World Café: Exploring Climate Change, Identity, and Belonging

On July 10, 2025, the Wellness Impact Lab at the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research (DI), York University, hosted a deeply moving World Café event titled “Navigating Climate Change, Identity, and Belonging.” Led by Sara Ferwati (DI Community Fellow) and co-facilitated by Susan Harris (DI Community Fellow) and Sarah Merghani (DI Research Assistant), the gathering welcomed students from diverse backgrounds to explore how climate disruption intertwines with cultural memory, emotional well-being, and our evolving sense of home. 

For immigrants, transnational individuals, and diasporic communities, landscapes are more than terrain—they are repositories of memory, tradition, and identity. When these places are altered or lost to climate change, the sense of grief and disconnection can run deep. Yet, few spaces exist to process these emotional and cultural impacts. 

This World Café was created to fill that void. Through a series of three themed dialogue rounds, it invited participants to journey through time and emotion: 

• Past – Memory and Cultural Connection: Participants reflected on the landscapes that shaped them—ancestral lands, childhood spaces, and natural places interwoven with identity and heritage. 

• Present – Emotional Impact and Shared Experience: In the second round, participants explored how climate change is reshaping those cherished places, expressing feelings of grief, anxiety, and displacement. 

• Future – Collective Hope and Resilience: Finally, the conversation turned toward imagining ways to sustain cultural continuity, nurture resilience, and foster emotional healing in an uncertain future. 

“The stories we carry, and the landscapes we hold in our hearts, deserve space in climate conversations,” said Sara Ferwati. “This World Café was an invitation to feel, remember, and imagine - together. What we saw was that shared vulnerability can transform fear into connection, and grief into collective strength.” 

The session created a grounded, reflective atmosphere, supported by gentle breathing exercises, emotion-mapping, and guided prompts. Participants described it as “safe,” “uplifting,” and “transformative.” Many appreciated the opportunity to share openly, hear others' stories, and connect across differences in a space of empathy and care. 

Highlights from participant feedback included a deep appreciation for emotional honesty and vulnerability, the power of storytelling to bridge diverse identities and a balance between structure and openness that encouraged authentic dialogue. 

Suggestions for future sessions included incorporating cultural objects or images (“show-and-tell”), allowing more time for unstructured conversation, and providing post-event reflection spaces. 

Key insights from the event included: 

• Climate change is personal—it touches memory, identity, and belonging 

• Emotional storytelling can strengthen community bonds 

• Reflective spaces help cultivate hope and collective resilience. 

Participants left with a renewed sense of connection, many offering one-word reflections like “lighter,” “hopeful,” and “inspired.” 

For co-facilitator Sarah Merghani, the experience was deeply affirming: “As someone with a transnational identity - rooted in Sudan and shaped by Toronto - I often navigate multiple roles. This session gave space for all of those parts of me to coexist and breathe… One participant said they felt ‘lighter’ after sharing their story. That really stayed with me. We wanted people to feel seen and supported - and I believe we achieved that.” 

In a world increasingly shaped by climate disruption, events like this World Café remind us of the vital role of care, culture, and community in imagining a hopeful future - together. 

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