Attachment_1-_USDN_ResilienceHubsGuidance.pdf

1 2

GUIDE TO

DEVELOPING

RESILIENCE

HUBS

Urban Sustainability Directors Network

Resilience Hubs are community-serving facilities augmented to support residents, coordinate communication, distribute resources, and reduce carbon pollution while enhancing quality of life. USDN

Disclaimer: This draft Guidance Document is a working document and should not be considered a final product. It is constantly evolving and will be updated periodically with new information.

1 2

RESILIENCE HUB

The Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN) is a peer-to-peer network of local government professionals from communities across the United States and Canada dedicated to creating a healthier environment, economic prosperity, and increased social equity. Our dynamic network enables sustainability directors and staff to share best practices and accelerate the application of good ideas across North America. TABLE OF CONTENT

INTRODUCTION

MAKING THE CASE

GETTING STARTED

PHASE ONE

ACCESS VULNERABILITY & SELECT SERVICE AREA

PHASE TWO

ESTABLISH PROJECT TEAM, BUILD PARTNERSHIPS, AND SET GOALS

PHASE THREE

IDENTIFY & EVALUATE SITES

PHASE FOUR

IDENTIFY RESILIENCE SOLUTIONS

PHASE FIVE

DEVELOP SITE & INSTALL SOLUTIONS

PHASE SIX

ACTIVATE SITE AND OPERATIONS

PLAN IN MOTION - RESILIENCE HUB EXAMPLES

3 4

APPENDICES CONTRIBUTORS

APPENDIX A - ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

APPENDIX B - FUNDING SOURCES

APPENDIX C - GLOSSARY

APPENDIX D - POTENTIAL PROJECT TEAM PARTNERS

APPENDIX E - RESILIENT SOLUTIONS OPTIONS

APPENDIX F - WORKFORCE TRAINING & OPPORTUNITIES

APPENDIX G - DECISION-SUPPORT TOOLS

APPENDIX H - KITCHEN ASSESSMENT RESOURCES

APPENDIX I - DIFFERENT HUBS APPROACHES/EXAMPLES

APPENDIX J - SAMPLE POLICY CONSIDERATIONS

Many people contributed to the development of this draft Guidance Document. We would like to thank all the community members, Community-Based Organizations, USDN Members and USDN partners for participating in workshops and events that helped inform the content of this document.

AUTHOR

Kristin Baja Programs Director, Climate Resilience Urban Sustainability Directors Network

CONTRIBUTORS

Sarah McKinstry-Wu Programs Director, Equity and Climate Planning Urban Sustainability Directors Network

Geoff Oxnam

CEO

American Microgrid Solutions

Garrett Fitzgerald Strategic Collaboration Director Urban Sustainability Directors Network

REVIEWERS

Jessica Grannis Adaptation Program Director Georgetown Climate Center

Tiffany Ganthier Institute Associate, Adaptation Georgetown Climate Center

Seth Mullendore Vice President and Project Director Clean Energy Group

5 6

Climate change is happening now. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the number of billion-dollar disasters has risen significantly over the last ten years. As the ten warmest years ever recorded have happened since 1998, so have the costliest weather-related disaster events. As the globe continues to warm, extreme weather events will continue to threaten and impact communities, infrastructure, and systems worldwide.

Due to a history of marginalization and disinvestment, people of color, immigrants, refugees, and lower-income populations experience increased exposure and sensitivity to climate hazards and a reduced capacity to adapt. Preparing for climate change provides opportunities to address root causes of disproportionate exposure and sensitivity to climate impacts and enhance these priority communities’ capacity to adapt.

RESILIENCE is the ability of people and their communities to anticipate, accommodate and positively adapt to or thrive amidst changing climate conditions and hazard events. Resilient communities enjoy a high quality of life, reliable systems, and economic vitality, and they conserve resources for present and future generations. The term resilience is often used interchangeably with emergency preparedness and response, but these elements only address part of this important concept. For the purposes of this document and for the development of Resilience Hubs, we will use this holistic and comprehensive definition of resilience.

INTRODUCTION

The way we experience resilience differs by setting, facility and community. For example, a temporary power outage in an apartment building may be little more than a nuisance for some residents, but can be life threatening for others who rely on breathing machines or home dialysis equipment.

Impacts from a power outage can also disrupt entire systems such as a data center where mere seconds can significantly impact capabilities and potentially create hazardous conditions for thousands of people. Establishing networks of community-run

Resilience Hubs represents an efficient and effective way to strengthen communities before, during, and after natural or human-made disasters like hurricanes, extreme heat events, water main breaks, or gas outages while also improving year-round conditions and providing community benefit.

Resilience Hubs are community-serving facilities augmented to support residents, coordinate communication, distribute resources, and reduce carbon pollution while enhancing quality of life.

