Community & Climate Resilience

The  Austin Area Sustainability Indicators  (A2SI) explores perceptions of residents regarding quality of life across a number of metrics: climate and community resilience, civic engagement, demographics, education and children, economy, environment, health, land-use and mobility, and public safety. The indicators provide insight into trends across the Austin-Round Rock Metropolitan Statistical Area's five counties: Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Travis, and Williamson, including Burnet county.

Resilience has emerged as a popular framework for preparing communities to anticipate, prepare and respond to the impacts of climate change. According to 2019  survey research  from Yale University, a majority of the country (67 percent) believes that climate change is happening.

In the Austin area, three out of four residents believe climate change is happening. About 60 percent are worried about the consequences of a global climate crisis, and ~67 percent believe that climate change is mostly caused by human activities. Many Austin area residents are concerned about the impact on future generations, yet less than half of Austin area residents (49 percent) are concerned about being harmed personally.

Data and perceptions reflect that some communities and individuals are more vulnerable than others. We may immediately recognize the increased risk for developing nations, but health and environmental disparities exist throughout the United States and and across the Austin area as well. A2SI research has recently documented vulnerability throughout the City of Austin with the creation of  climate vulnerability maps , which indicate disproportionate risks in certain neighborhoods across the city. These maps illustrate sensitivity to extreme weather events like flood, heat, drought and fire — all of which are expected to worsen as the climate crisis escalates. As we continue to learn more about the climate vulnerabilities and the increasing hazards and stressors caused by climate change in the Austin area, it becomes ever more important to identify how communities are adapting and finding creative solutions to thrive.

Often the definition of resilience centers on the ability of a community to bounce back from an emergency or natural disaster ( FEMA ). For the purpose of this project, we investigated how Austin area organizations define, understand, and practice resilience. From October 2019 to March 2020, A2SI researchers conducted 13 interviews with local government representatives, NGO and nonprofit leaders, and community members. While there was no consensus on the definition of community resilience to climate change, most recognize the complexity and interconnected nature of each indicator’s influence on an ideal, resilient community.

As the map below indicates, efforts by public agencies and nonprofits to build resilience are happening all across the city. Navigate the map below by either selecting a project or scrolling through them all.

There is a pressing need for municipal efforts targeting reduction of greenhouse gas emissions justified by clear scientific and growing public consensus. Given the stalemate at the federal level on climate policy, substantive and meaningful policies and programs often happen at the local level. In Austin, there’s a lot of energy and enthusiasm for mitigation projects, but resilience isn’t always a priority. Every few years the Austin City Council will form a plan or pass a resolution to address resilience, but subsequent recommendations from the Office of Sustainability often call for structural, programmatic changes that are time- and resource-intensive without early, noticeable positive outcomes. Meanwhile, ~60 percent of Austin area residents are worried about the consequences of a global climate crisis

However, concern related to climate change doesn’t affect everyone equally. While concern across age groups varies — with 25-34 year-olds the most concerned, at 68 percent, and 45-54 year-olds the least concerned, at 55 percent. There is also a stark contrast between racial and ethnic groups which alludes to economic disparities that leave Black and Hispanic or Latin American residents more vulnerable than their white counterparts.

The Office of Sustainability recognizes these challenges while still addressing how the city can evolve as a whole. Internal stakeholder management — between city council, city management, and departmental and management staff — factors heavily into the office’s work, but resilience and mitigation efforts are informed by community outreach. Reaching individuals who aren’t already engaged with city decisions is a challenge, so the department relies on nonprofit and advocacy groups within neighborhoods to reach residents.

The  Climate Resilience Action Plan for Assets and Operations  released in 2018 is divided into two phases, 2018 to 2020, then 2020 to 2030. One of the plans of phase 2, resilience hubs, comes directly from guidance set forth by the  Urban Sustainability Directors Network , a collective of U.S. and Canadian local government leaders accelerating change through shared practices. The city of Austin is considering how it might adopt a similar program by identifying existing city-owned facilities in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods and looking at how they could be modified or updated to act as resilience hubs, shelters, evacuation centers, and/or disaster response hubs during emergencies.

The city already has a network of fire stations, libraries, and parks and recreation centers - the question is how to build on the capacity of these facilities and turn them into ‘resilience hubs’ to better serve community needs during an emergency or disaster, like public health. For example, people already go to libraries in the summer on the hottest days to get access to air conditioning. What more could these facilities do if the city added refrigeration, solar energy and back-up generators? Capital projects are expensive, but the department contributes to design plans with bond money already apportioned to certain projects.

One of the projects underway is a health facility in the Dove Springs neighborhood that could act as a resilience hub. Marc Coudert is focusing on what infrastructure additions can be installed in the clinic. Infrastructure additions such as solar batteries that could help the facility run without electricity for three days, or outlets on the outside of the building for folks to charge phones and other important devices. The Dove Springs Clinic is novel because it involves a collaboration among departments and community members to design a health center that can also serve as a resilience hub for the community during disasters. Another is an old Home Depot building, left neglected as unused waste bin storage, on a 20-acre lot in the St.John’s neighborhood.

“Climate resilience is the ability to effectively manage both immediate shocks and long-term stressors related to climate change and weather extremes.” - Zach Baumer, Austin’s Climate Program Manager

The Office of Sustainability recognizes that resilience and sustainability work require planning for natural disasters, but also that resilience is an interconnected, complex issue. Beyond Austin's ability to bounce back from shocks like heat waves, extreme drought, flood and wildfire, resilience implies the capacity to build stronger communities in the process. Again, our data reveals a wide gap in who feels the negative effects of climate change today.

Fire, flood, heat and drought response often take precedence over issues like quality, affordable housing and income disparities because they are straightforward and less politically charged. While short-term emergency response is fundamental to resilience, long-term planning and community building to support resilience can get lost between emergencies and day to day, immediate priorities the City faces. Hence, the two channels in which the city centers resilience are utilities operations and city infrastructure.

The city’s Climate Resilience Action Plan lays out plans for city assets and operations, but the Office of Sustainability views a truly resilient community as something beyond utility infrastructure and a larger network of public transit.

“The city has an important role in terms of keeping roads open, electricity on, water on, trash picked up, and that’s its own base level of resilience. The other question is individual community members in different parts of town - how are they resilient?”- Zach Baumer, Austin’s Climate Program Manager

Community and climate resilience imply neighborhoods and metropolitan areas with something greater than good emergency response and mitigation strategies. Resilience encompasses social cohesion, healthcare, education, food access — inequities along race and class lines that are rooted in systemic processes and historical exclusion. Cultivating a deeper sense of well being - at the individual and community level - is complicated, and it’s difficult to define and measure success.

The Office of Sustainability collaborates with community NGO's to explore new avenues of supporting community organizers who live in historically underserved communities. One idea that the city is developing is paid and trained organizers that can act as  Community Climate Ambassadors  that capture community concerns and needs to relay this feedback back to the city.

