Get Started

Addressing climate issues almost always takes a trusted leader who knows how to get things done in their community—a climate champion. An effective champion, whether inside government or a member of the community at large, works with a planning team to assess climate risk and make recommendations on how to address it.

Steps to Resilience:

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Get Started

Understand Exposure

Assess Vulnerability & Risks

Investigate Options

Prioritize & Plan

Take Action

Identify a climate champion

Any leader who chooses to make protecting the community from climate hazards a top priority can be a climate champion. Often, this leader is an elected official, a sustainability coordinator, or someone who works in a local government office. Individuals who work outside of government can also serve in this role—as most community-based organizations and businesses are keenly interested in protecting local assets, individuals from these groups are well-suited to rally residents around a goal to build climate resilience.

If you are ready to serve as a climate champion, or support the efforts of others in this role, these pages can guide you through a finite process to explore your climate risk and build your climate resilience.

Build a representative team

To ensure your efforts are inclusive, communicate your climate-related concerns to people across your networks. Speak about climate early and often, and listen carefully to feedback and additional input.
Prepare talking points or a make presentations about potential issues and possible solutions.
At a minimum, your core team should include government agency representatives and community leaders rooted in frontline communities. Encourage potential planning team members to see themselves making important contributions to adapt to our changing climate.

Other considerations for building your planning team

Consider your community’s history

Identify and acknowledge the systemic patterns and biases that shape your community. Explore the historical legacies of racism and socioeconomic inequality to recognize their current consequences.
Pay special attention to areas where income is low, pollution is high, or access to services is limited.
Overtly consider these issues and their potential solutions in every step of your project.

Check for missing viewpoints

Do all groups who might be affected by issues you chose to explore have trusted representatives on your planning team?
Reach out to identify and engage with unrepresented subgroups of your community. Share your ideas and listen to theirs. Invite leaders of these groups to join your planning team.

Show a list of groups to consider involving »

Local government staff: representatives from government agencies (Public Works, Emergency Management, Sustainability, Housing, Health and Human Services, Finance, Transportation, Parks and Recreation, etc.), including those responsible for social and economic priorities.
Community partners: draw upon existing community partnerships and foster new relationships with trusted frontline community leaders, faith-based groups, and community-based organizations that are working to advance racial, economic, and environmental equity, sustainability, and community development. Community partners should be compensated for lending their expertise and should have an equal voice and influence to shape all aspects of the process as part of the Planning Team.
Regional Governance: regional, state and federal agency representatives with jurisdiction over regional transportation, energy, and water infrastructure systems, as well as social services such as public housing, welfare, risk insurance, and building codes.
Private sector and philanthropic organizations: engage existing partners in the private sector and seek new relationships with leaders of community groups. Consider institutions that have a large stake in community resilience such as hospitals and companies that employ large numbers of local residents).
Academic institutions: universities, colleges, and community education centers may have experts with skills and experience that may prove useful for your project.
Scientific and expert stakeholders: individuals or groups that can help elevate a sense of place and value for the ecosystems and their ecological functions can play a key role in protecting natural assets.
Residents of the community who are willing to participate and contribute expertise on a planning team can bring valuable perspectives to planning efforts.

Check alignment of your developing goals with community values

Ask yourself: If the project you are beginning to envision is successful, will the outcomes be equitable for all? Or will achieving your goal simply pass social or economic costs from one group to another?
Will your efforts address the needs of those most in need?
Check that a popular idea for addressing a relatively small issue in one part of the community will not leave a genuine hardship unaddressed in another area.

Access a prepared worksheet to compile your Planning Team Contact List »

Consult existing planning documents

Locate and examine public documents such as the Comprehensive Plan and Hazard Mitigation Plan relevant to your location.

Gather clues and contacts from public documents

To be eligible for federal programs such as disaster relief, ciities and counties are usually required to develop and file official planning documents, and keep public records about them. Search for these documents online or among city records.

Go through available documents and follow-on meeting notes to identify people, groups, or other information that could be relevant to your climate concerns.

What problems, opportunities, and plans has the community already identified?
Which of these might connect to your climate concerns?
What groups or individuals have expressed interest in issues related to yours? If they are still active, consider joining their effort, or asking them to share what they've learned.

Announce your effort to the public

Use relevant channels to share an overview of the project you are envisioning with the community. You may choose to
- publish a notice in a community newsletter or your local newspaper
- hold a public meeting to build awareness
- develop a post for social media
- build a webpage
Be prepared to respond to questions from community members who are just learning of the project. You may want to welcome new contributors who feel strongly about the asset you want to protect or the actions you might take to the planning team.
As your team grows, members may bring additional climate-related concerns. The next step, Understand Exposure, will help you zero in on the things that you most want to protect and the hazards that you may need to protect them from.

Download Excel file.

You may find it useful to download and complete this prepared spreadsheet to record input as you move through the steps.

Access the Glossary for definitions and examples of words related to resilience.

References for Steps to Resilience

Overview of the Steps to Resilience

Last modified:

19 March 2024 - 3:41pm