Hubs can meet a myriad of physical and social goals by utilizing a trusted physical space such as a community center, recreation facility, or multi-family housing building as well as the surrounding infrastructure such as a vacant lot, community park, or local business. They provide an opportunity to effectively work at the nexus of community resilience, emergency management, climate change mitigation, and social equity while also providing opportunities for communities to become more self-determining, socially connected, and successful before, during, and after disruptions.

Resilience Hubs serve communities in three operating conditions: Normal (>99% of the time), Disruption and Recovery. To serve as a Resilience Hub, a community-serving facility will generally

RESILIENCE HUBS

require a series of upgrades to ensure that the facility meets the daily needs identified by community members while also being able to provide critical services in the event of a disruption, often including:

a trusted set of “Hub managers” to streamline information sharing

• Logistical coordination with partner groups that provide aid and post-disruption support

• Access to basic health and medical supplies

Community facilities typically require enhancements and upgrades that improve their capacity to provide service in all three operating conditions (everyday, disruption, and recovery). Upgrades can range in complexity and cost. Some may be as simple as provisioning additional materials, whereas others may be as sophisticated as installing hybrid resilience power solutions. Upgrades typically fall into five main categories.

While upgrades and services carry additional capital and operating expense for the facility, these investments can generate financial, sustainability, and social returns not only for the facility, but also for the surrounding community.

7 8

Offering additional services and programs that build relationships, promote community preparedness, and improve residents’ health and well-being.

Resilient Programing and Services

Strengthening the resilience of the facility to ensure that it meets operational goals in all conditions.

Resilient Structure

Ensuring the ability to communicate within and outside the service area during disruptions and throughout recovery.

Resilient Communications

Ensuring reliable backup power to the facility during a hazard while also improving the cost-effectiveness and sustainability of operations in all three operating modes.

Resilient Power

Ensuring personnel and processes are in place to operate the facility in all conditions.

Resilient Operations

RESILIENCE HUBS use a physical space - a building and its surrounding infrastructure - to meet numerous goals, both physical and social. Resilience hubs are an opportunity to efficiently improve emergency management, reduce climate pollution and enhance community resilience. These spaces also provide opportunities for communities to become more self-determining, socially connected, and successful in the long-term. This document outlines initial thinking about essential elements of a Resilience Hub and how to begin planning for Hub development.

PURPOSE OF THIS GUIDE KEY DEFINITIONS

9 10

This Guide is intended to help communities develop new Resilience Hub projects. Most Resilience Hub projects are likely to start by leveraging existing community assets. Some may start with a well-trusted and well-utilized site already identified, while others may start with a strong coalition of community partners. Not all Resilience Hubs will develop in the same order or on the same timeline.

Whether starting from designing a community center retrofit, a resilient power solar plus storage installation, or a new emergency shelter, this guide can help identify opportunities to expand beyond a singular goal and meet a wide range of community needs with one project.

Likewise, Resilience Hub projects will each be designed to achieve a custom set of operational, financial, community, sustainability, and other goals.

Resilience Hubs achieving best practice across those goals can create powerful community benefits.

Projects can also develop more incrementally, ideally in ways that do not preclude deeper achievement of expanded goals in the future. Hub planners will face both common and unique obstacles, and will have many choices to make in the process.

This Guide outlines a vision of how Resilience Hubs can optimally perform across a range of issues and operating modes. Guidance is provided to inspire Hub planners and partners to pursue best practice wherever possible, with the intent that project developers will also find valuable advice for projects that develop more incrementally. Wherever your community is starting from, you can find guidance within this document on:

Area

4. Identification of Project Team and Project

Goals

This Guide and accompanying Resilience Hub Analysis Tool provide a framework to help communities plan for, implement and operate a community Resilience Hub. It works in concert with existing Resilience frameworks including FEMA’s National Disaster Recovery Framework, local All Hazard Mitigation Plans (AHMPs) and municipal Sustainability & Resilience strategies. As such, this Plan leverages tools and techniques from all of these with an eye on streamlining and integrating effectively.

As communities and their partners use this Guide, it is critical to remember that resilience is holistic and is intended to help communities increase adaptive capacity, improve quality of life, and thrive amidst changing climate conditions. Thus, this Guide is a living document that will be periodically updated to reflect promising new practices, address new challenges, and incorporate new data from projects around the country.

Adaptive Capacity – The ability of a system to adjust to climate change (including climate variability and extremes) to moderate potential damages, to take advantage of opportunities, or to cope with the consequences.

Climate Resilience – Climate resilience is the ability of communities to anticipate, accommodate and positively adapt to or thrive amidst changing climate conditions or hazard events and to enhance quality of life, reliable systems, economic vitality, and conservation of resources for present and future generations. Resilience differs by setting, facility and community.

Resilience Hub – Resilience Hubs are community-serving facilities augmented to support residents and coordinate resource distribution and services before, during or after a disruption. They leverage established, trusted, and community-managed facilities that are used year-round as neighborhood centers for community-building activities. Designed well, Resilience Hubs can equitably enhance community resilience while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving local quality of life.

They have the potential to reduce burden on local emergency response teams, improve access to public health initiatives, foster greater community cohesion, and increase the effectiveness of community-centered institutions and programs.

See USDN’s Resilience Hubs White Paper for more information.

Resilient Power – The ability not only to provide critical power to essential facilities and services during a power outage, but also to provide economic benefits throughout the year by reducing power bills and generating revenue to utilities and grid operators by generating power onsite and providing services to utilities and grid operators. Solutions typically include multiple forms of power generation and energy storage.

Critical Infrastructure – To operate, community-serving facilities rely on critical infrastructure that typically includes electricity, water, wastewater, heating fuel (natural gas, propane or fuel oil), communications (fixed wire or mobile) and Internet service.

Hybrid Resilience System (HyRS) – Energy systems combining renewable and conventional generation assets as well as energy storage.

11 12

MAKING THE CASE

CONTEXT

Due to a legacy of discriminatory policies and practices, low-income communities and communities of color often face a range of daily stressors that may make them more vulnerable to impacts from a changing climate. These same communities also suffer disproportionately from disruptions (both natural and anthropogenic) due to limited economic resources, chronic under-investment and lack of support. To date, most community resilience work focuses on identifying and managing vulnerability and risk through government defined assessments and approaches that often fail to meaningfully respond to community-defined needs. With support services strained, infrastructure failing and impacts from extreme weather events continuing to grow, residents and community-based organizations have identified the need for a trusted location within their neighborhood where residents can access resources, materials and support year-round while also increasing community and personal adaptive capacity.

Resilient communities can thrive every day, during disruptions, and as they recover from disruption.

A critical component of thriving in day-to-day life is having a community that values your life and a government and institutions that are accountable for supporting your well-being. Developing a Resilience Hub is an opportunity to create both a physical space and also a culture and relationships that support all residents and work to dismantle historic inequities and their root causes.

With support services strained, infrastructure failing and impacts from extreme weather events continuing to grow, residents and community-based organizations have identified the need for a trusted location within their neighborhood where residents can access resources, materials and support year-round while also increasing community and personal adaptive capacity.

Shifting power and capacity to communities through the development of a network of community-driven and supported Resilience Hubs can help reduce stress on systems and infrastructure such as public safety, hospitals and transportation while increasing community adaptive capacity. Resilience Hubs can become community cornerstones where neighbors come together to better understand one another, cooperate toward common goals and bolster the health of their shared community. They can also help expedite and improve logistics for support networks and other relief agencies in the event of a disruption by providing established and well-trusted sites where people can access relief materials and resources easily and efficiently.

Among the many factors challenging community resilience, the impacts from a rapidly changing climate already pose direct impacts to communities, neighborhoods, towns, cities and entire regions.

There is a wide range of data, research and documented impacts from extreme weather events to make the case for proactively enhancing community adaptive capacity and strengthening resilience. When making the case for investing in community Resilience Hubs, project teams can utilize hazard and climate data from Appendix E in this document.

Sources to Research

13 14

COST & FUNDING

From their prior site uses and conditions to their primary goals and functions, no two Resilience Hub projects are exactly alike. The work and costs associated with developing and operating a Hub can thus vary widely. Just as houses span from tiny homes to large mansions, Resilience Hub development and operational needs range in size and sophistication.

Resilience upgrades to a physical structure or surrounding spaces can provide both direct and indirect financial return that may radically impact a facility’s bottom line. Take, for example, a resilient power solar + storage solution. The capital cost for a “typically-sized” solution range from $150,000 - $250,000 if the Hub were to purchase and install the components outright. However, that same systems will generate savings on annual utility costs not otherwise available. Some projects are eligible for special financing in which a third party owns the system, monetizes incentives, and sells energy at a discount to the Resilience Hub eliminating nearly all upfront costs for the Hub while generating savings and resilience. This will not always be the case and the cost of any solution, from floodproofing to upgrades in IT infrastructure, vary widely due to a wide range of factors. This Guide emphasizes taking a life-cycle cost approach to Resilience Hub development, analyzing the short-term and ongoing costs, as well as the revenue streams with the intention of helping Resilience Hub teams estimate costs and identify sources of funding.

When one considers the cost to communities and society as a whole from under-investing in resilience, the impact of Resilience Hubs becomes far more profound. This Guide focuses on the costs of designing, implementing and operationalizing a Hub.

Although there are certainly economic values to the various non-financial benefits Resilience Hubs offer, this Guide does not attempt to appropriately “price” the benefits of enhanced resilience, sustainability or equity.

Because Resilience Hubs are solving multiple problems, often several sectors are involved, and the projects can benefit from multiple sources of funding. Identifying and securing financial support is an ongoing task. Funding opportunities will be discussed in more depth in Appendix B, however below is a list of sources to research when initially considering development of a Resilience Hub or a network of Hubs.

Another key element to consider when seeking funding is the amount of time required to fulfill grant requirements. Grant fulfillment and administration can be labor- and time-intensive. It is important to have someone on your team with the time and experience to identify sources of funding, follow up on securing funding, and to track spending connected to each phase of the project. The Resilience Hub Analysis Tool provides a list of funding sources by type. Visit the list frequently as we will be updating with new sources.

Several cities have resilience goals and programs through which they can help to leverage funds. The DC Sustainable Energy Utility, for example, provides a range of rebates for energy efficiency solutions that can be incorporated into Resilience Hub projects.

A broad array of foundations from local community foundations to international organizations offer grants in resilience, clean energy and economic development.

State environmental, emergency management and economic development agencies offer support for aspects of resilience projects. The Maryland Energy Administration, for example, offers a Resiliency Hub grant program to support resilient power.

Increasingly, social impact investment funds are bridging the gap between private sector funding and public sector goals. The Global Impact Investing Network defines impact investments as, “investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate social and environmental impact alongside a financial return.” Generate Capital, for example, invests in energy efficiency and clean energy for small projects that are often passed by conventional sources of funding.

Typically channeled through state and local government, these sources provide a range of technical and financial support for community resilience. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), U.S.

Department of Housing & Urban Development, U.S.

Department of Energy and U.S. Department of Homeland Security are among the many federal agencies that have programs to offer this type of support.

A wide-array of incentives, from utility-funded rebates to tax credits, are available to facilitate investment in resilience enhancements.

Check your utilities’ websites or state public utility commission for sources. The appendix includes many of these sources, but a great place to start is the resilience or sustainability pages of your city’s website, state environmental and emergency management agencies, or websites that compile lists of sources like www.

dsireusa.org or www.

adaptationclearinghouse.

org

Often nonprofits for resilience solutions will know how to access various rebates and assistance programs and can help Hub developers navigate these programs as part of their services.

For example, Clean Energy Groups (CEG) Resilient Power Project or Solar One in NYC both offer technical assistance support.

LOCAL GOVERNMENTFOUNDATIONS STATE GOVERNMENT

IMPACT INVESTMENT

FUNDS

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT UTILITY INCENTIVES

Research teams and institutional partners can provide value in many ways. First, they can assist with providing downscaled data and support when assessing vulnerability. Second, they can assist with identifying solutions that enhance resilience based on unique characteristics at each site. Third, they can provide ongoing support to sites through living laboratories and/ or citizen science opportunities.

TEAM WITH

RESEARCHERS

TEAM OR CONTRACT

WITH NONPROFITS

15 16

Resilience Hubs should be developed and managed through processes that shift power from local government to communities and community-based organizations. Sites should be situated in neighborhoods with priority populations and greater exposure to climate hazards, and either entirely managed or co-managed with members of the community. Services, resources, and opportunities available at Hubs should meet the needs identified by community members and focus on addressing disproportionate access to opportunities and resources.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT

By providing resources and tools in normal conditions and working directly with the community through recovery from disruptions, Resilience Hubs can help low-income residents and communities of color reduce financial impacts that occur during and after disruptions.

Resilience Hubs contribute to sustainability by offsetting grid-supplied power from solar and storage systems, developing or protecting natural systems, and reducing carbon emissions.

Resilience Hubs act as a safe space for community members to build and strengthen relationships, collaborate on projects, participate in decision-making, and foster a sense of place and inclusiveness year-round. For example, Hubs can be gathering places for block parties, special events, and new community projects.

Resilient power upgrades to an existing facility can help to reduce utility costs by offsetting both the amount of electricity purchased from the grid, reducing additional demand charges for the peak amount of electricity consumed during each month, and by leveraging rebates and incentives. The amount of that savings will vary by location, the local price of electricity, amount of space available to install solutions, available incentives and rebates as well as other factors. Using special finance tools to allow a third-party to own the system can shift capital costs away from the Resilience Hub and over to the system owner.

When optimally designed, Resilience Hubs provide services that strengthen community resilience not simply in the face of disruption, but on a daily basis. Resilience Hubs are like snowflakes, each is unique based on its location, set of needs and history. Although one size does not fit all, the benefits of a Resilience Hub listed below are tangible and measurable and include:

Resilience Hubs can help improve public health and well-being by streamlining health programming and resources at a community-trusted site (in addition to existing health delivery sites). In the event of disruption, Hubs can provide access to basic medical supplies and also act as centers for medical deliveries and support.

Economic Stability

Social Equity

Environmental Sustainability

Community Cohesion

Community Energy Costs Savings

Public Health and Safety

Some Hubs, depending on the services provided, can also provide these benefits:

Hubs are centers for community resources and tools.

If space allows, sites can act as resource centers for lawn and yard tools, snow removal tools, and more. Funneling resources through Hubs can save community members money and time.

Resilience Hubs can provide a space for workforce partners to host job fairs and deliver job training services. The development of a Resilience Hub also provides opportunities for community members to learn about resilient power systems, general contracting, and green landscaping. Operating a Hub can also create local management, communications, fundraising, and clean energy jobs.

Both in their contribution to preparation and their ability to provide services during the recovery phase of a disaster, Resilience Hubs reduce the need for services from other entities including public safety, hospitals, and relief organizations. According to National Institute of Building Sciences, a dollar spent on increasing resilience for local governments and communities has a four- to six-fold return on investment . Localized resilience measures can lower risk mitigation costs and increase creditworthiness for cities.

Resilient power upgrades to an existing facility can help to reduce utility costs by offsetting both the amount of electricity purchased from the grid, reducing additional demand charges for the peak amount of electricity consumed during each month, and by leveraging rebates and incentives. The amount of that savings will vary by location, the local price of electricity, amount of space available to install solutions, available incentives and rebates as well as other factors. Using special finance tools to allow a third-party to own the system can shift capital costs away from the Resilience Hub and over to the system owner.

Resources and Materials

Job Training and Opportunities

Municipal Cost Savings

Community Energy Costs Savings

DISRUPTION AND DISASTER RESPONSE

Although Resilience Hubs will function at “normal mode” most of the time, they are intended to also act as centers for preparedness, response, and recovery. The most successful disaster response is to invest in preparedness of individuals, community-based organizations, and neighborhoods before a disruption. Resilience Hubs should be utilized as locations to bring together community members, block leaders, local business owners, and anchor organizations around different preparedness opportunities such as:

Assessments

5. Communications and Outreach

In the event of a disruption, Hubs will switch from Normal Mode into reacting and responding to the disruption and will enhance operations to better support immediate community needs. With enhanced systems and capacity, Hubs can ideally help reduce the need of emergency services and better connect residents and businesses with supplies, information and support during a disruption. More detail on how to operationalize a Hub is provided in Phase 6 of this Guide.

After disruption, Hubs are ideally intended to switch into Recovery Mode. The same inequities frontline communities experience before and during a disaster tend to impact their ability to recover, let alone thrive, after a disruption. Hubs can act as centers for resource deliveries and distribution, access to support and assistance for complicated processes such as filling out relief or insurance forms, locations to access support services for trauma and can even be locations where Community Benefits Agreements are generated. Hubs can also be central locations for external partners to gather and support recovery services such as conducting needs assessments, damage assessments, interviews with residents, and collecting data.

17 18

Project leads should prioritize communities, organizations, and populations with little influence and access, but which have high need and will be impacted by the Resilience Hub (quadrant 1).

Project leads will need to proactively organize and manage the people and groups that hold a lot of power in the process and who are high need and will be impacted by the Hub (quadrant 2). Project leads should minimize time spent with stakeholders who have little power over the process but also little need or relationship to the project. And, lastly, project leads should identify ways to leverage the power of people and organizations that can influence the Hubs process but that are not the communities and organizations who will be served by the Hub.

Once project leads understand the history and context of the neighborhood and the relative power of stakeholders, they should identify a core project team.

SELECT A PROJECT TEAM

Resilience Hubs Stakeholder Power Analysis

PRIORITIZE

Quadrant 1

Quadrant 3

Quadrant 2

Quadrant 4

NOT MAIN FOCUS

MANAGE

LEVERAGE

Im pa ct /N ee d

Influence/Access

19 20

Resilience Hubs are intended shift power to neighborhoods and residents. At a minimum, Resilience Hubs should be co-developed and co-managed by members of the community and/or community-based organizations. Before establishing a Resilience Hub, project leads should understand the history of the community in which they are working. What risks have residents faced historically, and what are their root causes? Are community members wary of government officials and/or public safety institutions? If so, why?

To help answer these questions, project leads can complete a stakeholder power analysis to identify relevant stakeholders, understand power dynamics between stakeholders, and determine how these dynamics should inform the process of Hub development.

GETTING STARTED

Although a project team will evolve and change over time, developing a Resilience Hub requires a core group of committed people. The Resilience Hub project team should include community members, community-based organizations, residents, and experts in the areas where a Resilience Hub supports municipal and community functions before, during, and after a hazard event. Project team members will need to work together to ensure community needs are prioritized and community voices guide the entire Hub development process.