According to A2SI research, 69 percent of Austin MSA residents cite that they have a safe place to go during an emergency. Meanwhile, 60 percent of residents of the city of Austin cite having a safe place to go during an emergency such as a flood or wildfire. Marc and his team concentrate their efforts on-

“where the community naturally goes and make sure those places, such as churches or resident homes are well stocked for a natural disaster/event.”- Marc Coudert, Austin's Environmental Conservation Program Manager

Public objectives are notoriously hard to measure. One of the distinctions that helps the Office of Sustainability gauge progress is quantifying outcomes instead of outputs. Outputs, like the number of electric vehicle charging stations, lead to broader outcomes, like decreased dependence on fossil fuels. For example, how can the Office tie its smaller actions — a social media campaign or meeting with departments to talk through strategies — to something as big as improving air quality?

“If the Office of Sustainability is successful organizing and helping and getting the right people in the right organization moving in that direction, the outcome will eventually be cleaner air.” - Zach Baumer, Austin’s Climate Program Manager

Safety plans, emergency response, and climate resilient facilities and infrastructure represent the bulk of the Office of Sustainability's work. Some projects are directly tied to the Office, but typically staff function more as planners, coordinators and researchers. If the city’s water plan includes language around climate change, then the Watershed Protection Department can adopt and expand on ideas offered by the Office of Sustainability. For example, the Office may set a goal for something like an electric vehicle and charging station target for the city. Then, Austin Energy would be in charge of implementation and reporting progress for program evaluation. But departments may be disconnected from the work happening between them, so the Office of Sustainability aggregates and synthesizes progress across ten departments to answer the bigger question of impact on the city’s sustainability goals.

However, the Office of Sustainability also works outside of city departments as well. The Office shares information and works with community organizations like  GO! AUSTIN/ VAMOS! AUSTIN! , who are better attuned to specific community needs. Sometimes the Office provides direction for projects, resources from the city, or commitment to shared goals like increasing access to physical activity and improved nutrition. The list of partners the Office of Sustainability has worked with is extensive.

Collaborating directly with communities is an important aspect of building community and climate resilience. In general, 93 percent of MSA and 92 percent of city of Austin respondents to the 2018 A2SI survey overwhelmingly agree that their neighbors would help them in case of emergency.

These percentages vary when analyzed by Austin City Council districts. Council districts within historically underserved and vulnerable populations indicate that their neighbors are less likely to help them during an emergency as compared to data rates for the city of Austin and in the MSA. When asked whether their neighborhood has services to help after a disaster, 55 percent of MSA respondents and 50 percent of city of Austin respondents agreed. Meanwhile, roughly half indicate that their neighborhoods do not have services to help people after a disaster.

A2SI 2018 data indicates the presence of social capital and social cohesion is important for community resilience. Yet this social cohesion and dependence on neighbors for support and services is not felt equally throughout the Austin area. Identifying community needs can be a barrier in that it can be difficult and complicated. A major barrier for the Office of Sustainability is capturing community concerns and needs in regard to natural disasters and climate hazards. To address this critical barrier, we need to provide support for social capital and social cohesion in neighborhoods.

Local governments are in a unique position to do so. A2SI data shows a clear relationship to the size and proximity of government and public trust in the government entity. While only 20 percent of Austin-Round Rock MSA residents reported a great deal or quite a lot of trust in federal government, 26 percent reported confidence in state government, and 34 percent in local government.

As we prepare for natural disasters we must ensure that neighborhoods have the capacity to support each other, as residents are often the first responders on the scene of natural disasters and emergencies. Despite these challenges, there is growing political will to address the challenges of climate change in a way that is meaningful, equitable and imaginative.

District 4 extends south from Braker Lane to the North Loop area on 51st, and west from Cannon Road to Highway 183. The people in District 4 are diverse, where a high number of immigrants and refugees live in the area. District 4 Council Member Greg Casar, elected to office in 2014, has organized and sponsored initiatives that prioritize community resilience through housing initiatives, the Paid Sick Days ordinance, and Fair Chance Hiring.

Sobeyda Gomez-Chou, the District’s Outreach Coordinator, emphasized how important building trust in the community is to every project the district supports. Neighborhood events, “coffee with the principal” discussions, and other engagement efforts are essential in determining priorities for the district. 

“What we really do is strive to talk to our constituents. One of our goals in particular is to reach out to Spanish speaking folks, which is why it’s important to have a presence in schools and work with parent support specialists and  Austin Voices .” — Sobeyda Gomez-Chou, District 4 Outreach Coordinator

This can be complicated for residents that may not have a high level of trust in local officials. While respondents in District 4 reported calling elected officials about the same frequency as MSA-wide respondents, they were slightly less likely to attend a government agency meeting.

One of the strategies the outreach team at District 4 uses is connecting with parents at school functions, but our sample suggests that the people they are able to reach represent a small fraction of who they want to reach. District 4 respondents reported attending school-related groups 13 percent less than the MSA population.

District 4 has one of the highest numbers of young children, but is park deficient compared with other parts of the city. This has negative implications for quality of life, as well as community and climate resilience. One of Council District 4’s priorities is to develop positive, public greenspaces that are easily accessible to residents. 

Over the last year, the office has opened three different parks.  Colony Park District Park  is the most recent one, opened March 8, 2020. The 93-acre lot is now home to a playground, baseball and softball field, multi-purpose field, outdoor workout station, and an overlook.

Aside from providing residents without a private yard recreational outdoor space, parks and greenspaces encourage pro-environmental behavior and feelings of attachment according to Emanuel Carter of SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.  Access to greenspace  can also benefit health outcomes for residents. Historically, open spaces helped mitigate the spread of infectious diseases like cholera and typhoid fever. Today greenspaces support healthy outcomes and help keep residents at risk for chronic illnesses like heart disease or diabetes, greenspaces could even reduce exposure to toxic chemicals used for landscaping or air polluting facilities.

Despite fewer parks, 68 percent of 2018 A2SI respondents in zip codes within or adjacent to District 4 reported "passing through" a greenspace at least once a week, as compared with 59 percent MSA-wide. While race and ethnicity did account for differences in how often respondents reported passing through greenspaces, income was a much more significant predictor of frequency of visits to greenspaces.

Across the MSA, income was a good predictor of how often people visited the outdoors. Especially notable is 30 percent of respondents earning more than $125,000 a year reported passing through greenspaces almost every day, while only 7 percent of this demographic reported never or once a year. Comparatively, only 19 percent of respondents making less than $35,000 said they passed through greenspaces daily, while 22 percent said never or once a year.

Over the past two years, plans to re-purpose an abandoned retail site aim to increase access to public spaces in District 4. The city purchased an old Home Depot site in 2006 with a municipal bond, then in 2013 a neighboring Chrysler dealership. The 20-acre property is located in the St. John’s neighborhood, a traditionally black neighborhood with a large population of Spanish speaking Hispanic and Latin American residents. Plans to convert the site to a new police station and courthouse were abandoned, and it has since been used to store empty trash bins, lawn mowers, and miscellaneous city property.

