TUES, APR 21:
MARMALADE SESSION
'DEGREES OF CHANGE'
DATE: Thursday 23
TIME: 1-2:30PM BST
LOCATION: Theatre, Old Fire Station
CAPACITY: 80
KEY CONTACTS: Ursula & Stella (Kite Insights)
CO-HOSTS: Kite Insights, Wellcome
PURPOSE: Extreme heat is one of the most immediate and under-addressed climate threats to human health. Emerging research shows that exposure to high temperatures during pregnancy increases the risk of preterm birth, low birth weight, stillbirth, and maternal complications. Yet maternal health remains largely absent from national adaptation plans, infrastructure standards, and climate finance strategies.
Hosted in partnership with Wellcome Trust and Kite Insights, this Project Dandelion session brings together science, frontline experience, infrastructure thinking, and policy leadership to explore how heat resilience must be embedded into health systems, urban design, climate mitigation and adaptation planning.
SPEAKERS
Project Dandelion Co-Founders
Sophie Lambin, Kite Insights
Debbie Rogers, Reach Digital Health
Akudo Oguaghamba, Women's Health & Equal Rights Initiative
RUN OF SHOW
12:30-1PM | Pre-Event Prep
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Please arrive by 12:50pm latest - our speakers and partners are arriving between 12:30-1pm.
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As attendees arrive, Project Dandelion & Kite Insights teams will organize audience into a circle 5-10 mins before the session begins. Speakers will be in the center of the circle.
1-1:10PM | Opening Remarks
With Sophie Lambin
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Opening remarks to welcome everyone to the session.
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Description of how the session will run including a brief background on Donella Meadows.
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Description of the format of the session; there will be three rounds of speakers, followed by a provocation to ‘Let in’ ‘Let Go’ and ‘Let Loose.'
1:10-1:25PM | Prompt 1: Grounding in Shared Reality
Facilitated by Sophie Lambin
This round establishes the unifying entry point. The aim is to dissolve the ‘distant issue’ framing and make maternal health and climate everyone’s starting point.
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Prompt Question: “Imagine the hottest day you have ever experienced, how this heat contributed to your mental, emotional, and physical health. Now, imagine what these conditions are like for pregnant women and their babies. What changes when you imagine extreme heat through the lens of pregnancy? And what do you think bringing this recognition into our workplaces, our health systems, and our public conversations would look like?”
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Movement prompt: “If what you’ve just heard resonates with your own experience, step one pace towards the centre. If it challenges you, step o
1:25-1:40PM | Prompt 2: Into the Solution
Led by Sophie
In this round imagination meets practical solution-building. There is a depth of expertise already in this room, the aim is to draw out solutions through connecting and holding space for each other.
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Prompt Question: “Across this room there is expertise in health, climate, finance, policy, and frontline care. What would it actually take, concretely, to build systems where heat resilience and maternal health are inseparable? What already exists that we should be scaling?”
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Movement prompt: “Step inward if something you’ve heard today connects to work you’re already doing. Step outward if it points to something you would like to implement. Find someone new in your surrounding area. What did this prompt evoke in you?
1:40-1:55PM | Prompt 3: Imagining Forward
This round opens up the imaginative space. The aim is to give people permission to be genuinely visionary, projecting into a future where the systems we need already exist, then working backwards to understand what it took.
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Prompt Question: “It’s 2035. Heat resilience is embedded into how we design cities, how we build health systems, how we plan for and respond to climate change. As a result, outcomes for all people, especially women and babies, look fundamentally different. What changed, and what did it take to get there?”
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Movement prompt: If the future just described feels within reach, step forward. If it feels far off, stay where you are. Now look around. What does the room tell you? Turn to the person closest to you and share: what’s the one shift, big or small, you would like to make?
1:55-2:20PM | Let Go, Let In, Let Loose
Led by Sophie
We will invite the audience to reflect on what society, and they personally, need to ‘Let In’ ‘Let Go’ and ‘Let Loose’ in order to shift towards a reality that prioritizes maternal health. A small group discussion and share back to the room will follow.
2:20-2:30PM | Closing Remarks
With Charlotte Watts
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Professor Charlotte Watts from Wellcome is invited to make closing remarks.
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Sophie will then round out the session, hinting to the ongoing conversation that this session is intended to prompt. Continuing to have this conversation is crucial to creating a brighter future like what was imagined today.
