Dr. Heidi Brown works with regional partners to facilitate a network of “cooling centers” in Tucson that will protect vulnerable residents against dangerous heat during the summer. The project, part of a CDC BRACE grant in partnership with Arizona Department of Health Services, is managed in coordination with Pima County Health Department, City of Tucson, Pima Association of Governments, and other regional community organizations.

The intense summer heat in Arizona can be dangerous, especially for residents who don’t have access to climate controlled indoor spaces or can’t afford cooling costs. To address this public health challenge, Heidi Brown, PhD, MPH, associate professor in the epidemiology and biostatistics department at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona, has been working with a group of regional partners to promote “cooling centers” around Tucson (also sometimes called "cooling stations") that will protect vulnerable residents against dangerous heat during the summer.

The cooling centers project, organized in partnership with Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS), is part of a Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) grant from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and it is being implemented in coordination with Pima County Health Department (PCHD) with support from the City of Tucson, Pima Association of Governments (PAG), and other regional community organizations.

Brown worked closely with Joe Tabor, PhD, MPH, epidemiologist with the PCHD and Ladd Keith, PhD, assistant professor in the College of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture (CAPLA), on the cooling centers project, and together they collaborated with several community organizations, especially the Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness. The team participated in the recent 6^th Annual Arizona Extreme Heat Planning Workshop organized by ADHS, ASU, and UArizona that focuses on heat-related health risks and the public health response. In Phoenix and Maricopa County, the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) has implemented a similar network of cooling stations with their Heat Relief Network.

The group created an interactive online map of all the cooling centers around Tucson that can be used by aid organizations and decision makers to identify nearby Hydration Stations and Heat Refuge locations.

Several of the Cooling Centers in Tucson are also pet friendly.

Cooling Center Locations in Tucson

Water and Supplies (Agua y Suministros) Locations

The City of Tucson has also established cooling centers that will open when from 12noon to 6pm on days when the temperature hits 110 degrees at these locations: