Resilient Virginia

In This Issue:
 

Virginians are experiencing more extreme weather events, flooding, wildfires, drought, and a pattern of hotter summers and milder winters with less snow and earlier snow melt. Coupled with these climate impacts, changes in economic activity, population migration, aging infrastructure, and lack of capacity are hampering the ability of Virginia’s communities to remain providers of essential economic and social services. Our communities need to build climate-readiness. Resilient Virginia recognizes that this will look different for each community though so we provide assistance through a variety of means to meet these diverse needs. Read more

This spring, we have been busy providing this assistance through Resiliency Academy sessions and Spotlight On (our latest webinar series); co-developing a Community Outreach and Engagement Plan for the Virginia Energy Resilience Study project; assisting Virginia Tech's XMNR program in developing a graduate class assignment; hosting a climate equity listening session with organizations working on environmental justice across the state; forming the first two Resilient Virginia Collaborative Alliance working groups; and more. Read more details about some of this work below in Program and Project Updates.

Save the Date

Save the date for our 2024 Annual Meeting! On July 25th, we are hosting an in-person event at the Virginia Department of Forestry in Charlottesville. Registration will open soon.

If your organization is interested in sponsoring the Annual Meeting, please visit our website.

The last session of the Spring 2024 Resiliency Academy is June 18th. This session will provide a closer look at the Climate and Hazard Mitigation Planning tool (CHaMP), developed by the NOAA-funded Mid-Atlantic Climate Adaptation (formerly RISA) program. Join us for this interactive session to learn how you can use CHaMP to help with your Hazard Mitigation Planning. Register today

In September, we are hosting an in-person priority-setting meeting for stakeholders in central and southwest Virginia to come together and determine priority issues for the region. The outputs from the meeting will inform the resiliency roadmap work being done through the RVCA. Location and time tbd so stay tuned.

Now that the Spring Resiliency Academy is almost finished, it's time to start planning for the Fall 2024 Resiliency Academy. More details will be sent out soon!

Program and Project Updates

On May 21st, we held a Climate Equity Listening Session with people working on climate and environmental justice across the state. Facilitated by Leslie King, of Leslie King Consulting, the session focused on what support and resources are needed to improve their climate and environmental justice work and how Resilient Virginia can center equity in what we do through the Resilient Virginia Collaborative Alliance (RVCA).

Two RVCA working groups have started regular meetings to discuss clean transportation and water infrastructure. Anyone interested in participating in these discussions is welcome to attend. The clean transportation working group meets every third Wednesday of the month at noon and the water infrastructure working group meets every second Thursday of the month at noon. All meetings are virtual. We are starting a third working group to discuss agriculture, which will hold its first meeting on June 24th. Email Brendle if you would like to learn more and attend any of the meetings.

On May 30th, we held the inaugural session of our new Spotlight On webinar series with presentations on funding for climate-ready communities. This session provided a laundry list of funding opportunities that communities can use to build resilience. Watch the recording or download the slides. The next session of the Spotlight On series (held in early fall) will focus on resilient building design.

We are honored to partner with Virginia Tech's Executive Master of Natural Resources program again this year. Brendle and Trish have been working with faculty to design an assignment that will give the graduate students experience in real-world resilience work. We look forward to speaking to the class this month and seeing the results of their assignments!

Virginia Energy Resilience Study (VERS)

We have been working with our VERS communications team partners to develop the Community Outreach and Engagement Plan for the 2-year project and design 1-pagers on the benefits of energy resilience and the benefits of community participation in the project.

Board of Directors Updates

Jennie DeVeaux is retiring from our Board of Directors. Jennie served five years on the board and most recently served as Secretary and Vice-Chair. We sincerely appreciate all that Jennie has done to help us accelerate resilience efforts in the state. Her expertise and experience will be missed!

Vestal Tutterow is retiring as Board of Directors Treasurer in preparation for his retirement from the board at the end of 2024. Vestal's dedication to this position has been invaluable and we thank him for spending his time and energy in this volunteer position.

Please join us in welcoming Bob Burkholder to Resilient Virginia's Board of Directors. Bob lead's Clark Nexsen's infrastructure practice and his diverse portfolio includes managing and designing projects spanning urban redevelopment, utility and storm water master plans, land use studies, GIS, and wireless communications. Bob has graciously volunteered to step in as Treasurer and will work with Vestal on transitioning this position. His knowledge and experience are a great asset to the Resilient Virginia team! 

EJ TCTACs

Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Centers (EJ TCTACs) are institutions and organizations throughout the country with a common goal: to support the communities already doing essential environmental and energy justice work. They can help communities get started with grant support, partnership identification, budgeting, capacity building, translation, and more. Read more on their newly published website.

Solar For All

The SFA: Virginia Energy Program (SAVE) will seek to enable energy savings and increase resilience by expanding access to solar and solar plus storage funding for low-income and disadvantaged communities. Read more.

USDA Grants and Loans

USDA offers a variety of loans and assistance, such as farm loans, housing assistance, rural development loan and grant assistance, and federal state marketing improvement program. Read more.

FEMA National Resilience Guidance

In April, FEMA released their DRAFT National Resilience Guidance. This guidance is intended to help all individuals, communities, and organizations understand the nation’s vision for resilience, the key principles that must be applied to strengthen resilience, and the resilience players and systems that contribute to resilience. Read more.

National Climate Resilience Framework

Released in September 2023, the National Climate Resilience Framework identifies key values, priorities, and objectives to help expand and accelerate nationally-comprehensive, locally-tailored, and community-driven resilience strategies.  Read more.

MARISA Tools

MARISA is a NOAA-funded climate adaptation program that collaborates with Mid-Atlantic communities to enhance their resilience to a changing climate through improved data, place-based decision support, and public engagement. Their website includes many data tools that communities can use to find historic and projected future climate data necessary for building climate-readiness.  Read more.

All Hazard Mitigation Planning Program

The All Hazard Mitigation Planning Program is a series of three documents that provide quick decision-making support, cut-and-paste text, and coaching to USDN members interested in making their Hazard Mitigation Plans more proactive while also bridging planning efforts between hazard mitigation, climate resilience, climate mitigation & adaptation, and social equity. Read more.

Resilient Virginia Resources

Charlottesville, Virginia Shows How Small Cities Can Take a Lead on Zero-Emissions Public Transit

Charlottesville has proposed to convert to a zero-emission public transit fleet by 2040. By then, its routes will be served by electric buses. In addition to a commitment to wean itself off diesel and avoid compressed natural gas as a power source altogether, the city has addressed route and ridership issues. Read more.

Rural Universities Experiment with 'Innovation Hubs'

Folks in rural areas have plenty of creative ideas but few places to bring the ideas together. Chris Kukk, honors college dean at Longwood University in Farmville, is hoping that innovation hubs could create this space and potentially lead to building new local businesses. Read more.

FEMA Announces $300 Million to Strengthen Community Resilience to Flooding

On May 30th, FEMA announced the third round of Swift Current funding to help National Flood Insurance Program policyholders across the nation become more resilient to flooding. "Swift Current aims to speed up the award of Flood Mitigation Assistance funding to states, territories, the District of Columbia and federally recognized tribal governments to reduce the damage-repair cycle of repetitively or substantially flood-damaged properties. Rather than through annual Flood Mitigation Assistance grant cycle, Swift Current provides resiliency dollars after a major disaster declaration following a flood-related disaster event to reduce risk against future flood damage." Read more.

    Biden-Harris Administration Invests $4.55 Million for Community Heat Resilience Through Investing in America Agenda

    The Department of Commerce and NOAA announced $4.55 million in funding for two virtual centers of excellence, in Durham, NC and Los Angeles, CA, to support community heat monitoring and resilience. The centers will work alongside community members and community-based organizations to advance place-based heat information and decision-making, so they can reduce heat-related illness and death, harmful infrastructure impacts, and other heat risks.  Read more.

    Feel free to send your suggestions for stories, as well as comments on existing stories. Contact: trish@resilientvirginia.org

    Thank you to our Annual Sponsors