Each Resilience Hub team will include many stakeholders and require various skills and capacities to meet their goals. Prioritize recruiting partners to fill roles from the Resilience Hub service area, or recruit stakeholders from beyond the service area in partnership with the host community. Below is a list of potential team members and some reasons why they might choose to join a Resilience Hub Team.

THIS GUIDE

This document provides step-by-step guidance for establishing a Resilience Hub. Each Resilience Hub is unique and carries its own set of particular challenges and opportunities. This Guide provides guidance for local governments, CBO’s and partners to plan for and establish Resilience Hubs in their communities, and reflects the experiences of USDN members and other communities currently developing Hubs. Implementing a Resilience Hub follows this six-phase process.

Resilience Hub Project Team Example

Phase 1: Assess Vulnerability & Select Service Area Phase 2: Establish Team, Partnerships and Goals Phase 3: Identify & Evaluate Sites Phase 4: Identify Resilience Solutions Phase 5: Develop Sites & Install Solutions Phase 6: Activate & Operate Sites

The Guide includes the USDN Resilience Hub Analysis Tool which provides a set of checklists, resources and templates to help accomplish key steps.

21 22

Role Responsibilities Skill Set Source

TeamLead Charter Project, Manage Team, Manage Deliverables

Project Management Local Government Staff or NGO or CBO

Program Manager

Develop Specifications, Produce RFPs, Design & Engineer Solutions, Manage Procurement, Manage Installation

Design & Engineering, Project Management, operations

In-house Staff or Consultant

Community Based Organizations

Bring Local Knowledge, Facilitate Community Input/Engagement

Relationship Building, Facilitation, Communications

Local Neighborhood

Neighborhood Leaders

Ensure Community Needs are Valued and Understood. Local Perspectives, Experience and Knowledge

Neighborhood Knowledge, Relationships, Support

Neighborhood

Finance Identify Opportunities and Seek Funding, Coordinate with Site Leads & Other Stakeholders

Financial Analysis Accounting Project Finance

CFO (staff, board or both)

Programming Coordinate Year-Round Community Benefits with Site Leaders and Community, Emergency Operations Processes

Emergency Mgmt., Health, & Planning, Sustainability

Local Government Staff

Equity Coach and Support Project Team. Ensure Community Needs are Prioritized. Assist with additional community research.

Race, Equity and Inclusion Expertise

DEI Consultant

Local Business Representatives

Identify Business Community Needs, Ensure Local Business Input is valued

Business Case for Resilience

Chamber of Commerce, Neighborhood

The Resilience Hub Action Tool provides a Project Team Checklist to assist in this process.

• Organizing a Resilience Hub in your community can bring services to your community, connect you to your neighbors on a daily basis, and also help you weather any disruptions and bounce back quickly.

• The process of developing a Hub can help shift power from local government and institutions to community members and can create a joint understanding of the root causes of historic inequities and ways to resolve those problems.

• A Resilience Hub can provide physical spaces and programs to improve employment in your neighborhood. It can host job training and job fairs. It can include community members in its design and construction work and teach community members new skills such as installing resilient power systems and green stormwater infrastructure.

• A Resilience Hub will become a local employer with jobs ranging from management, to communications, and fundraising to energy engineering.

• A Hub can be a place for you to build and maintain community bonds.

• During disruptions a Hub can be a source of information, shelter, food and water, medical supplies, and solidarity.

• As your community recovers from any disruptions, a Hub can help you understand your opportunities and get the resources you need.

• Making one of your facilities into a Resilience Hub can increase your ability to be a community asset every day, during disruptions, and when your community is recovering from disruption.

• Resilience Hubs are an opportunity to provide excellent constituent services while at the same time lowering the cost of doing business.

• Hubs can ease operating burdens for local governments and help them create and nurture relationships with community members.

Community Leaders, Champions, and ResidentsA B Local Community-Based

Organizations & Institutions

C Local Business Representatives

D

E

Decision-makers:

Mayors, City Councilors, Sustainability Directors, and Chief Resilience Officers

Local Government Staff:

Public Safety, Public Works, and Building and Flood Code Departments

F Utility Liaison

G H

Local Foundations

State Energy Office Representative

ASSESS VULNERABILITY & SELECT SERVICE AREA

ASSESS EXPOSURE

ASSESS SENSITIVITY & ADAPTIVE CAPACITY

To understand the potential consequences of hazard events and disruptions, Resilience Hub Teams must understand how sensitive community members, businesses and neighborhoods are to stressors and shocks and what existing ability they have to recover and adapt. Several factors influence sensitivity including factors such as health, occupation, income, living conditions, age, language barriers, and racism. Many frontline communities, which the NAACP defines as “neighborhoods or populations of people who are directly affected by climate change and inequity in society at higher rates than people who have more power in society,” suffer disproportionately from both disruptions and everyday stressors due to historical causes of inequity including discriminatory housing policies, chronic under-investment, and limited influence on bureaucratic processes.

