practicing counselor who can share ways for participants to cope with feelings.
Melody Sok, community engagement liaison at Skokie (Ill.) Public Library, says that connecting with an educator from The Talking Farm, a sustainability nonprofit in her city, allows her library to plan and execute events that unite people across different demographics.
Skokie’s climate café intentionally brings teenagers and older adults together to discuss experiences with climate change in their region. These groups don’t often share the same space and can misunderstand one another, Sok says, and opportunities like the café can help change that.
“[Participants] started comparing experiences about how we see more flooding, we see more insects and insect growth because they don’t die off in the winter freeze, stuff like that,” Sok says. “The adults really see and feel so proud that people in our younger generation care.”
Katherine Umstot, director at Sunderland (Mass.) Public Library, stumbled into hosting a climate café a different way: She was approached by local artist Hannah Harvester in 2023.
Harvester and Sadie Forsythe, a licensed therapist, were collaborating on a free public event for people to process climate trauma and sought a location that could lower barriers to participation. The duo—climate café facilitators through Climate Psychology Alliance North America—has since hosted five events at public libraries in western Massachusetts.
The adults really see and feel so proud that people in our younger generation care.—Melody Sok, community engagement liaison at Skokie (Ill.) Public Library
About 20 people attended the event in Sunderland’s community room, where Umstot helped lay out books about climate change and grief, as well as collections of environmental poetry. While Umstot didn’t cofacilitate the session, she provided a literary and educational component for patrons who wanted more information.
“It’s not necessarily policy changes or coming up with a grand plan to fix everything,” Umstot says of the climate café concept. “It was more about just letting folks talk about the small things, the small changes they can do in their own home, in their community, to make themselves feel more at peace.”
Better together
For those interested in launching a climate café, Garmon recommends forming partnerships with organizations that can host sessions. This provides patrons with a credentialed facilitator or professional therapist, which is essential for dealing with complex emotions.
Sok says that hiring someone with expertise allowed her to listen and learn about what topics community members were interested in—something that could inform future climate café sessions.
“Our facilitator is really great at keeping things on track, but she also has knowledge,” Sok says. “She can provide context and facts and answer questions about either the environment or anxiety.”
Marketing your event is equally important, Sok says. Advertising the program in your library’s newsletter, putting information on your website, or connecting with the local newspaper—something that Umstot did—can bring a whole new community to the café.
Facilitators at The Resilient Activist are working to record videos of prompts and make them available to libraries for a fee. Sok says hiring a host is the primary expense for Skokie’s cafés, so virtual resources could help libraries with tight budgets.
Though patrons often prefer the in-person format, ultimately, climate cafés are about connection—however that happens.
“Our people are our greatest resource, and they can help you when you feel overwhelmed for any reason,” Garmon says. “You’re going to go to your library for information, for resources, and to help understand what’s going on. So we better be ready for emotions, right?”
