From climate change-fueled wildfires to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the world is waking up to the urgent need for local resilience. NorCal Resilience Network created training program to support sites in a diversity of communities to become Hubs over the next year, becoming more resilient, while strengthening their community ties and ready for disasters. For this pilot training, they are welcoming communities of all structures and sizes – from neighborhood centers to places of worship to city blocks. The sessions will be highly interactive and will include opportunities to build relationships and trust across silos, sectors and communities.
The program will include:
- Monthly sessions led by community experts
- Skill shares between sessions, to dive deeper into the monthly topics – including socially-distanced work days (presented by Network members and partners)
- Mentorship opportunities with sites already serving as resilience hubs
- Stories and case studies about the sites and programs
Sites who complete the program will be eligible to receive funds from the NorCal Resilience Network’s grants program. The program will also honor and support sites who are well-developed as resilience hubs, with opportunities to share stories, best practices and mentorship.
WHAT ARE RESILIENCE HUBS?
From recreation centers to housing complexes, resilience hubs are trusted community centers and spaces that serve as a gathering place to distribute resources, exchange information, and express community care during disasters; while supporting community programming and demonstrations for climate solutions year-round. 2020 has demonstrated the urgent need to catalyze resilience hubs as we face compounding crises, from distributing food and supplies to providing information about fires and evacuations to off-grid energy needs during blackouts.
To combat centuries of disenfranchisement, marginalization and disinvestment, the Resilience Hubs Initiative prioritizes resources and support for projects led by people who have been racialized as Black, Indigenous and People of Color. Hubs shift power to neighborhoods and residents, supporting them to meet their own needs and practice self-determination. Resilience hubs were founded as a concept by the Urban Sustainability Directors Network, with the NorCal Resilience Network creating a network of resilience hubs and spaces in Northern California, and now working in collaboration with the USDN to expand the model.
WHY PARTICIPATE?
- Make your site more resilient! Be more prepared for the next disaster.
- Gain access to potential funding opportunities for your resiliency projects.
- Promote your site! This is the opportunity to lift up your work in the community
- Network and collaborate with other community leaders and projects.
- Learn new skills, from gardening to grey water to racial justice.
Applications for the training session are due by December 1st.
For more information about the Resilience Hubs Initiative and leadership training program, please visit their website https://norcalresilience.org/ or email info@norcalresilience.org
