Climate Disasters Can Strike at Any Time: Resilience Hubs Help Ensure the Community is Ready
In an effort to build great community resilience to extreme climate events, the Community Environmental Council is partnering with Santa Barbara County and several area nonprofits to establish the first three Resilience Hubs in our area. These initial hubs will be located in Carpinteria, Cuyama, and Santa Barbara.
Resilience Hubs are designed and operated by the communities they serve, with one lead organization as a coordinator.
Resilience Hubs utilize existing and trusted locations, such as schools, community centers, churches, and libraries. Designed in partnership with residents, they offer support before, during, and after climate-related disruptions with services like:
Providing clean air during smoke events
Acting as cooling locations during extreme heat
Distributing food
Serving as a hub for emergency services
Facilitating disaster preparedness training and neighborhood organizing
Hosting off-grid charging during power outages or shutdowns
Resilience Hubs create a way to plan ahead so that, when disasters occur, there is a plan in place that was designed for the community, by the community. This way, communities can not only survive disasters, but can recover, adapt, and continue to thrive.
Partners are currently working to develop an online toolkit for additional Resilience Hubs throughout our Central Coast region. Check back here soon for updates.
If you live in one of these zip codes (93254, 93103, 93013 and 93014) and are looking to get engaged in your local Resilience Center, email the following:
Cuyama:ejohnson@cecmail.org
Carpinteria: gloria@girlsinc-carp.org
Santa Barbara: rpelc@SantaBarbaraCA.gov
