THE STORM SQUAD
INITIATIVE

As part of iCAR's annual activities, a virtual Action Plan meeting was hosted on November 10th, 2021 from 1:00 pm–3:00 pm to develop a roadmap to address the unique needs of marginalized and vulnerable communities to build equitable resilience in preparing and recovering from disasters and the impacts of climate change. These communities often lack access to resources and information to successfully cope with disasters and the long-term impacts of climate change, which can increase disparities and exacerbate chronic and acute crises. The goals of this meeting were to solidify a collaborative coalition of stakeholders who can collectively develop a way forward in building a just resilience through the equitable allocation of resources to meet needs that are often unmet, and to develop specific steps and working groups to prepare proposals for federal funding in collaboration with iCAR within the Justice 40 framework as well as other funding sources suggested by the stakeholders.

The goal is to cultivate a group of residents as leaders for their respective neighborhoods who would be trained to work with their neighbors to prepare for a storm, and then help them to apply for disaster assistance after a storm.

They will also work with the Community Resiliency Information Systems (CRIS) to identify hidden needs and serve as an information conduit between the county emergency office and the neighborhood.

It's all about “neighbors helping neighbors” and how to identify hidden needs in the community to emergency assistance.

explore co-created and community-led strategies for addressing the concerns.

Build a coalition of groups and individuals led by leaders from the underserved and most vulnerable communities, that will create momentum and carry forward the urgent work of addressing climate justice-related concerns in our area; Identify and support (with funding, research, educational and training opportunities) organic leadership arising from underserved and vulnerable communities to lead continuing efforts to address climate-related concerns including extreme weather events and disaster preparation Develop a concrete Action Plan for addressing the most pressing issues (identified by the communities) while also creating structure and a road map to continue to address climate related disasters preparations and resilience issues.