The closing of a municipal pool next to the property in 2010 due to code violations left community members feeling like the area was neglected by the city. However in 2019, neighborhood organizers who secured funding through the city, Dell, and Austin Parks Foundation were able to realize the dream of a beautiful park for residents in that location. Now the District 4 office is ready to take on the development of the Home Depot-Chrysler property.

In 2017, the Austin City Council passed a  resolution  to do something with that land. People’s Community Clinic partnered with District 4 in 2018 to ask residents what they need or want at this location, empowering people to shape their community and transform the site into a shared space that encourages community and social connection. Additionally, the University of Texas Center for Sustainable Development partnered with District 4 to release a  report  that would recommend some options for the site based on community meetings.

District 4 acts as a part of the greater Austin area, so the outreach team makes an effort to invite people from neighboring districts 1, 7, and 9 to meetings about the former Home Depot property in St. John’s. 

“We’re hoping that we have a significant amount of greenspace there, but also affordable housing...we’re encouraging our St.John’s neighborhood to invite friends who live in other parts of the city.”-Sobeyda Gomez-Chou, District 4 Outreach Coordinator

The rapidly changing landscape of Austin complicates the District 4's plans for current residents who worry investment may invite more gentrification. The University of Texas'  Uprooted Project  released a report in 2018 documenting the St.John's neighborhood as vulnerable to gentrification with new residential developments that are unaffordable for existing residents.

Defining community resilience is an ongoing process. However, a large percentage of residents in District 4 are renters, making housing options a priority. In 2019, the city of Austin passed  Affordability Unlocked  to channel $250 million in housing bonds to develop more affordable units. The city hopes to build 60,000 more affordable units by 2027.

In April of 2018, the  Austin Climate Resilience Action Plan  outlined four socio-natural disaster or disaster-related threats: flood, fire, drought and heat. Using A2SI Climate and Social Vulnerability data, we looked at heat vulnerability by council district. Based on this data, we can see that District 4 experiences higher heat risk and social vulnerability than surrounding council districts.

As a result of the Climate Resilience Action Plan, the city identified four municipal facilities to be converted into resilience hubs, three of which are located within District 4. However, District 4 wants to expand on its capacity to respond to emergencies and build resiliency beyond addressing life-threatening situations. A comparison with District 10, a relatively wealthier district, illustrates that respondents in District 4 were slightly more likely to say they had a safe place to go during an emergency.

Resilience implies laying the groundwork for communities that are not only less vulnerable to emergency, but thriving across measures of health, education and sense of belonging. This could look like improving housing quality, building stronger social networks within public schools, offering better public transit, and connecting residents to services they may not realize are available to them, all without displacing them.

Travis County’s Transportation and Natural Resources (TNR) Department oversees county transportation infrastructure and natural resource management. TNR provides environmental protection, floodplain management, stormwater management, solid waste management, resource conservation and county park maintenance. What makes this department stand out is the county's sustainability program. 

Emily Ackland is Travis County’s Environmental Quality Program Manager. She created the county’s sustainability program one year ago to help green county operations. Travis County’s sustainability program focuses on waste reduction efforts, environmental procurement, collaboration with county departments, employee engagement and education, and the creation of the county’s first climate action plan. The work of the sustainability program is gaining traction, with the passage of the county's first environmental procurement policy in 2019 and the creation of the county's first climate action plan in 2020.

"Sustainability for us represents our capacity to manage, maintain, and improve current environmental, economic, and social structures over time. Sustainability is also a critical element in developing resiliency in the face of climate change." -2019 Travis County Sustainability Report, p.23

Through partnerships with cities, NGO's and other organizations, Travis County leverages and expands its sustainability work. The county's sustainability program partners with the city of Austin on solid waste, where the county and the city have a recycling agreement and a zero waste inter-local agreement. In addition to inter-local agreements on waste, the county’s sustainability program has staff who serve on the city of Austin’s climate action task forces. 

The county's sustainability program also partners with universities. An example is their partnership with Texas State University, which has been conducting studies for the county on illegal dumping. Additionally, based on partnerships with Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the County gets a University of Texas intern every year. 

Partnerships with NGO’s and businesses take the form of park and county-wide clean-ups. 2019 marked the County’s 25th Annual Lake Travis Clean-up with a whopping 1,200 volunteers and 3.69 tons of litter removed and 894 pounds recycled!

Collaboration also happens internally, where the county’s sustainability program partners with other county departments on departmental policy changes and employee education initiatives. To highlight are partnerships with the County Jail and the Health and Human Services Department.

The County Jail partners with the sustainability program to operate their organic gardening program. Since 2018, the county’s jail garden has produced “9,250 pounds of vegetables.” (as cited in Travis County 2019 Sustainability Report, p.4). The garden program provides job training skills and fresh produce for the inmates. 

An educated workforce is an empowered workforce. The partnership with the Health and Human Services Department has led to the development of staff training on environmental procurement and training employees on sustainability. These trainings help the county to meet their internal sustainability goals and newly set climate action plan.

Travis County has had an annual sustainability report or memo since 2012 reporting on waste management. The  2019 Travis County Sustainability Report  marked a new horizon for the county as the report took a comprehensive approach on reporting countywide sustainability work. In addition to addressing energy, water and waste, the report also touches upon resiliency and what that means for Travis County.

"Resiliency is preparing for the impacts of climate change that are already happening as well as being better prepared for future events." -2019 Sustainability Report, p.23

Travis county recognizes that as climate change continues, their staff will need to be ready to adapt and respond to increased heat and precipitation events. Resilience is an area where the county intends to provide more resources and time. Research must be dedicated to identifying how to make Travis County more resilient, nimble, and sustainable.

Originally the brainchild of an international design competition entry, Waterloo Greenway Conservancy (or Waterloo Greenway) has grown from a local design firm to a prominent partner collaborating on planning and execution of the projects and park landscapes. Now that Waterloo Greenway has a permanent home, they’ve started a regular season of programming with 2019 being the first year with a full calendar of events. Waterloo Greenway collaborates with community partners who offer programming, mainly around arts and culture. Working with partners who already have an established audience, like the Frida Friday Gaylentine’s Party hosted in Symphony Square on Valentine’s Day.

“Our mission is to restore Waller Creek through downtown in partnership with the City of Austin and create a more connected space for the community, and then activate them with programming.”

Ultimately, the vision is to see a series of four parks along the creek and a trail going through them as thriving centers of community life welcoming locals and visitors.

Waterloo Park, one of the first parks to undergo restoration, sits between 15th and 12th streets and Red River. Although it is currently closed for construction, Waterloo Greenway has hosted art exhibitions by commissioning murals on the fence around the park, doing panel discussions, dance performances and a film series. One of their biggest events is a monthly market with local vendors. All of the vendors are women of color selling handmade products from their small businesses.

Farther down the timeline, Waterloo Greenway has big plans for constructing a pedestrian and bicycle path that stretches from Waterloo Park all the way to the south side of Lady Bird Lake. They even have a vision for the Austin Police Department (APD) headquarters on 8th and I-35. Eventually, the goal is to demolish the building after APD relocates and convert that land into parkland.  

