Photo Credit: Ben Sassani – Harvey Flooding – Sassani Photography
A year after Hurricane Harvey dumped up to 60 inches of rainfall on the Houston area – taking over 80 lives and causing an estimated $180 billion of damage – ISC and the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC), are excited to announce the launch of a new initiative that will create practical, community-led solutions to direct, accelerate, and streamline existing recovery and resilience efforts.
The Upper Texas Gulf Coast Regional Resilience Initiative – funded by The JPB Foundation – is a partnership between ISC, HARC and regional and local leaders that will help tackle the Upper Texas Gulf Coast’s economic, environmental, and social vulnerabilities – some of which were laid bare in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.
The initiative will combine HARC’s expertise in translating science to actionable programs and policy and knowledge of the region with ISC’s experience working with local leaders to find community-based resilience solutions for neighborhoods, cities, and regions.
The work has already started with a discovery phase to determine challenges and opportunities in building resilience in the region, and will soon begin to focus on engaging with community-based individuals and organizations to begin developing solutions.
About the Institute for Sustainable Communities
The Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC) works in the United States and around the world to help communities tackle two of the biggest sustainability challenges we all collectively face – climate change and social inequality. ISC uses training, technical assistance, peer-to-peer learning, and demonstration projects to help unleash the power of local people and institutions to address immediate challenges and opportunities – all while building those on-the-ground solutions into national and international best practices and policy. At the heart of the organization’s approach is authentic engagement with all stakeholders, which drives equitable community transformation. Learn more at sustain.org
About the Houston Advanced Research Center
The Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research organization, located in The Woodlands, Texas with a mission to promote sustainability by providing independent, science-based information on air, energy, water and climate issues. HARC programs focus on the analysis and dissemination of data, policy development, technology validation, and public engagement and outreach in support of sustainability and community resilience. Since its founding in 1982, HARC has a track record of collaborating with national and regional partners to manage large, multidisciplinary, multi-institutional, applied research programs. Learn more at HARCresearch.org