Shifting Power to Communities and Increasing Community Capacity
Resilience Hubs are community-serving facilities augmented to:
- support residents and
- coordinate resource distribution and services before, during, or after a natural hazard event.
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 GHG emissions and improving local quality of life. They are a smart local investment with the potential to reduce burden on local emergency response teams, improve access to health improvement initiatives, foster greater community cohesion, and increase the effectiveness of community-centered institutions and programs.
Moreover, Resilience Hubs provide an opportunity to build local community power and leadership. They are focal points for neighborhood revitalization that provide the resources residents need to enhance their own individual capacity while also supporting and strengthening their neighborhood and neighbors. Instead of being led by local government, they are intended to be supported by local government and other partners but led and managed by community members, community-based organizations, and/or faith-based groups.
Resilience Hubs Website
The USDN Resilience Hubs project is an opportunity to effectively work at the nexus of community resilience, emergency management, climate change mitigation, and social equity while providing opportunities for communities to become more self-determining, socially connected, and successful before, during, and after disruptions. To learn more about Resilience Hubs and how to get involved, visit Resilience Hubs Website.
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USDN Resilience Hub Guidance Document
USDN has developed the USDN Resilience Hub Guidance Document to assist local governments, community-based organizations, and other partners in taking action. Instead of focusing efforts around a disruption, USDN takes a holistic approach to resilience that focuses on prioritizing daily community needs, shifting power to neighborhoods and residents, providing opportunities to address root causes of disproportionate exposure and sensitivity to climate impacts, and enhancing communities’ capacity to adapt and thrive.
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Resilience Hubs White Paper
The purpose of this document is to establish definitions and capture ideas to help community organizations, local governments, and other interested parties implement and support community Resilience Hubs. These ideas are drawn from local experiences in several Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN) cities. Certain features of the Resilience Hub concept, such as providing temporary shelter during emergencies, have long been in use within communities. The concept of Resilience Hubs as defined here, however, is intentionally more comprehensive in purpose and scope, focusing on preparedness, adaptation, mitigation, and equity.
This is the first of a set of guidance materials that will be developed and shared by USDN to help USDN members and others to more efficiently consider and take action on local Resilience Hubs.
Download the White Paper