While these parks would be accessible by car, one of the objectives of the organization is to connect different parts of Austin by trails specifically for pedestrians and cyclists. Unofficial conversations considering a larger loop around the city connecting the Shoal Creek and Waller Creek trails bring these questions of alternative mobility to the forefront of discussions. Melissa Ayala, Community Engagement and Government Relations Manager, and Michelle Bright, Capital Projects Manager, describe a vision for this trail that is linked to the Hike and Bike Trail, and reminiscent of the San Antonio River Walk - an outdoor greenbelt with cafes and places to sit, talk, and enjoy the outdoors.

While the Waterloo Greenway Conservancy doesn’t have a formal definition of resilience, they think about resilience in their work from two perspectives: ecology and community. Historically, the Waller Creek area suffered from both flooding and neglect. Restoration efforts centered on improving water quality and natural habitats seek not only to bring life back to the downtown area, but to address economic and social inequities along the way. 

“Resilience in our landscape has to do with things that are not resource intensive, that can rebound faster, that include a diverse community of plants. There’s overlap with how we think about community resilience there, we’re trying to field and make places for the community to see themselves in our parks.”

Plant health and diverse wildlife factors heavily into how the organization thinks about resilience. Rehabilitation of the physical landscape around Waller Creek means developing a landscape that’s maintenance is less resource intensive, that bounces back faster after an event like a flood, and is home to a diverse array of plants and animals. Introducing new greenspaces into parts of the city with a lot of impervious cover, concrete, and buildings can also reduce the effect of urban heat islands, which can be fatal in the dead of summer. 

Community resilience for Waterloo Greenway is offering a space to Austinites that they are invested in. They want residents to feel at home in the parks, to create memories and connections to the community through these shared spaces. However, neighborhood investment in parks and trails often precedes or accompanies displacement. Waterloo Greenway is committed to ensuring these spaces welcome communities historically neglected by the city.

Part of Waterloo Greenway's work is to acknowledge who has access to parks and who doesn’t. They want to initiate a citywide conversation about systemic racism, and in doing so lift up the voices of Chicano and Black communities who have been left out of the prosperity brought about with urban revival in the downtown area. 

“Waterloo Greenway Conservancy can’t solve affordability on its own, we can’t solve gentrification, but we can potentially create programs that consider these issues and provide services like workforce development programs."

Public private partnerships are a common model of economic development in urban areas. Waterloo Greenway Conservancy is able to fundraise to supplement tax revenues for expensive capital projects the city might not have resources for, while still utilizing the city’s project staff through partnerships with municipal departments. Austin Parks and Recreation and the Watershed Protection Department sponsor Waterloo Greenway's efforts, but private sector developers, property owners, and the philanthropic community are able to contribute to projects.

While neighborhood park planning organizations are common, organizations working to transform cityscapes, like Waterloo Greenway Conservancy or Discovery Green in Houston, require district and city level master plans. Especially in East Austin and downtown, coordinating with the master plans of the city and entities like the Mexican American Cultural Center can be a challenge. An added element of their planning process calls for working with transit authorities since trails would intersect with I-35, a major interstate cutting through the downtown Austin area.

Long-term operational funding represents one of the biggest challenges the Waterloo Greenway faces. Its three-pronged approach continues to raise money through private sector property owners, the Downtown Austin Alliance, and establishing revenue sources inside of parks with concessions. Of course, successful projects are not solely indicated by revenue availability. High park and event attendance, in combination with broad community outreach, demonstrate the priceless social infrastructure Waterloo Greenway brings Austinites.

“The ultimate goal would be to do outreach across all ten districts, engaging folks across the city.”

By 2050 it is estimated that nearly 70 percent of the world’s population will live in cities or urban areas (The Nature Conservancy & United Nations data). The Nature Conservancy is one of many global organizations trying to enhance the capacity, adaptation, and the resiliency of urban areas. The Nature Conservancy aims to conserve the lands and waters upon which all life depends. More specifically, the Nature Conservancy focuses on tackling climate change, building healthy cities, and protecting lands and waters. The Nature Conservancy recognizes that the well-being of people and nature are inextricably linked, and to fulfill their mission, they must address the conservation needs of urban areas.

Amy Belaire, Director for Science and Strategy for the Texas Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, focuses on the integration of nature within urban spaces. Her team conducts research, engages with communities, and develops partnerships with other organizations and city departments to bring nature into the city in ways that can help to reduce climatic hazards and make the city healthier and more resilient.

Floodplains in Texas cities are expanding as storms become more intense and more frequent with climate change. As a result, urban communities increasingly face the dual challenge of protecting human lives and sustainably managing flood-prone landscapes. Over the last two decades, South Austin’s Williamson Creek has been continually ravaged by floods. The city of Austin and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers partnered on a buyout process in the area beginning in 2015 ( Williamson Creek Flood Risk Reduction ). However, buyout properties are often acquired, demolished, and then left unused.

In the Central Williamson Creek floodplain, The Nature Conservancy is working alongside neighborhood leaders in this community who want to see healthier, more productive green spaces in their communities that not only offer vital ecological benefits—flood control, pollinator support, carbon sequestration and more—but also provide opportunities for residents to connect with nature, grow community gardens, and use green spaces for recreation, relaxation and social gathering. With 17 acres of flood buyout properties combined with 58 acres of parkland,  Central Williamson Creek  represents an opportunity to collectively re-imagine our floodplains as resilient, healthy, and connected spaces. This project brings neighbors together to develop a community-led master plan that connects two miles of green space, bringing healthy park amenities to a high-priority park need area – and transforming a place of high flood risk into a place for community health For more information please click on  Central Williamson Creek .

Amy sees that as storms become more intense and more frequent with climate change, cities will likely be looking toward floodplain buyouts as a strategy to remove people from harm’s way. However, the agencies that conduct buyouts often have little or no plan after purchase and demolition occurs. This project demonstrates an alternative pathway post-buyout – with a community-led approach for how to adapt and re-imagine floodplains to improve the ecosystem services and resilience of our cities.

"From an adaptation perspective, we're seeing that floodplains are expanding with climate change, and floodplain buyouts are probably going to be a more common approach to how we adapt in the future. How do we do that in a way that these spaces become healthy assets for the communities nearby? How do we do that in a way where the community leads the process and gets support for the kinds of resources that they see being important in these spaces." -Amy Belaire, Austin Healthy Cities Director

Amy and The Nature Conservancy work frequently with city of Austin departments and community nonprofits, such as Community Powered Workshop. This work involves identifying projects and policies that will bring departments together around topics such as climate change resilience, healthy cities, and green infrastructure. Another example would be a partnership the Austin program had with multiple City of Austin departments in 2019, to support development of a new landscape ordinance related to green infrastructure within the city’s land development code. Additionally, The Nature Conservancy works with community partners to support and help build capacity in local nonprofits.

