RRR Portal One-Pager_20240515.pdf

Recovery and Resilience Resource (RRR) Portal

Background, Purpose, and Next Steps

May 2024 1

The Recovery and Resilience Resource (RRR) Portal will leverage advanced technology to

“smartly match” state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) partners with available assistance and resources to help them recover from – and build resilience to – disasters.

What Is the Recovery and Resilience Resource Portal?

The RRR Portal is a proposed tool to help SLTT partners more easily navigate the wide array of financial, technical, and information assistance resources available across the federal interagency and emergency management community to build community capacity and resilience to disasters.

While many federal agencies already have clearinghouses or libraries of grants and programs, the RRR Portal will use those data sources to train an artificial intelligence (AI) large language model (LLM) to connect users with the resources most applicable to their unique requirements and circumstances. With this “smart matching” capability, the portal will provide a tailored “menu” of services to help point communities and survivors toward the assistance they need.

BACKGROUND: RESEARCH AND DISCOVERY

In May 2023, the Mitigation Framework Leadership Group (MitFLG) initiated a Discovery Phase to identify a way to use technology to address a persistent capability gap experienced across the interagency: SLTT partners consistently express difficulty navigating the many diverse resources available to help support their disaster recovery and resilience-building needs. Though many resources exist, they are scattered across numerous websites and databases, have different rules and requirements for eligibility, and are challenging to pare down to a set of opportunities applicable to each unique SLTT partner’s needs. Moreover, no websites exist with comprehensive resources for different hazard types or disaster phases from across the federal family. Existing websites also lacked the capability to match stakeholders to resources based on specific needs. Currently, when SLTT decision-makers are looking for a resource, they must consult multiple agency websites and do not have a clear menu of options for recovery and mitigation projects.

Is a public-facing tool, accessible to all, including

SLTT partners, nonprofits, academics, and the private sector.

Will use an AI LLM capability to continuously learn and become more sophisticated in matching users with resources and information.

Is an interagency effort – the RRR Portal is not owned or controlled by any one agency.

Will match users to resources and information related to resilience and recovery.

The Recovery and Resilience Resource Portal

Background, Purpose, and Next Steps

May 2024 2

In addition to incorporating traditional assistance avenues like grant applications and funding opportunities, the

RRR Portal will incorporate other resources such as technical assistance programs, data analytics tools, case studies, best practices, and lessons learned to support and inform recovery and resilience projects.

For example, the Small Business Administration (SBA) offers individuals low-interest loans during times of disaster.

While they are not considered “mitigation funding,” these loans have been used to support resilience activities such as elevating structures to protect communities from future flooding. Understanding how SLTT decision-makers have successfully leveraged grants and programs in the past paves the way for others to increase their own opportunities for recovery and resilience.

How Will the Portal Be Used?

The RRR Portal’s primary audience will be SLTT partners and community decision-makers. There may be secondary users of the Portal such as nonprofits, academics, and private sector users.

Nonprofits may look for opportunities to partner with federal programs to increase support for projects aligned with their individual missions. Academics may look for opportunities to partner with federal programs to support research. Private sector users could use the RRR Portal to identify opportunities to participate in public-private partnerships.

The RRR Portal will enable equitable and consistent delivery of resilience and recovery programs across the nation. By simplifying the process for seeking support, communities of diverse backgrounds and varying levels of bandwidth will be able to identify opportunities for support more efficiently. The RRR Portal will also provide awareness of projects and programs and increase transparency on stakeholder experiences.

The RRR Portal will expand past funding sources to include a full scope of resources that can aid decision-making. Federal agencies have various types of resources and information available to the public. The RRR Portal will include direct mitigation funding opportunities, technical assistance, guidance, data, and more to support communities.

What Can the Portal Do?

The MitFLG Portal Task Force, made up of representatives from 10 federal agencies and seven SLTT organizations, will be spearheading the RRR Portal development process to build four new capabilities leveraging the existing infrastructure and data assets within the Recovery and Resilience Resource Library as a foundation.

▪ A more intuitive, user-friendly interface to help SLTT partners easily interact with the platform.

▪ A better business intelligence layer to present the library’s data in a way that provides clear insight to inform decision-making through reports, dashboards, and visualizations.

▪ An expansion of the data assets in the library to include a broader range of interagency recovery and resilience resources.

▪ A “smart matching” wizard, driven by an AI LLM layer, to connect SLTT users with the best-suited to their needs.

https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/practitioners/recovery-resilience-resource-library