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 Gulf Coast communities to enhance awareness of pathways for increasing community resilience.

• Technical Support: Provide capacity to Gulf Coast 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 coastal communities; explore strategies and actions to increase resilience; help different organizations see themselves in 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

Eligible Gulf 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 are now accepted on a rolling basis through the request portal linked below; however, any requests accepted under this program are dependent upon funding being available. We are continuously working to find additional funds to support these efforts.

How to Request

Request Technical Support Here! The Center accepts and reviews 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 Alexis Patell to learn more.