The vision for the Austin Healthy Cities program of The Nature Conservancy is to demonstrate and activate partners in government and community to re-think the role that nature can play to improve the ecological function of our cities to meet multiple challenges, while supporting healthy communities and habitat. Success in the cities programs can be measured by the number and types of projects, partnerships, plans, and policies that help integrate and institutionalize nature within the city over the long term. Metrics include total area of land or water with improved ecological function, number of individuals who engage in environmental planning and stewardship, and number of people with connection to place and access to healthy greenspaces.

The Nature Conservancy recognizes that nature can play a critical role in reducing vulnerabilities, strengthening adaptive capacity, and enhancing resilience to climate impacts. The Nature Conservancy’s work on adaptation and healthy cities for all is grounded in a general understanding of resilience. Dr. Belaire considers a resilience community to be:

"one that has strong social cohesion, green infrastructure, and adaptive capacity that help adapt to our changing conditions. This means the elements are there to ensure that a system can continue to function, even when hit with shocks or stresses." -Amy Belaire, Austin Healthy Cities Director

Amy identified that one of the challenges in adaptation and climate resilience work is related to lingering historic inequities that can exacerbate the impacts of climate hazards. For example, in Austin we see limited green infrastructure and less tree canopy in areas predominantly occupied by low-income residents and areas populated by people of color. Amy notes that climate change impacts can disproportionately affect communities that are already socially vulnerable.

Amy identified that one of the challenges in adaptation and climate resilience work is related to lingering historic inequities that can exacerbate the impacts of climate hazards. For example, in Austin we see limited green infrastructure and less tree canopy in areas predominantly occupied by low-income residents and areas populated by people of color. Amy notes that climate change impacts can disproportionately affect communities that are already socially vulnerable.

"This can shape how resilient communities can be to various shocks or stresses. For example, people who have the resources and the means to adapt very easily can do so, whereas communities with fewer resources may take longer to adapt and recover, which can also have cascading effects into other aspects of life and health."- Amy Belaire, Austin Healthy Cities Director

According to 2018 A2SI data, 88 percent of MSA and city of Austin respondents cite that they have access to greenspace. It is due to organizations like the Austin Branch of the Nature Conservancy and countless others that central Texans enjoy access to protected greenspaces. Similar to the adaptation and resiliency work conducted by the Austin Office of Sustainability and Austin City Council District 4, the Nature Conservancy recognizes the importance of engaging with the community. Through science-based solutions and community partnerships we can work together to ensure that all residents may benefit equally from healthy and resilient city initiatives. 

Raasin McIntosh has big dreams for her nonprofit,  Raasin in the Sun . On top of her work as an ESL specialist at Cedar Ridge High School, she founded Raasin in the Sun to restore and beautify East Austin.

“We’re serving humanity through beautification initiatives to unite, inspire and restore urban communities. We’re doing this to remedy urbanization.”- Raasin McIntosh

Beautification projects fall into two categories: green and blue.  Project Green  revolves around sustainability and environmental action. Raasin in the Sun do everything from gardening to coordinated trash pick ups, but it’s not just about getting rid of litter or growing vegetables, these “green parties” are about building relationships between neighbors. Meanwhile, Project Blue seeks to transform vacant lots into a functional and aesthetic place for community members to congregate, play sports and share their art, even if it’s only temporary. More permanent restoration could be connecting local artists with partners or sponsors who want to beautify the exterior of a building.

One of the projects they just finished commissioned two local Afrolatina artists to paint a 400 square yard mural on the side of an apartment building on San Marcos Street. Especially in communities seeing drastic changes due to gentrification, like East Austin, these projects and community activity make residents feel resilient. 

However, while projects are designed for residents in a specific community, Raasin gives volunteers the opportunity to get involved no matter where they are from. Some people may need community service hours while others just want to make an impact that feels meaningful, but these positive interactions and community engagement are a big part of project success.

“Whether you stop by a mural project just to say hi or have some coffee, it’s all inclusive. Everyone is welcome.”- Raasin McIntosh

Throughout our series of vignettes, we’ve continuously come across the complexity of challenges that face communities who must be resilient: poverty, gentrification, education, health. One of the challenges more unique to Raasin’s project is underrepresentation in the arts. 

“A resilient community is healthy, strong, it’s supportive. It’s constantly open to change for the better. It loves the arts. It’s full of art and greenery.”- Raasin McIntosh

While some of Raasin’s goals related to resilience are less tangible, seeing a finished project - whether it be a mural, garden, or home restoration - helps the community and volunteers feel accomplished and appreciate how much effort went into their creation. There are no vacant lots in the ideal, resilient community because people are inspired to imagine the space as something beautiful and functional - and then make it happen.

The organization is relatively small now, but eventually they plan to develop project teams that can concentrate more time and energy to their specific focus. Until they are able to get a big, operational grant, Raasin has a few dedicated volunteers and partners who really make the magic happen. The young people and students who intern do incredible work, but Raasin wants to give someone the chance to be a permanent employee and specialize in gardening or murals. 

Placemaking initiatives are grounded in what the community wants. In one project, Raasin cleaned underneath a bridge in Pleasant Valley and painted the pillars. Raasin partnered with the city and the community to get feedback on what they wanted the design to look like. 

Sixsquare, an African American culture district, the Urban League, Austin Creative Alliance, and the Mosaic Workshop all contribute to project identification, artist partnerships, preservation of downtown murals, and fiscal sponsorship of Raasin’s organizational grants. While these organizations help Raasin build capacity to achieve its mission, they also bounce ideas off of each other and find ways to work together to serve the same community.

Sometimes getting city permission to start construction can slow down projects. For example, city codes may prevent projects from moving forward with laying turf or installing fencing if it creates impervious cover and lacks wheelchair accessibility. In this specific case the city granted an ordinance allowing Raasin to bypass these regulations, but time lost can be a big deal in a community that changes so quickly.

Gentrification, crime, and disinvestment in neighborhoods and public schools are a few of the local challenges Raasin sees in their work. While it’s not always within the scope of their projects, educating homeowners on the value of their homes and protecting against predatory real estate developments are a big part of preserving and evolving with the community. At the end of the day, the organization wants to see the community members in the neighborhoods they work in benefit from the art, greenery and livelihood cultivated through their projects.

 EcoRise  partners with K-12 schools across the country to provide programming focused on environmental literacy and social innovation. Gina LaMotte, the founder, described the mission of EcoRise as “empower[ing] a generation of leaders to design a sustainable future for all.” Students learn about a wide range of topics related to sustainability: water, energy, transportation, green building and biomimicry to name a few. Curriculum is available in both English and Spanish. Beyond the coursework they offer schools, they also provide expansive professional development opportunities for teachers and school administrators.

It’s worth noting that within the 89 percent of MSA respondents who agreed that more could be done to support public school students, 30 percent strongly agreed. Nonprofits like EcoRise fill a great need by providing teacher resources, community connections, professional opportunities for students, and sometimes even project grants.

