• Must be driven by and reflective of a community’s needs; no two Resilience Hubs are the same.
• Can be a church, community center, library, recreation center, governmental building, school, or any existing building where people can congregate easily.

1. Services and Programming
   • Can offer various social opportunities and services, dictated by community needs (such as: translation services, medical and psychological support, reuniting families, sharing information, help seeking government recovery assistance, child care, education, other programs or trainings).
   • Can offer services or events that support community health, including trauma and grief resources and programming.
   • Can provide resources needed before, during, and after extreme weather events, including shelter, food, water, medical supplies, internet, showers, and restrooms.
2. Communications
   • Ability to communicate both within a Resilience Hub (internal capacity) and outside of the local area (external capacity) during and after a disruption or extreme weather event.
   • Access to technology and training. Examples include: Wifi; on-site walkie talkies or radios; off-site data storage; and Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training.
3. Building and Landscape
   • A resilient facility and measures to strengthen the facility’s resilience before, during, and after extreme weather events. This may include: identifying a building outside of a flood plain; floodproofing or windproofing; water storage. Building and landscape needs are dependent on geographical location and specific vulnerabilities.
4. Power Systems
   • Self-sustaining power or energy systems capable of operating through an extended outage, such as back-up batteries, solar systems, or generators.
   • Can include multi-system power solutions, such as: a Hybrid Resilience System (HyRS).
5. Operations
   • Measures to make sure that the facility and personnel can continue operating during normal mode (before a disruption or extreme weather event), disruption mode (during), and recovery mode (after). This includes training and support for personnel.

“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.”

Guide to Developing Resilience Hubs, USDN

Resilience is a word that gets a lot of attention in climate change conversations. Because of the frequency and various interpretations of “resilience” across disciplines, it is noteworthy that USDN recognizes that “resilience differs by setting, facility and community”. The term Resilience Hub has also been used as part of the 27th and 28th annual United Nations Climate Change Conferences (COP27 and COP28). In this context, the term describes both virtual and physical spaces across the world, which aim to connect groups and mobilize action on climate resilience.

• A three-year pilot program by the British Red Cross. This program will be community-led, and will offer opportunities for education and community building. It will also provide physical infrastructure spaces for supporting communities before, during, and after climate emergencies.

• An organization which advocates for equitable solutions to heatwaves. In their Cool Safe Spaces report, which surveyed over 250 community members, they recommend to begin with supporting the most marginalized communities, who are also the most vulnerable to extreme heat. They further recommend establishing community response teams to help check in on residents’ health during a heatwave, and funding community centers, which can act as cooling centers during heatwaves.

• A non-profit community organization which takes a “collaborative approach to build knowledge, skills, abilities, and confidence in residents to recognize, understand, and take action to address vulnerabilities, and increase resilience in their homes and communities”. It supports and connects over 35 Resilience Hubs across Hawai’i.
• Maintains a “Resilience Alliance” of local businesses and non-governmental organizations invested in community preparedness and resilience. During an emergency, the alliance facilitates communication and resource distribution to the affected communities.
• Uses Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA) as a guide for community planning and applies an Assets Based Community Development (ABCD) framework to increase community self-determination. ABCD builds on community strengths and assets and brings together individuals, associations, and institutions to realize and develop their strengths.

• An example of a Vibrant Hawai’i Resilience Hub, which houses the Kohala Resilience Hub.
• With over 20 years of service to the Kohala Community, the North Kohala Community Center “set a standard for authentic community self-reliance by which other communities can be inspired,”  As part of their 2023 resilience plan, Kohala Resilience Hub identified areas needing support, including: health and wellness, basic needs, and emergency preparedness. Some projects that are underway in addressing these needs include: building out existing food pantries and housing assistance, and training for community members on CERT, CPR, Mental Health First Aid, and substance abuse and suicide prevention.

• In partnership with the non-profit Climate Resolve, the Boyle Heights Arts Conservatory is “a trusted space that displays both their deep-rooted culture and disaster preparedness”. With the technical support and guidance on resources and planning from Climate Resolve, the conservatory has invested in heating and cooling, back-up generators, and has been retro-fitted to sustain earthquakes.
• The strength of the community’s diversity is evident in its ties to its indigenous people’s history, its connection to the arts and activism, and the communication and support already in place through the conservatory’s existing programming. The Resilience Hub provides language translation to English and Spanish.
• Future plans include education around native plants and First Aid training for community members.

• There are many connections between equity, climate and mental health. Young people, BIPOC, and people from poor countries are the most likely to experience trauma from the effects of extreme weather. “The effects of climate change on mental health are therefore a driver and compounder of health and social inequality” (Lawrance, Thompson, et al., 2021).
• According to USDN and The Adaptation Clearinghouse, a shift in focus to human connection and stressors surrounding climate should be prioritized over property loss or economics.
• USDN’s white paper emphasizes Resilience Hubs as an opportunity for municipalities worldwide to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while reducing risks and enhancing equity.
• The National Association of Climate Resilience Planners (NACRP) provides a framework for community-driven disaster planning. The USDN includes NACRP’s framework as part of their best practices in establishing and maintaining Resilience Hubs.
• Georgetown Law and Climate Center offers Resilience Hubs as part of their Equitable Adaption Legal and Policy Toolkit.

• Climate Resilience Implementation Guide: Resilient Public Facilities by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Guide to Developing Resilience Hubs by the Urban Sustainability Directors Network
• Norcal Resilience Network: Resilience Hubs Site Assessment by the NorCal Resilience Network
• USDN Resilience Hub Analysis Tool by the Urban Sustainability Directors Network
• Building Community Resilience: Asset-Based Strategies to Increase the Adaptive Capacities of Vulnerable Communities through Implementation of Resilience Hubs by Sofia DiFrancesco

• Transportation: According to a review paper by Ciriaco and Wong (2022), “transportation is rarely considered in the planning, design, or implementation of resilience hubs.” Lack of transportation is an issue of equity as it can serve as a barrier in assisting older adults, people with mobility challenges, and low-income households.
• Funding: Resilience Hubs may demand a complex funding structure. Possibilities include: local, state and federal governments, charitable foundations, and private and utility exemptions.

Powering Community Resilience: A Framework for Optimizing Resilience Hub Power Systems: Project Report, prepared for Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN).

Resilience Hubs: Shifting Power to Communities and Increasing Community Capacity, published by Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN) in 2018, by Kristin Baja.

Weathering Climate Disasters with Resilience Hubs, published by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) on October 26, 2022, by Bryn Grunwald, Mia Reback, and Ryan Warsing.

Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN), published by Adaptation Clearinghouse.

Building Resilience Together (United Kindgom)

Communities Responding to Extreme Weather (CREW) (United States)

Georgetown Climate Center (Washington DC, United States)

Neighborhood Empowerment Network, The Hub Program (San Francisco, California, United States)

NorCal Resilience Network (Northern California, United States)

Urban Sustainability Directors Network (United States and Canada)

Sweltering Cities (Australia)

Published: May 8, 2024

Author: Chelsea Rissner, LCSW

Editor: Colleen Rollins, PhD