The degree to which an individual is sensitive to disruptions and long-term climate impacts depends largely on a combination of root causes and economic, social, biological and political factors that increase disparity.

Vulnerability Assessment Considerations and Questions

Ideally, teams interested in developing Resilience Hubs will complete a thorough community-driven vulnerability assessment or use an existing one. Teams without resources to conduct a full assessment should, at a minimum, consider how the factors in the table below influence individual and community vulnerability and their ability to respond to everyday stressors and occasional shocks. All three Hub modes, normal, disruption and recovery, should be evaluated. The table below includes example questions to consider in categories that correspond to guidance for assessing pre-existing community vulnerabilities and assets found on pages 42 to 44 of In the Eye of the Storm: A People’s Guide to Transforming Crisis & Advancing Equity in the Disaster Continuum.

Tools to support conducting a full vulnerability assessment can be found in Appendix G.

23 24

PHASE ONE

Resilience Hubs can help reduce community vulnerability by decreasing exposure to risk, reducing residents’ sensitivity to stressors, and increasing a communities’ capacity to deal with disruption and long-term changes. A vulnerability assessment inventories spatial and temporal exposure to hazards (both natural and human-made), the sensitivity of residents and businesses to those hazards, and the community’s existing capacity to recover from disruption and adapt to long-term changes. The assessment can help Hub project teams better understand where Hubs will be most useful, near concentrations of people and places most likely to experience harm from disruptions and impacts from a changing climate.

Resilience Hub developers without a specific site or neighborhood in mind can conduct a broader vulnerability assessment to help narrow the potential service area of a Hub, while teams working on a Resilience Hub with a selected location can use a vulnerability assessment to validate that there are local needs a Hub can help meet.

Hub Developers should assess exposure of their potential sites to existing and future hazards both human-made, such as infrastructure failure and industrial accidents, and human-influenced, such as increased extreme precipitation or heat waves caused by climate change. Types of exposure that a Resilience Hub may need respond to are listed in the table below.

Information on local hazards can often be found in a municipal or county All Hazards Mitigation Plan, Adaptation Plan and/or vulnerability assessment. If a local source of hazards is not available, Hub planners can use EPA’s EJSCREEN, Climate Central’s Surging Seas Risk Finder, and the CREAT Climate Scenarios Projection Map to better understand what the Hub may be exposed to. Hub planners can use this information to prioritize sites that are not exposed to major hazards yet close enough to serve populations exposed to disproportionate hazards.

To understand vulnerability, Hub teams must understand what stressors or disruptions are present at their potential sites and whether the community is negatively impacted by exposure to them. A stressor requires the attention of the Hub team only if the community or community assets cannot currently handle that stress.

To complete the most accurate and useful assessment possible, Hub developers should seek both top-down and bottom-up sources of information. Many potential sources of existing assessments as well as guidance on how to undertake a comprehensive vulnerability assessment are included in Appendix G. If Hubs teams do not have the resources for a complete assessment, this section includes recommendations about what to assess that will directly influence Hub development.

Hubs teams will find community members’ on-the-ground knowledge and experience is critical to understanding historic hazards, community assets, and adaptive capacity.

Hazards Potential Exposures

and solid waste management

Collapse

• Hazardous Material Spill

Natural Hazards (Human- Influenced)

Flooding

Resilience Hub Functioning Modes

Category Everyday Disruption Recovery

Demographics What types of people live in the Hub service area? What types of everyday services do they need?

What languages do communications need to be in? What accessibility needs must any shelter offer?

Which residents qualify for which recovery resources? Do residents need interpretation services to access programs?

Housing Security & Conditions

Do most residents rent or own their homes? Should housing programs be designed for owners, landlords, or both?

How many residents live in homes exposed to potential flooding?

How many homeowners have flood insurance? How many renters have renters insurance?

Food Security How close is the nearest grocery store? How many residents lack reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food?

How many residents have 72 hours of food and water stored at home? Do local grocery stores have continuity of operations (COOP) plans ?

How many residents rely on transit to grocery shop? Are there local food businesses that need help navigating recovery offerings?

SELECT SERVICE AREA

IDENTIFY EXISTING RESILIENCE PLANS AND SUPPPORT TOOLS

Resilience Hubs are flexible both in their application and design. Sites are as diverse as the communities they serve. When assessing where Resilience Hubs are most needed, utilize community input and expertise in addition to information identified in risk and vulnerability assessments. These combined inputs and resources will help to identify areas most in need. Below is a list of factors and questions to consider when identifying where hubs are most needed and the service area they will support.

• Community Input – Community members know their neighborhoods best. It is critical to involve members of the community, local business owners, and community-based organizations when identifying potential areas and sites.