Similarly, respondents across the MSA overwhelmingly supported extracurricular opportunities for students to get hands on learning experience. Within the 95 percent of people who agreed with this statement, 45 percent strongly agreed, indicating the desire to see more initiatives and organizations like EcoRise.

One of the unique aspects of EcoRise is that the programming takes students outside of the traditional classroom learning and presents them with a local sustainability challenge to solve. The Student Innovation Fund, dedicated microgrants, fund projects students develop as they work on these campus green projects. In May of last year, 20 student teams presented their ideas for sustainability projects to a crowd of 200 people at Austin City Hall. Students shared data-driven solutions, like growing food on campus and erosion control plans, to energy and water conservation initiatives.

Jaynell Nicholson, one of EcoRise’s program managers, defines a resilient community as one that “has the capacity to endure a change that affects the community as a whole, whether it’s a flood, big storms, drought, or food scarcity. So it’s their capacity to endure, but also their ability to recover and do even better than they were doing before.” 

Curriculum doesn’t end with teaching the kids where their water comes from. The program seeks to educate them as a base for strengthening their problem-solving and leadership muscles. Once students learn where their water comes from, they can begin to understand droughts, floods, water quality, plastics in the oceans - the scope of environmental literature around water. From there, students look at local water issues and brainstorm what can be done, like reducing water use on campus, going plastic-free, or eliminating the use of pesticides. The founder, Gina LaMotte, emphasizes that “cultivating youth leadership and problem solving is the foundation of everything we do.”

Although the staff is relatively small, EcoRise utilizes technology and a train-the-trainer model to reach an impressive number of educators across the country. Their Teacher Ambassador program brings together “rockstar” teachers from school districts across the country to build comradery and learn skills related to leadership and systems change. These teachers receive stipends to train their colleagues and play an active role in catalyzing their own communities. With this growth model, EcoRise is able to expand its impact while building the capacity and driving resources to local leaders.

EcoRise works with 4,400 teachers across the country, reaching over 250,000 students. Typically, the organization connects with teachers through partnerships with the school district, but online resources and training are available to any teacher in Texas. While STEM teachers are heavily represented, a mix of social studies, language arts and other teachers engage in the EcoRise program. Public, private and charter schools are welcome, and the website even hosts content for parents homeschooling their kids.

Teachers provide essential feedback and ideas that shape the direction of EcoRise’s curriculum over time. Especially during the COVID-19 crisis, the needs of a classroom shift. As students shift to learning online, EcoRise is focused on adapting “teacher-facing” materials to apps or videos that are “student-facing”. Resources for teachers and school administrators who are constantly faced with exhausting realities of limited time, energy, and materials are essential to the resilience that EcoRise hopes to galvanize in the education community. 

Making sure teachers feel supported is important, especially as the Covid-19 crisis forces their curriculum online. However, evaluating the impact of programming is also focused on student impact — “increasing environmental literacy, adoption of sustainable living practices, increase in 21st century skills, interest in green collar jobs or sustainability in their career paths, their confidence and belief that they have the ability to change their community.”

Starting with Texas and Louisiana, EcoRise is surveying the landscape of K-12 environmental education in the U.S. to identify where programming is strong, and where it’s still needed, with a focus on climate risk and environmental justice. In an initiative called Gen:Thrive, they are building a database and mapping current programs in efforts to scale environmental literacy programs. Building on the existing instruction around sustainability, EcoRise is also expanding curriculum to include climate and environmental justice and its relationship to environmental and social issues.

In many cities, EcoRise works with local leaders connected to environmental interests, often the Office of Sustainability or the mayor’s office. Sometimes this means being a voice in designing a climate resilience plan, like in San Antonio or New York City. However, EcoRise also works with corporations and nonprofits with social responsibility programs. Often they provide funding to programs in their own cities or regions, but other partnerships are more dynamic. For example, Austin’s BLGY Architects collaborates with EcoRise to offer paid green building internships for girls and students of color. EcoRise green building coursework aligns with BLGY and with U.S. Green Building Council practices, creating opportunities for summer internships, and future careers, with entities like BLGY or UT’s School of Architecture. 

“As an organization, we have a pretty strong sense to what we believe is high quality professional development and curriculum, but when we work with new communities we curate and adapt the curriculum to focus on their needs and interests.”

While San Antonio may want to concentrate on climate, Washington D.C maintains a strong focus on green building and working with local architecture firms.

Even as public sentiment consolidates around human-caused climate change, governments, corporations and school districts are still figuring out what role they play in addressing the issue and how to move forward. Across the state and the country, school districts vary widely in their approach to climate education, green building and environmental education at large. This disparity is amplified by the divide between rural and urban schools.

Two years ago, EcoRise launched a rural initiative that sought to proactively serve rural communities in Texas and address barriers specific to their area. The program has been very well received so far, which is testament to how eager these schools are for new resources and support establishing green programs.

Huston-Tillotson, Austin’s oldest institution of higher education, is a Historically Black College & University (HBCU). The foundational mission was and continues to be educating the descendent's of freed slaves. Broadly speaking, they see their goal as inspiring curiosity and empowering students. 

The  Center for Sustainability and Environmental Justice  started out offering courses in STEM fields, but expanded over time to focus more on environmental justice. In addition to added curriculum and coursework, the department works with facilities on environmental issues on the campus, like building efficiency, that create a better learning environment for students.

The school is transitioning its environmental studies major to environmental justice, making it one of the only environmental justice programs offered to undergraduates in the state. The program will incorporate interdisciplinary course material and offer a writing intensive, critical pedagogy that will prepare students for work ranging from policy, nonprofit or law instead of the typical science-focused sustainability development. 

Since social justice represents an inherent piece of the school’s identity as an HBCU, the program aligns with student interests in building a more just, equitable society and talking explicitly about how race and equity affect different communities’ environment. 

The school prioritizes partnerships with people and organizations that can offer students research experience or paid internships. Students are generally pragmatic and want clear pathways into the professional world, so the department aspires to provide that guidance to students regardless of what their particular career goals are.

Again, we can see that Black Austin area residents are especially likely to feel like they don't have the resources needed to advance professionally. However, the disparity in access to professional training becomes more stark when it is broken down by income, with 35 percent of individuals in the lowest annual income bracket reporting a lack of quality development opportunities and only 10 percent in the highest.

Every year the department hosts a one-day environmental justice conference called  Building Green Justice . The conference addresses a different theme every year, and students hear speakers, attend panel discussions and meet people that share their interests. As the STEM Director, Karen Magid also runs an environmental and sustainability minded summer program for middle schoolers. Students can attend a series of classes and receive high school credit.

Huston-Tillotson has a long history —146 years — of doing the most they can with the resources available. Racial and economic disparities, especially related to available program funding, persist between the higher education institutions in Austin. While staff and students at Huston-Tillotson are working toward a thriving community, inequity creates vulnerabilities in the community that make resilience the only option.

