INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs today announced the relaunch of Beat the Heat, a program focused on community health and resilience in heat emergencies. The program is in partnership with the Indiana University Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering and the Environmental Resilience Institute, and is now open for applications.
The Beat the Heat program will support two Hoosier communities by building capacity to adapt to heat emergencies and addressing public health impacts associated with heat.
“Summer should be a time when neighbors gather, kids play outside and families slow down to enjoy the sunshine,” Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith said. “Beat the Heat supports local leaders with the resources they need to protect our communities when temperatures climb, helping ensure extreme heat does not become a serious concern.”
Selected communities will receive heat-specific data and heat mapping tools to turn their heat resilience strategies into actionable projects. This includes building cooling shelters, increasing tree canopies, developing heat alert systems and more to adapt to extreme heat emergency risks. Selected applicants are required to provide a local match toward at least one heat resiliency project implementation through fundraising or local contribution. Non-entitlement cities or communities with a population under 50,000 are eligible to apply for the program.
“Having heat-resilient communities is vital for the health and safety of Hoosiers during extreme heat situations,” OCRA Executive Director Fred Glynn said. “The Beat the Heat program supports community-driven solutions, empowering local leaders through data analysis, community engagement and capacity building.”
In addition to heat-specific data, the selected communities will receive guidance from the Indiana Resilience Funding Hub and ERI experts to identify relevant funding opportunities and write grant applications.
Communities that implement high-impact heat resilience strategies will earn bonus points on future OCRA Community Development Block Grant applications. A designated heat fellow, affiliated with Indiana University, will support each community throughout the program cycle in implementing program activities and workshops as well as the implementation of heat resilience projects.
“Extreme heat is responsible for more annual fatalities in the US than all other natural disasters combined,” Dana Habeeb, assistant professor at IU’s Luddy SICE said. “With temperatures increasing across Indiana, we are excited to work with local government leaders to create strategies designed to protect at-risk residents. The communities selected will be prepared and empowered to respond to the challenges of extreme heat by pioneering a model that could guide heat mitigation strategies for other communities in the state.”
A pre-recorded informational webinar is available to furth explain the program opportunities and application process. Interested applicants can view the webinar here: bit.ly/BtH-Webinar.
Local governments must submit a Letter of Intent through the application portal here: bit.ly/BtH-Application2025.
Communities must submit a Letter of Intent through the application portal no later than 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. Selected communities will be announced in February 2026.
Indiana University will host office hours on Wednesday, Dec. 10, from 1-2 p.m. ET, to provide assistance and answer questions for interested applicants. Register for the office hours here: bit.ly/Register-BtH-OfficeHours.
