The Resilient City

Building a more resilient city starts with building resilient communities. Community resilience is defined as the ability of a neighborhood and its residents to respond to and recover from both ongoing stresses and sudden shocks. 

Finding ways to address challenges faced by residents and neighborhoods and to build on their strengths is an essential step toward driving communities and entire cities forward.

Successfully supporting communities means acknowledging the wealth of work already taking place through the efforts of individuals, community organizations and government agencies. It also requires addressing ongoing issues through collaborative action and by sharing information about best practices across communities.

Common challenges include:

1. Need for broader, more effective community engagement and community-informed decision-making

2. Need to build capacity for residents, community leaders and community organizations

3. Lack of quality affordable housing and the growing risk of displacement

4. Lack of mobility options and unsafe community streets

5. Food insecurity and the lack of access to fresh foods

6. Dearth of economic development and job-training opportunities

Effective efforts at the neighborhood level can be sustained and amplified by plugging into broader citywide efforts in ways that better align long-term goals and influence implementation plans at both levels. 

Community efforts tied to broader city programs include:

Build capacity for resident leadership. Community efforts have to be supported with resources for capacity building among residents.

Financially support community initiatives. Organizations with effective ideas are struggling to expand. Financial support is critical and helps remove barriers to participation.

Engage the public. An expansive and sustained community-planning effort must connect to official efforts but also resonate with the voice of community.

Provide accessible technical information. Ensuring that residents can understand technical information and have support from organizations with technical expertise can create more meaningful engagement.

Support and develop community-based organizations. Having community organizations that can operate as “community quarterbacks” to coordinate efforts, convene stakeholders and marshal resources is beneficial.

Establish collaborations. A collaborative approach allows community organizations access to more resources and opportunities to enact change. It also offers the best way to foster shared learning across neighborhoods. In addition, public agencies can help embed existing actions into ongoing city programs.

Resilient cities have the ability to absorb, recover and prepare for future shocks (economic, environmental, social & institutional). A resilient city is the culmination of the collective efforts of its communities and their commitment to bridge gaps, reinforce efforts and establish innovative ways to not only survive, but thrive.