Community Resilience Catalyst

The Approach

The Community Resilience Catalyst (Catalyst) rapidly deploys support for addressing community resilience in under-resourced and marginalized communities. The objectives of the Catalyst are:

• Education: Work with often overlooked south Louisiana communities to enhance awareness of pathways for increasing community resilience.

• Technical Support: Provide capacity to south Louisiana communities in overcoming barriers to resilience planning and action.

• Evaluation: Evaluate the efficacy of expanded education and technical support in enhancing resilience for individuals and communities.

Education

Communities can schedule tailored educational opportunities with Center staff that collaboratively explore pathways for increasing resilience to changing hazards. Center staff are offering Lunch ‘n’ Learn-style events, individual meetings, or virtual sessions and are also available for brainstorming, attending city/town/parish meetings, and other ways to engage. These sessions will help to: define and describe changing risks and challenges in south Louisiana; explore strategies and actions to increase resilience; share information about resilience tools and other informational resources; and describe the technical support portion of the Catalyst and its application process.

If you have questions about the educational opportunities please reach out to either Kathryn Keating kkeating@thewaterinstitute.org or Abby Littman alittman@thewaterinstitute.org.

Technical Support

In the coming months, south Louisiana communities that engage in educational opportunities can also request technical support from the Center to jump-start the next phase of resilience planning and action. This is not a grant program, so selected communities will not have to manage funds. Technical support can include planning efforts, expanding disaster response and resilience, water quality testing, soil testing, providing solar microgrids and backup batteries, conducting necessary assessments to advance retrofitting or construction, establishing community gardens, piloting novel resilience approaches or strategies, expanding communication and education about exposure and mitigation, establishing heat action plans, and more. Such support can take many forms.

Requests for technical support will be accepted on a rolling basis once the portal is open. The request portal is expected to open March 1, 2025; however, any requests accepted under this program are dependent upon federal funding support not being paused or stopped.*

How to Request

When the portal opens, the link will be found on this webpage. Once the portal is open it will remain open for six months, accepting and reviewing requests on a rolling basis. Not all communities or groups may be eligible. More information on eligibility and the request template for technical support can be found here: Catalyst Eligibility Packet

The Center designed the request form and process to reduce barriers to entry and is based on an analysis of previous programs for capacity building and technical support.

Communities are encouraged to speak with Center staff to assess whether your community’s technical support needs are a good fit for the Catalyst program. Contact Alli Haertling at ahaertling@thewaterinstitutute.org to learn more.

*This effort is currently being supported through federal funding, which means that the effort could be subject to pauses, delays, or withdrawals based on decisions from the federal government. We are moving forward with this effort; however, there are factors outside of our control that could impact the timeline, scope, or funding available. We will continue to keep you informed of any updates or changes.