Resilient Virginia is excited to announce the Resiliency Academy Fall 2020 series, featuring four webinars highlighting the best resiliency planning tools available to help communities build the capacity to maintain critical functionality and vitality in the face of severe disturbances and chronic stressors. While environmental concerns have traditionally been the priority in sustainability planning, the ongoing COVID-19 has highlighted the pressing need to integrate health, social and economic concerns with these plans as well.
Registration for each webinar is just $20 ($10 for Resilient Virginia members). More information regarding registration, membership and sponsorship opportunities can be found here.
October 7 • 1–2:30 PM
Climate Ready Communities
Tonya Graham, the Executive Director of the Geos Institute, will guide you through their Climate Ready Communities program. The program is a “Do-It-Yourself” approach for local governments that features a Practical Guide to Building Climate Resilience, a support package for using the guide, and other supplemental services. The Guide takes a community through steps of identifying risks and challenges, including social and economic stressors, as well as environmental, climate, and natural disaster risks, with the goal of setting priorities for actions to address these challenges. This field-tested guide, which is provided at no cost and is especially useful to medium-size and smaller communities, can be previewed here.
October 21 • 1–2:30 PM
Community Resilience Planning Guide for Buildings and Infrastructure
Chris Clavin, Research Environmental Engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Community Resilience Group, will present their Community Resilience Planning Guide. This guide was developed with local and state resiliency officials and provides a two-volume set of guidance and practice materials. It not only provides direction on how to plan for and implement measures to improve community resilience in response to disasters, it also introduces science-based tools to measure resilience and to evaluate strategies to achieve it based on economic analysis. You will also hear how the NIST guide has been used in communities across the country. Find out more about this guide here.
November 10 • 1–2:30 PM
Resilient Rural America Project
Gwen Griffith, Program Director with the Model Forest Policy Program (MFPP), and Ned Gardiner, NOAA’s Climate Visualization Project Manager, will present the Resilient Rural America Project training. RRAP consists of no-cost online modules to guide rural leaders and consultants through a process of risk assessment, identification of resilience strategies, and taking action. It focuses on helping communities become more resilient to extreme weather and changing climate conditions. Resilient Rural America Project empowers rural leaders by sharing practical resilience action strategies and strengthening the capacity of rural communities and experts to work together. More information on the series of self-guided Training Modules that take rural leaders and consultants through a planning process can be seen here.
Questions about the series? Contact Annette Osso, Managing Director, osso@resilientvirginia.org
VACo Contact: Chris McDonald, Esq.