The Sacred Spaces, Resilient Places conference, sponsored by West Midlands Combined Authority, took place on the morning of Tuesday 13th October. Hosted at Birmingham City Council’s Banqueting Suite, the conference brought together faith leaders, local authority officers, community leaders, environmental groups and organisations to explore how places of worship in Birmingham and the West Midlands can act as climate resilience hubs.
The conference was opened by Councillor Julien Pritchard (Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Economy and Sustainability), who spoke about the importance of programmes such as the conference in the face of recent climate events. Next, we heard a message from the West Midlands Mayor, Richard Parker, thanking the attendees for their efforts in helping communities respond to climate change, the importance of young people’s participation, and reiterating that places of worship play a vital role in building a better future for the region.
This was followed by a presentation from West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) on climate risk, adaptation and community resilience, encompassing WMCA’s role and how faith groups create community cohesion. Afterwards, we heard from Kamran Shezad of Bahu Trust, who spoke about the unique power of faith-based organisations and places of worship to enact change, making them valuable partners in working towards environmental justice. The final keynote speaker was Peter Rooks, on behalf of Birmingham Council of Faiths, Footsteps’ parent charity.
Finally, we moved to the main part of the conference where Footsteps interns Angella del Mundo, Maryam Alatmane and Mehtaab Kaur presented the Sacred Spaces, Resilient Places report findings, with help from Chris Martins, Footsteps Secretary. This was followed by a short Q&A, before transitioning to table discussions on a variety of topics such as “Places of worship supporting vulnerable local communities” and “Empowering younger people to lead climate adaptation and resilience efforts”. The conference was closed with comments from WMCA and John Nightingale (Footsteps Chair).
Sacred Spaces Resilient Places Report
Sacred Spaces, Resilient Places – an Investigation by BCU Architecture and Design Students into Six Places of Worship as Centres for Climate Adaptation and Community Resilience.
This report aims to share the ways in which places of worship are and can be centres for climate resilience and adaptation within their communities. Through six evidence-based case studies, this report documents inspiring examples of places of worship acting as key community figures in response to social, environmental, and climate challenges. The project examines how places of worship already support everyday life and how they can be adapted to better serve communities in the future.
Ma. Angella C. Del Mundo – Investigation Coordinator & Footsteps’ Adaptation Lead
Maryam Alatmane (Lead), Mehtaab Kaur & Quinthia Nsema – Footsteps Summer Interns
Summer 2026
Corrections
Apologies for the following errors in attribution in the original report (now corrected in the version above).
Reference to Zhong et al. (2004), cited on p6, reference on p49 should correctly be attributed to:
Greenham, S.V., Ferranti, E.J.S., Jones, S., Zhong, J., Grayson, N., Needle, S., Acton, W.J.F., MacKenzie, A.R. and Bloss, W.J., 2024. An open access approach to mapping climate risk and vulnerability for decision-making: A case study of Birmingham, United Kingdom. Climate Services, 36, p.100521. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cliser.2024.100521
WMCA-wide work and the WMCA/UoB image on p55 should be attributed to:
Greenham, Sarah and Ferranti, Emma and Cork, Nicholas and Jones, Stephen and Zhong, Jian and Haskins, Bethany and Higgins, Will and Grayson, Nick and Needle, Simon and Acton, Joe and MacKenzie, Rob and Bloss, William (2024) Mapping Climate Risk and Vulnerability in the West Midlands. https://doi.org/10.25500/epapers.bham.00004371
Protecting and supporting healthy communities
A supplementary working paper for Sacred Spaces, Resilient Places
The aim of this supplementary report is to identify the relationship between measures highlighted in Footsteps’ climate adaptation and resilience report and framework, and the health outcomes of the communities involved. Places of worship and faith institutions have a role in advocacy around ‘intersectional injustices such as fuel poverty, health inequalities, and housing deprivation’ – all of which sit at the intersection between climate and health.
Dr Naomi Bennet-Steele, an interdisciplinary researcher working with Footsteps.
Autumn 2026