Climate change continues to exacerbate and increase the frequency of severe weather-related events across the globe, including droughts, wildfires, flooding, tornadoes and hurricanes, as well as extreme heat and cold. While not all communities and regions face the same risks, these climate-related events do have greater negative impacts on our underserved communities. 

And though regions across the U.S. are impacted differently by these events, cities and communities must explore opportunities to respond to the increasing threats and seek ways to help residents before, after, and even as they happen. 

Following the lead of a handful of our nation’s cities, and guided in part by the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN) — the City of Columbus is researching the establishment of resilience hubs to prepare for, recover from, and support residents during climate-related events and disasters. The USDN is a peer-to-peer network of local government professionals from communities across the U.S. and Canada dedicated to creating a healthier environment, economic prosperity and increased social equity. 

Resilience hubs are community-serving facilities that both help residents on a daily basis, and in times of climate disasters, emergencies or other disruptions, coordinate communication, serve as shelter and distribute resources. 

These hubs, which help to address the multifaceted challenges wrought by climate change, are often existing spaces such as community or recreation centers, schools, libraries, or other trusted locations that are enhanced and adapted to serve this purpose. 

However, it is not as simple as picking a location and outfitting it appropriately. As we know from our own city experience and as we have learned from USDN research, resilience hubs must be developed alongside and informed by our own community members. They know their trusted community spaces and what they will need from these hubs in times of crisis. 

Along with our partners, we held four focus group sessions with nearly 50 community members and received survey responses from 160 area residents. We wanted to hear first-hand what ideas and suggestions they have for creating resilience hubs for central Ohio. This initial Resilience Hub Report is a result of this work. Based on this outreach and additional research, the report makes recommendations for both hyper-local and citywide resilience hub locations, and a series of next steps to push this initiative forward. 

We believe the strength of the report lies in this foundational community engagement and represents a critical first step in establishing a network of resilience hubs to support and empower our community during a climate-related crisis.