Climate / Community
Mindworks’ Hungary heatwave initiative explored how emotionally grounded storytelling and community engagement can strengthen agency and adaptation during extreme heat. The initiative unfolded as an opportunity to work with communities, journalists, students, NGOs and photographers to reshape how heatwaves are understood and responded to.
The project combined real-time emotional insights from the Heatwave Monitor with participatory workshops, visual storytelling tools, a university course, and public-facing events. Partners included Greenpeace Hungary, Energiaklub, ELTE University, and a network of regional climate photographers. Together, these actors helped initiate a more resilient narrative ecosystem around extreme heat and adaptation.
We started with how people feel about heatwaves — their fears, frustrations and sense of helplessness — and used these emotional insights to design interventions that restore agency. Using the Heatwave Monitor, visual narrative tools and community workshops, we created spaces where participants could share local knowledge, surface barriers and imagine practical forms of adaptation.
The approach combined three layers:
1. Community Agency
Through a three-part workshop series, participants mapped 40+ local practices and co-designed three adaptation concepts. The sessions focused on lived experience, peer-to-peer learning and small, doable steps.
2. Narrative and Visual Tools
We co-created a Heatwave Photo Guide with photographers from Hungary, Croatia and Italy, tested it with journalists and students. An original photo collection built on the new heatwave narrative was showcased through a week-long public photo exhibition.
3. Capacity Building
We developed a university course at ELTE, trained journalists and practitioners, and held applied workshops for teachers, psychologists and NGOs. These settings helped the tools travel far beyond traditional climate audiences.
At every step, the focus was on constructive narratives, recognisable agency and emotionally grounded communication.
- Community workshop participant
- Journalism student, ELTE University
- Journalism student, ELTE University
Tags: Climate, Community
Date:
2024 – 2025
Location:
Hungary
Approach:
Audience engagement / narrative reframing / visual storytelling
Issue:
Extreme heat and community adaptation
Collaboration:
Greenpeace Hungary, Energiaklub, ELTE University, Green Policy Center, NKE, WWF Hungary, regional climate photographers
Tools Used:
Heatwave Monitor, Visual Narrative Toolkit, Heatwave Photo Guide, participatory workshops
