Human Impacts Institute

A Message from our Founder

We all want happiness, health, and dignity for ourselves and our loved ones. We all need clean food, air, water, and shelter to survive. But the reality is that we live in a world where the majority of people don’t have the means to thrive. Our systems are broken. There is a disconnect between society and nature and we are seeing the impacts of that disconnect today.

I’ve always been driven by curiosity and a sense of responsibility. The curiosity stems from being in awe of our planet and our diverse cultures. The responsibility stems from the privilege I have experienced walking through life as a white, middle-class woman; I have rarely feared for my life; I have always been able to drink the water from our tap; and I have never been worried about whether or not I can feed my child. With these immense privileges comes immense responsibility. This responsibility is exciting and is also a big part of why I commit every day to the work we do.

I founded the Human Impacts Institute to serve as a home for experimenting with how we can be creative in building a more just future. We are a community that connects you to the leadership and action we need to protect and prepare our communities for climate impacts. We create spaces to bring new voices into the room — women, youth, frontline, BIPOC and others — and we amplify their personal stories and actions. And we are a home for bringing together people to realize the beauty that is possible. Imagine a world without trash, where there are no children with asthma, and where every community has access to greenspace AND a living wage. That is the world we are building with your help.

The climate crisis is one of the biggest challenges we have ever faced as humanity. And it is our generation that will decide the fate of many to come. We can only rise to this challenge by addressing the root causes of the climate crisis and by doing it together through big and bold action. This is why we need to get creative on how we build our movement and create space for more people to join in meaningful and impactful ways.
I’m amazed and humbled by how far we’ve come. There’s a lot more to be done. Thank you for joining us.

Warmly,
Tara DePorte
Founder and Executive Director
Human Impacts Institute

How: We connect people to science-based, community-driven solutions through arts and culture. We inspire climate action by amplifying new voices of leadership, sharing resources for resilience, and creating innovative ways to come together to ensure environmental and social justice in our communities.

Storytelling: Amplifying extraordinary voices of leadership and innovation through personal stories.

Exhibits:Celebrating creative approaches to communicating and engaging people in the future we want to build.

Education:Developing leadership skills and tools for resiliency through hands-on learning, mentorship and community service.

Conversation: Exploring local solutions with diverse audiences in inspiring settings.

Community: We are connectors. Our international network includes creatives, educators, activists and policy experts. We work in city streets, schools, galleries, and museums, bringing people together to promote equitable solutions in positive and creative ways.

We are creatives, educators, activists, and diverse experts committed to promoting action-oriented, innovative approaches to social and environmental justice. Our organization was founded in NYC in 2011 and has since expanded to bring creative engagement programs that spark climate action to communities across the globe.

Our staff leadership have over 20 years of experience in climate and public engagement and are composed of climate, communications, and education experts, as well as creatives. Our advisory council is reflective of all aspects of our programs, including global leaders in climate science, communications, frontline communities, education, advocacy, policy, and youth leadership. And our board and diversity of volunteers are comprised of business leaders, community experts, and specialists in implementation and evaluation.

Our organizational network is global and diverse, including long-term, programmatic partnerships with multiple national governments (Germany, Taiwan, France, the United Nations, etc), universities (New School, University of Aix-Marseille, Columbia University, etc), leading institutions (NYC Parks Department, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, IMéRA, Ville de Marseille, Brooklyn Public Library, etc), businesses, and local organizations.

Finally, we recruit, train, and work with interns from around the globe, having provided nearly 20,000 hours of youth leadership training. This brings new approaches and international perspective to our programs on a semester basis, ensuring that we are both accountable to the next generation and working to support them as leaders.

We have build an international organization that was one of the first to use arts and culture as a way to engage diverse publics in climate action.

Since 2011, we have engaged more than 318,000 participants from around the globe through 661 educational events and 24,510 hours of educational programs.

We have also exhibited over 250 artists from 35 different countries, who are all working on creatively engaging communities in climate action.

But the biggest accomplishments are not in the numbers, they are in the community that we have built that brings together policymakers from the highest levels of international policy with activists, youth, and artists from around the world. The greatest accomplishments that we have seen are that we are both supporting and amplifying the under-recognized voices of on-the-ground climate action through means that will ensure long-term change.