Beginning with participation in the Geos Institute's Climate Ready America program, RCC has partnered with "Navigator Organizations" and five communities in South Carolina and Georgia to deliver Resilience Accelerator Workshops designed to help governments and their partners align on critical resilience work and set the stage for future collaboration.
The Problem
The Southeast region of the United States is facing existential risk from climate change at the same time as many communities are seeing explosive growth and an economic boom. Large communities require support to elevate resilience as a priority among competing demands and take advantage of the influx of resources to embed resilience within their growing communities. Smaller communities in the Southeast, like many other places in the country, lack capacity and therefore must get creative with collaboration in order to meet the resilience challenges of today.
Intended Outcomes
Outcomes vary by community, but include:
- Greater alignment around community priorities and challenges
- Greater awareness of the work being done by other entities in the community
- New partnerships across sectors and jurisdictions (so far, Resilience Accelerator workshops have helped launch the Southern Lowcountry Resilience Collaborative, Statesboro-Bulloch Resilience Network, and the Charleston Resilience Collaborative)
- Momentum and direction for further collaboration
Our Work Streams
- Plan Reviews: The RCC team reviews planning and policy documents provided by the communities to gain a clear understanding of the resilience planning landscape and inform objectives of workshop.
- Workshop Prep: Over the course of 8-12 weeks, RCC and the Navigator Organization work with the community to design a 1-day workshop that meets their community's unique needs and goals.
- Resilience Accelerator Workshop: A 1-day in-person workshop where key stakeholders meet to foster a shared understanding of priorities and goals as they relate to resilience challenges, align existing and future projects to ensure they deliver maximum resilience benefit, and forge new partnerships to improve coordination and amplify impact.
- Final Product and Next Steps: RCC works with the community to define an appropriate final product coming out of the workshop—a report, presentation deck, or tool for future use. In the process of creating this product, RCC synthesizes the data collected over the course of the workshop and distills key insights specific to the region’s challenges and strengths, as well as next steps for the workshop participants.
Impact Numbers
167
people convened
5
Resilience Accelerator workshops
3
partnerships for resilience collaboration formed
Key Findings
Beaufort and Statesboro have since formed standing resilience networks of their own. Where a local convener stepped forward during the workshop itself, the work has been most likely to carry forward.