• Support Network – Ideally, Resilience Hubs are primarily managed and supported by community-based organizations and/or members of the community. When selecting a site, seek areas with credible, organized, and established community-based organizations including faith-based organizations, community centers, recreation centers, or municipal facilities.

Although the vulnerability assessment and community input should be the main priorities when identifying potential service areas, existing resilience and/or climate planning documents also have the potential to assist in identifying potential sites.

• Existing Plans and Regulations – Project Teams should inventory resilience plans, preparedness plans, emergency response plans, and/or climate adaptation plans, including documents and projects developed outside of local government that impact the community. In addition, Teams should also become familiar with building codes, land use ordinances and stormwater management regulations, all of which can potentially impact viability of a Resilience Hub.

• Decision-Making Tools – There are a wide range of decision-making tools available to support local governments, community-based organizations and community members in enhancing resilience. These tools include social equity and environmental justice tools, flood map and flood vulnerability tools, health impact assessment tools, and energy efficiency tools. A list of support tools can be found in Appendix G.

25 26

Resilience Hub Functioning Modes (Continue) Category Everyday Disruption Recovery

Mobility How many residents have access to vehicles and transit options?

How walkable is the neighborhood? How far will residents travel to a Hub?

How many residents have access to a mode of transit that they can reliably use to evacuate? Is the Hub close enough to evacuation routes to receive supplies during disruptions?

What services do residents access by transit that a Hub can consider bringing to the area if the transit recovery timeline is long?

Health Status, System, & Services

Do residents have higher rates of asthma and other health conditions? How many residents qualify for insurance benefits but are not enrolled?

How many residents use medications that require refrigeration or medical equipment that requires electricity?

Are there health facilities in the area that may need to place patients in other facilities during recovery?

What are their patient populations?

Emergency Services

How many residents have an emergency plan, shelter in place materials, and a go bag?

Are there an adequate number of community shelters and/or emergency shelters in the area?

How many first responders live in the area? What will their mental health needs be during recovery?

Local Economy How many local businesses have insurance? Flood insurance?

Do local businesses have continuity of operations (COOP) plans?

Which businesses qualify for which recovery resources?

Do businesses need interpretation services to access programs?

Utilities How many households have had utility shut-offs in the last 12 months? How many residents have access to redundant communication options (cell service, landline, and/or internet)?

How many residents and businesses are prepared to function without utilities for 72 hours?

What is the age of local utility infrastructure? Has it failed before, and, if so, how long did repairs take?

Governance Are decision-makers in meaningful relationship with community members?

Does institutional preparation for disruption value resident needs and local knowledge?

Are recovery programs designed to be accountable to community members?

Community Culture

Are residents socially connected? Does local culture value preparation for disruption?

What cultural practices, such as worshipping or following dietary restrictions, will residents want to continue during disruption?

Is the design of recovery programs culturally appropriate for residents?

Critical Facilities

Does the neighborhood have access to critical services like food, health care, and emergency response?

Do local critical facilities have continuity of operations (COOP) plans?

If critical facilities’ recovery timeline is long, what services will the neighborhood lack?

These example questions and the resources identified in this section can assist Resilience Hub teams in developing the most helpful list of assessment topics for their community. Acquiring some of this information may require conducting community surveys and/or interviews since much of this data is not readily available.

If capacity is an issue, this is an opportunity to partner with local community-based organizations and institutional partners to assist with gathering information.

ESTABLISH PROJECT TEAM, BUILD PARTNERSHIPS, AND SET GOALS

PHASE TWO

BUILD PARTNERSHIPS WITH COMMUNITY MEMBERS & ORGANIZATIONS

Resilience Hubs are a tool to increase community adaptive capacity and enhance quality of life.

Residents and local community-based organizations should be partners, and preferably the leaders, from the very beginning of the process to develop and manage a Resilience Hub. This requires local government leads and other partners to actively step back and shift power to community leaders and organizations. Building partnerships and trust is an ongoing process that requires transparent communication, continuous engagement and ensuring all voices are heard and valued. It is important to recruit new team members in partnership with the Hub’s host community, and prioritize recruiting partners from the service area to fill those roles.

The quality of collaboration with community partners can have a significant impact on the success of a Resilience Hub project. Effective collaboration requires commitment, skill, and a thoughtful approach. Deeper guidance on how local governments can most effectively collaborate with community partners is available in two recently developed guides:

• Community-Driven Climate Resilience Planning Framework developed by the National Association of Climate Resilience Planners

(NACRP)

• Guide to Equitable, Community-Driven Climate Preparedness Planning developed by a group of USDN members and partners

For the purposes of establishing a Resilience Hubs Project Team, there are key stakeholders that should be included as part of the community-driven process. Steps for identifying and establishing those partnerships include:

Identify organizations that currently serve the community…