Resilience in Pittsburgh Posted on November 19, 2015 by Grounded Strategies Share this post Our second resilience blog focused on resilience strategies in cities across the nation. This segment will explore some of the not so obvious (and some of the blatantly obvious) resilience linkages in the 412. A lot of organizations are working to build resilience right here in our own backyard – you might be involved in one of their efforts and not even know it! Some GTECH examples of local resilience building efforts. Our Methodology Investigate, Act, Connect and Sustain are at the core of our work. We incorporate many of the tenets of resiliency into the way we approach issues. Our programming is designed in a way that seeks out the participation and involvement of many stakeholders, encourages community engagement and action, and increases access to information and resources. Explore our programming more in depth and decide for yourself how it incorporates themes of resiliency. Our Ambassador Model We’ve already written about how our Ambassador programming builds resilience, with ReClaim McKeesport as an example of resilience building in action. Our ReClaim South: Sustaining Momentum Ambassador program is another great example. Building on the work of a prior cohort of Ambassadors, the program brings a mix of residents together both to create newly reclaimed community spaces as well as to enhance and revamp pre-existing Ambassador projects. Not-So-Obvious Connections Sustainability, Transportation, Disaster Management and Response…these are some of the more obvious themes that link to resilience work. But Pittsburgh (as well as other cities) is full of organizations with less obvious linkages to resilience work. Organizations that work in social services, for example, are working to decrease vulnerability by creating diverse livelihoods and increasing social stability. The plethora of incubator-type organizations in Pittsburgh is increasing the number of businesses in the city, as well as the attractiveness of the region to even more industries and businesses. These diverse actors are all working in their own way to increase their piece of the resilience pie. There are also a variety of efforts happening in the City of Pittsburgh that explicitly deal with resilience. Two rather obvious areas are the city’s involvement with the Rockefeller Foundation and the new Resilience Americorps programming that is coming to the city. Rockefeller Foundation – 100 Resilient Cities As one of the 100 Resilient Cities, Pittsburgh is working to come up with a resilience strategy & plan. Determining the city’s priorities and a framework for addressing them are just two of the many benefits of participating in the 100 Resilient Cities program. Check out the city’s website for the latest updates on the process. Deliberative Democracy Forums As a part of this effort, the City is looking for input from residents. The forums are opportunities to learn about the city’s planning efforts and provide feedback and input on the resilience agenda. The final forum is tonight and you can register to attend here (it’s free!) THURSDAY NOVEMBER 19 East Liberty Presbyterian Church 116 S Highland Avenue, 15206 6pm – 8:30 pm Resilience AmeriCorps In addition to the Rockefeller process, Pittsburgh will also soon be home to the first round of Resilient Americorps volunteers. We wrote about the new initiative in our previous resilience blog, and are looking forward to seeing what comes out of it when the new Americorps positions start! Stay tuned for the final part of our resilience blog series to learn about what you can do to increase resilience in your community.