Sudbury Seeks Climate Change Envoys

SUDBURY, MA — The town is hiring five people to carry out a mission that could determine the safety of many residents in the future.

Sudbury is hiring five community liaisons — pay is $2,400 over three installments — to reach underrepresented groups in town as part of an effort to prepare the town for the effects of climate change.

The positions are part of the town's Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (2.0) planning to find actions the town can undertake to prepare for climate change. The preparedness planning is the second phase of one the town completed several years ago. The 2.0 planning focuses on socially vulnerable members of the community.

The community liaisons will "organize, promote, and facilitate engagement activities with members of the community to gather insight about community needs and factors that contribute to social vulnerability(e.g., creating and distributing surveys, hosting community dinners or pop-up events to gather input, sharing information via social media and listservs, hosting interviews or focus groups, etc.)," according to the job description.

The town is especially looking to hire liaisons who speak languages other than English, are renters or live in subsidized housing, are students or work in areas like childcare or eldercare. Find the full job description on the town website.

Sudbury completed its first (version 1.0) MVP plan in 2019. The plan identified six items the town can act on to prepare for climate change, including better tree maintenance and management, securing utility lines, improve drainage and investing in emergency planning, including volunteer citizen response teams. One of those teams, the Medical Reserve Corps, were put into action just a few months after the MVP 1.0 plan was published when the COVID-19 pandemic began.