“What communities do we ask to be resilient? They’ve always been resilient in our county, given our history, so why are we applauding when it’s just what they’ve had to do to survive...it’s a complicated term.”- Karen Magid, Director of Sustainability & STEM 

A definition of community resilience that is meaningful for Huston-Tillotson’s community has to go beyond weathering and recovering from disasters. It has to include improvement and better material conditions. Often ambitious environmental initiatives, like becoming a zero waste institution, represent an expensive transition that is often not supported by additional funding. Austin is a relatively progressive city, but the city understands that progressive policies can be a challenge for small institutions. 

Karen also oversees facilities and helps find partnerships and grants that provide the resources to make programming happen. Students interested in environmental justice issues take on independent projects through their  Green is the New Black  student group. Their projects in the community help build relationships with businesses while also affecting change. Moving forward, Karen wants to develop a revolving green fund that would provide resources for more student projects without them bearing the cost.  

Between faculty and staff, there are a number of supporters of sustainability issues on campus. Additional partnerships with the city’s Office of Sustainability and nonprofits like Urban Roots are also a big part of making the program a meaningful experience for students. Some other big partners are Texas Parks & Wildlife, Austin Energy, and the Sustainable Food Center.

The sustainability department adds a lot to the campus, some is intangible but other changes, like operational costs, are quantifiable. Of course, some measures are easier to obtain than others. Tracking students’ career path, for example, is not possible over the long term.

• Enrollment in environmental or sustainable field major
• Number of students that get a paid internship or paid research internship
• Attendees of events
• Grant dollars
• Number of students in middle school program who go on graduate college in STEM and then work in the field
• Professional retention

Austin Youth River Watch (AYRW) is a unique Austin based nonprofit that has provided youth programming since 1992. High school students enrolled in the AYRW program receive an interactive environmental science hands on training. The NGO provides after school programs, summer programs, field trips and presentations to high school youth. Amazingly, since the program’s founding in 1991 and beginning programming in 1992, Austin Youth River Watch’s graduation rate has been nearly 100 percent.

Often low-income schools lack robust STEM programming ( STEMtistics ). Additionally, research indicates that low-income youth often have limited access to greenspaces ( Sefcik, 2019 ). AYRW provides underserved high school students after school outdoor and STEM programming and leadership development opportunities. Additionally, AYRW provides youth camp-outs, outdoor recreation adventures, and community outreach activities. The NGO works with students, who are referred as River Watchers, from over 20 different schools with high title one populations in the Austin Area. AYRW provides programming to over 200 high school students each school year. 

Similar to other nonprofits interviewed, Austin Youth River Watch is resilient through its partnerships. Partnerships provide critical resources, expand programming, and allow AYRW to create environmental stewards for generations to come.

Austin Youth River Watch’s programming is enriched and supported by a multitude of community partners. These community partners include: Lower Colorado River Authority, Austin Watershed Protection Department, Austin Parks and Recreation Department and Resource Recovery to name just a few.

Resilience to Melinda, means building youth capacity, or a sense of self-efficacy. She explained that Austin Youth River Watch is not just an environmental education organization but also a youth development and empowerment organization. The NGO is focused on helping students grow, meet their own personal needs, and become empowered through the program by engaging with the community through environmental service learning and by discovering that they can make a positive difference. Youth capacity builds community resilience.

“A priority of Austin Youth River Watch is to serve as a youth development organization. The lives of our youth are particularly important to us. We want them to care about the environment and become environmental stewards. Here, environmental education and community service are vehicles to youth development and empowerment.” -Melinda Chow, Executive Director of Austin Youth River Watch

Austin Youth River Watch strives to maintain quality programming for youth despite budgetary constraints. Funding is a constant barrier for small independent nonprofits like AYRW. In 2019, the National Conference of State Legislatures identified 27 states that provide financial support for after school programming ( NCSL ). According to Melinda, the Texas Legislature provides zero funding specifically directed towards after-school and out-of-school education programming, although state funding does sometimes support such programming indirectly. Meanwhile, another struggle for environmental nonprofits is grant funding at the federal level. Under the current administration, there is concern and noted instability with the EPA providing support for environmental concerns such as climate change and support for underserved communities. These limitations make it ever more important for small independent nonprofits to continue to expand and build local capacity and support. 

The Austin area is recognized for its strong culture of environmentalism and focus on sustainability initiatives. According to 2018 A2SI data, older respondents indicate higher rates of environmentalism, where 45-54 year-olds, 89 percent, and 51-64 year-olds, 91 percent, think about when asked if they always think about how their actions affect the environment.

Additionally, when looking at watershed knowledge, in general, respondents indicate high levels of knowledge and self awareness. Where 25-34 year-olds and those 65+ cite a strong understanding, 93 percent, of how their local actions can impact rivers and coastal bays.

Programs like Austin Youth River Watch foster and engender this culture of environmental stewardship throughout the Austin area. By providing youth with outdoor education, STEM and leadership training AYRW is creating the enxt generation of environmentalists. As Baba Dioum once said, “for in the end, we will only conserve what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand what we are taught.” 

The Campus Environmental Center (CEC) is the oldest and largest environmental student organization. Founded in 2002, the center’s first objective was to institutionalize recycling on campus. What started as students going building to building and physically collecting and disposing of recycling transformed into a center under the Office of Sustainability with six student-run projects. 

Students on the administration team manage external and internal aspects of the center, educational outreach and communications. External operations cover collaborations with nonprofits and outside organizations, general meetings and team building, while internal focuses on metrics, budget, and team members. Project teams handle specific sustainability projects and lead volunteers in the work they do. 

While volunteers who typically dedicate 2 to 5 hours a week to their project are not paid, administrative staff and the project leaders are paid. This allows student leaders who may otherwise need to work flexibility and incentivizes them to dedicate more time and energy to their position. 

There are six project teams: Half Pint Prairie, a native blackland prairie restoration project; the Environmental Justice Collective, an effort to expand curriculum in environmental science and sustainability degrees to include eco-justice; Trash to Treasure, a fundraiser that resells unwanted items and small furniture collected from dorms and student housing; Micro Farm, a small organic farm at the intramural fields; Green Greeks, a composting and recycling program for sororities, fraternities, and other West Campus areas; and Green Events, which partners with other organizations on campus to coordinate zero waste events.

Each team has a specific audience on campus, for example Green Greeks serves students participating in Greek life. However, the overall scope of the entire project is pretty big, including partners like the Austin Parks Foundation and other nonprofits. Students are able to tap into the University of Texas’ network to work with the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for professional advice or specific project goals.

“We provide the tools for students to go into their communities or future careers as leaders in sustainability fields.”- Avery McKitrick, student Co-Director of CEC

Student interests and needs are diverse, making it difficult to define the biggest needs of the community. CEC’s role in addressing needs related to community resilience is empowering students to bring a sustainability focus to their professional lives and communities after graduation. Many of the students involved are not environmental science or sustainability majors. The CEC trains students to think about sustainability in the context of their own particular interests and skills.

