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By engaging diverse publics in immersive and deliberative learning forums, this three-year project will use NOAA data and expertise to strengthen community resilience and decision-making around a variety of climate and weather-related hazards across the United States. Led by Arizona State University’s Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes and the Museum of Science Boston, the project will develop citizen forums hosted by regional science centers to create a new, replicable model for learning and engagement. These forums, to be hosted initially in Boston and Phoenix and then expanded to an additional six sites around the U.S., will facilitate public deliberation on real-world issues of concern to local communities, including rising sea levels, extreme precipitation, heat waves, and drought. The forums will identify and clarify citizen values and perspectives while creating stakeholder networks in support of local resilience measures. The forum materials developed in collaboration with NOAA will foster better understanding of environmental changes and best practices for improving community resiliency, and will create a suite of materials and case studies adaptable for use by science centers, teachers, and students. With regional science centers bringing together the public, scientific experts, and local officials, the project will create resilience-centered partnerships and a framework for learning and engagement that can be replicated nationwide.

This project will create a new educational tool for river awareness in the United States through a mobile device application called Raindrop. Raindrop traces the flow of water from the user's home location to a downstream watershed location. Raindrop is part of a larger installation named FLOW (Can You See the River?), which joins the cognitive power of science with the affective power of the arts by creating virtual and physical spaces for river awareness in the White River watershed in Indianapolis, IN. In addition to the flow path, Raindrop functionality includes watershed context and physical marker mapping, flow path water quality indicators, utilization of NOAA weather feeds and alerts, weather and climate comparisons, storm event size implications, and guidance on watershed restoration actions. Artist-designed physical markers are strategically located in the watershed to direct the virtual user to physical areas of interest.

As a southern city, Raleigh, North Carolina is no stranger to heat, humidity and heavy rains. But as the climate changes, and as Raleigh grows, these environmental conditions have come to have greater impacts on human health and economic security. Extreme heat and flooding disproportionately effect low-income and Black and brown populations in Raleigh as these communities are more likely to live in low-lying, flood-prone neighborhoods and urban heat islands. To build resilience among climate and socially vulnerable communities, the City of Raleigh and Partners for Environmental Justice (PEJ), a community-based environmental education and advocacy organization, are working together to implement the Community Climate Education for a Resilient Raleigh (CCERR) project. The purpose of this project is to give climate-vulnerable Raleigh residents the data and resources necessary to build their resilience, engage with decision makers, and build connections within their community. The CCERR Project has three activities. In activity one, the project will host six cohorts of a watershed learning network (two in Spanish) and three cohorts of a heat island learning network (one in Spanish). Each member of these cohorts will receive a stipend to implement a resilience project of their own. The primary service area of the watershed learning networks are flood-sensitive communities within the Walnut Creek Watershed. The primary service areas of the heat island learning teams will be in areas of the City identified as urban heat islands and disadvantaged communities. These learning networks will provide educational opportunities about watershed improvement, climate resiliency and environmental justice, and connect these issues to residents’ daily lives. Learning network participants will use their knowledge, skills and resources to become more engaged in protecting the integrity of their communities. These networks will be informed by PEJ’s experience and best practices developed by nonprofit organizations in Atlanta, GA and Durham, NH. The CCERR project will also convene these organizations to develop guidance on how to develop and program learning networks.In activity two, the CCERR project will produce an emergency preparedness meeting-in-a-box, a toolkit of print and digital resources for community meetings to help neighborhoods plan, prepare for, and recover from extreme weather events and other emergency situations. City of Raleigh staff will use the meeting-in-a-box to host workshops prioritizing climate vulnerable communities. These tools will also be available for use by any City Department, neighborhood groups, or Raleigh residents who wish to host a preparedness event. Finally, in activity three, the CCERR project will collaborate with NOAA’s Carolinas Climate Adaptation Partnership to identify neighborhood priorities for climate resilience and begin to integrate them into city planning processes. These projects and approaches will offer concrete resources, science-based data, engagement with experts and connections to City and County staff and decision-makers to give voice for Raleigh residents’ resilience priorities and the know-how and tools to take action. Each of these activities give Raleigh residents tools, resources and connections to scientific data, while supporting City and State climate action efforts.

WE STAY/Nos Quedamos, Inc. (NQ) is a leader in community-driven, sustainable development in Melrose Commons, a historically marginalized and disinvested community in the South Bronx, NY. Building on our 30-year history of organizing and advocacy for the preservation of open space, environmental health, and social justice, NQ’s NOAA Environmental Literacy Program will empower local youth leaders and organizers to educate and engage their peers, family members, and neighbors in preparation for the effective activation of three Climate Resiliency Hubs (blue/green infrastructure projects currently in development at local Melrose community garden sites). During disturbances, these Hubs will act as community-led crisis coordinating centers, providing access to freshwater and resources such as food, charging stations, and other necessities. In non-crisis times, the Hubs will be centers for community power-building, where residents gain the tools to advocate for long-term climate justice goals. This NOAA-funded program will develop the data, knowledge, talking points, and civic engagement roadmaps required to increase resident involvement in the effective implementation of the Climate Resiliency Hubs and, with support from our project partners at the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, strengthen community activism and advocacy to ensure that the Hubs provide the greatest possible impact for the community. Our first objective is to increase NQ’s capacity through research and analysis. An Environmental Literacy Program Manager, Climate Resiliency Research Fellow, and 2 Environmental Literacy Youth Leaders will gather and analyze data to support the development and sustainability of NQ’s Climate Resiliency Hubs, to be used for city- and state-level advocacy around climate preparedness policy changes and climate-resilience related funding allocations. The program’s second objective is to improve environmental literacy in the South Bronx community and strengthen organizing and advocacy efforts. Through deep training, the Environmental Literacy Youth Leaders and NQ’s larger cohort of youth organizers will be prepared to conduct community education activities for Melrose residents on key environmental justice indicators and data points. The education content will be integrated into NQ’s roster of public events, such as garden walking tours, festivals, community discussions, etc. The program will conclude with a South Bronx Climate Resiliency Symposium to further galvanize residents and lay the groundwork for continued resilience planning and policy advocacy in the South Bronx. As a result of this program, NQ will build a more confident, engaged, and environmentally literate Melrose Commons that will champion climate resilience throughout the South Bronx.