From Stories to Reality: Jesuit Formands Witness Urban Climate Vulnerability at ULHOA
As part of ongoing efforts to expand community engagement under Project RURBANISE, the Environmental Science for Social Change (ESSC) facilitated an immersive learning experience focused on spatial justice and climate vulnerability.
Responding to an invitation from the John J. Carroll Institute on Church and Social Issues (ICSI)—a member of the Society of Jesus Social Apostolate (SJSA)—ESSC organized a Climate and Environment Learning Visit for Jesuit formands on March 11, 2025. The visit brought the group to the United Libis Homeowners Association (ULHOA) in Barangay Canumay East, Valenzuela City, one of nine primary partner communities participating in Project RURBANISE.
Grounded Perspectives on Urban Resilience
Rooted in the understanding that social inequalities and environmental degradation are deeply intertwined, the visit aimed to ground abstract resilience frameworks in the lived, everyday realities of rurban communities.
The half-day itinerary provided the Jesuit formands with a deep dive into urban spatial justice, environmental vulnerability and the climate crises:
Briefing & Framing: An orientation at the ICSI office set the stage by introducing the project, its partners, and the community context.
Transect Walk: A guided walk through ULHOA's 2.02-hectare neighborhood allowing participants to observe localized hazards, infrastructure conditions, and land-use density firsthand.
Community Dialogue: A plenary conversation at the community multipurpose hall where residents shared their histories, struggles, and adaptation strategies.
Reflection & Debrief: An integrative debriefing session at ICSI for formands to reflect on their learning.
Spotlight on ULHOA: Community Resilience Amidst Industrial Growth
ULHOA serves as a compelling case study for community-led development. What began as an informal settlement in the 1980s has transformed into a legally secure community that owns its land through the Community Mortgage Program (CMP). Home to around 350 households, the settlement is now densely surrounded by industrial factories.
During the visit, community members and facilitators explored critical questions regarding urban evolution and adaptation:
Community Leadership: How the neighborhood organized itself into a formal Homeowners Association (HOA). As one ULHOA resident highlighted during an earlier focus group discussion,
“There’s a huge advantage of being organized because you have these support systems and networks which can provide resources”.
Environmental Changes: Observed local changes over time—from drainage problems and extreme heat, and legal challenges to fire vulnerabilities and localized flooding.
Adaptive Actions: Community-driven responses and organized coping strategies to mitigate these evolving environmental risks.
Key Reflections from the Field Visit
The transect walk and exchanges left a profound impression on the visiting formands. The integrative debriefing highlighted several crucial insights regarding urban poverty, spatial justice, and community resilience:
Firsthand Experience of the Stories
Formands noted that seeing the physical environment—the cramped drainage, exposed power lines, and floodlines inside homes— transformed the stories they heard into a tangible understanding of the community's realities.
Maladaptation and Systemic Burden
Participants observed how top-down infrastructure, such as government road-widening projects that raised road levels above home foundations, inadvertently worsened indoor flooding. It underscored the reality that the urban poor often bear the heaviest consequences of environmental degradation and uncoordinated urban development.
Women’s Dignity
The visit highlighted the indispensable role of ULHOA’s women leaders. Despite facing gender-based dismissal and bullying, these women have remained steadfast on the board, continually driving the community’s savings initiatives, leading land negotiations, and managing daily operations.
Fight for Belonging
Rather than a simple economic struggle, formands recognized that residents are fighting for the lives, relationships, and livelihoods they have built over decades. Migrating back to provinces is rarely a viable alternative when urban centers provide essential employment and access to education.
Faith Amid Uncertainty
Despite ongoing financial burdens from long-term land loans, rising interests, and environmental hazards, the community continues to demonstrate remarkable joy, hope, and shared faith.
Immersive learning visits like this reaffirm that climate adaptation cannot happen in isolation from community voices. As Project RURBANISE continues its work with informal settlements across the Philippines, these exchanges reinforce how deeply spatial justice, environmental degradation, and the climate crisis intersect in urban spaces. Moreover, they build vital bridges between academic research, policy planning, and lived experience.
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Research supported by CLARE is bridging critical gaps between science and action: developing new tools and supporting partner governments, communities, and the private sector to use evidence and innovation to drive effective solutions to the climate challenge, whilst building capacity of both those carrying out the research and those using the resulting evidence.
Through long-term commitments and partnerships worldwide, and needs-driven, action-focused research, CLARE links up short-and long-term issues, enabling long-term, sustainable, and fair economic and social development in a changing climate whilst supporting early action to reduce impacts of climate variability whilst providing a better understanding of the risks associated with climate.
About the Author
Janina Salubo is a Knowledge Management and Development Communications Volunteer for the RURBANISE project, specializing in translating complex resilience research into accessible insights for funders and grassroots communities.