CEC has a large reach on campus, and they are able to take on a host of projects within the UT Austin community and the greater Austin area. But while the CEC is adaptable in that students have near complete autonomy in project design and organizational structure, there are some limits to being housed under the UT Office of Sustainability. As an offshoot of the Office of Sustainability, students are not able to act as activists. 

As the environmental movement progresses, climate change and environmental justice have become central to conversations about where society needs to focus attention and energy. 

“A lot of our earlier programs are focused on waste diversion, which we now recognize as more or less a broken system. But composting is more bite-sized than environmental justice, so maybe you work your way up to understanding that.”- Avery McKitrick, student Co-Director of CEC

Their Green Fund budget and fundraising supports 16 paid student leaders, which gives them a lot of power to put together major programming that initiates meaningful change on campus. However, funding ultimately decides how many student leaders can be paid, which sometimes means new projects aren’t added to the CEC. There are opportunities for interested students to get internships with other departments like Housing and Dining, although they don’t necessarily work directly with the CEC.

With so many programs in place, the CEC measures success in a variety of ways, but of course, documenting success is always celebrated with a pizza party at the end of each semester.

• Retention of students from general meetings to “campfire” educational events
• Number of volunteers participating in planting days (Half Pint Prairie, Micro Farm)
• Pounds of goods donated (Trash to Treasure)
• Pounds of crawfish/food composed at an event (Green Greek)
• Pounds of food collected for UT Outpost (Trash to Treasure)

How do you measure resilience at the neighborhood level? A2SI research identifies that residents who share strong supportive networks and have greater social cohesion are more resilient.

According to 2018 A2SI research, 91.7 percent of MSA respondents indicate that neighbors help each other. We see similar results for District 2, where 92 percent of residents indicate a willingness to help each other.

Diving into neighborliness and social cohesion further, 2018 A2SI research indicates that 74 percent of MSA residents cite that they discuss issues with their neighbors to improve their neighborhood, while only 68 percent of residents from Austin City Council District 2 respondents cite similar behavior.

Resilience at the neighborhood level could be impacted by other social and economic indicators. According to HousingWorks white paper on Austin City Council Districts,  District 2  contains the highest percentage of residents who are'cost-burdened' and 19% of District 2 residents live in poverty.

GO! AUSTIN/ VAMOS! AUSTIN (GAVA) is an Austin based non-profit that focuses on improving health outcomes and resident permanency in areas of District 2, focusing their efforts primarily in the 78744 and 78745 zip codes. GAVA takes an expansive approach to addressing resident health outcomes, with community projects encouraging greater access to healthy food, physical exercise, traffic safety, youth engagement, and localized disaster and climate resilience.

“GAVA equips residents and community leaders with a capacity to reduce barriers to health. At the same time, increasing institutional capacity to respond to the people that are most affected by historical inequities.” - Frances Acuña, 78744 GAVA Community Organizer

Frances Acuña is community organizer in the 78744 zip code with GAVA. She is a long-time resident of Dove Springs, a neighborhood within the 78744 zip code. Frances identifies herself and her place within the community.

"I'm a resident of this community. So I have the lived experience, I understand the community's needs and struggles." - Frances Acuña, 78744 GAVA Community Organizer

This knowledge and experience provide Frances with community trust, which allows her to bring in outside organizations into neighborhood meetings. Residents trust her and attend meetings that she helps organize. Frances cites this as a way GAVA’s community led projects are successful. 

"that's the good thing about having organizers in the places that we live because residents know us and trust us and then we have the support from our organization..." - Frances Acuña, 78744 GAVA Community Organizer

GAVA’s community organizers work on providing community engagement tools and leadership training to residents. These tools and trainings bring residents closer together and foster a more educated, empowered populace and greater resiliency. Frances cites that GAVA’s work helps build resident capacity -"so they could be able to speak, to make calls to 311 to go to city hall to, you know, use their power that they have in their voice and then hold [elected leaders] accountable."

Residents are trained as community organizers. They learn how to hold house meetings, go door to door. It is through these homegrown efforts that Frances cites that-

"...it's amazing once you come to the community and you see all of our resiliency and adaptability to the disparities that we have in our community."- Frances Acuña, 78744 GAVA Community Organizer

According to 2018 A2SI research 69 percent of city of Austin District 2 respondents identified that their neighborhood can provide emergency services during a disaster, as compared to 65 percent of city of Austin Council District 10 respondents.

Meanwhile, District 2 respondents identified higher rates, 61 percent as compared to District 10, 47 percent, of living in neighborhoods which provide disaster recovery services and programs. This higher response rate could be due to programming provided by GAVA.

The Dove Springs area, located in the 78744 zip code, is an area sensitive to climatic hazards. In 2013 and in 2015, this area experienced life-threatening floods that took precious lives and caused enormous property damage. There are many factors that make this area vulnerable. The 78744 zip code is an area with a large low-income population, has a high non-English speaking population, poor drainage infrastructure and is located in the Onion Creek Watershed with a growing floodplain.

Additionally, the 78744 zip code is also experiencing displacement due to rising property values and the effects of gentrification. All these factors make this neighborhood and others in the 78744 zip code vulnerable and at-risk to growing climatic hazards.

When talking about climate hazards, Frances described the situation 78744 zip code residents face-

"In regard to flooding, we know that our infrastructure doesn't have the capacity for the water that falls right now...local creeks are losing trees which leads to more erosion...and more flooding." - Frances Acuña, 78744 GAVA Community Organizer

GAVA is working to address these issues by providing tools and trainings to residents to foster resiliency. One such program is the Climate Navigator Program. This program is a partnership between the City of Austin's Watershed Department, Austin's Homeland Security Emergency Management, and austinfree.net. Together these organizations train residents about the growing floodplain, the importance of having flood insurance, as well as disaster preparedness, planning and response. The Climate Navigator Program will support 78744 residents to “...be able to anticipate, prepare and respond to climate change. Not necessarily just flooding but also fire, wildfires too. Everything that you know, from learning maps to learning, what kind of insurance to buy, [what] it covers, how much it covers…”

When asked what a resilient community looked like, Frances focused on her experiences and the experiences of the community leaders that she works with on a daily basis. To her, resiliency is about adaptation and building trust. 

"All the residents have been adapting, adapting since, you know, we got here. So, I think when it comes to adapting, it has to come from the city to the residents because the city has not been involved in [the community]. So they need to adapt...and partner with residents in order for both sides to build that capacity, not necessarily just the residents but also the city. They need to adapt to each other and build the capacity on both sides."- Frances Acuña, 78744 GAVA Community Organizer

Community organizing takes time, dedicated resources, and support. The work that GAVA is doing to train and equip residents to be climate navigators is truly remarkable and worth watching. As Margaret Mead once said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Access to healthy and nutritious foods can be a barrier for underserved/disadvantaged communities. According to the 2018 A2SI data, 88 percent of MSA respondents cited that they could buy affordable and healthy food near their homes. Meanwhile, 89 percent of City of Austin respondents cited the ability to buy affordable, healthy food near their home.

Much like measures of social and neighborhood cohesion, rates of access to affordable, healthy food vary throughout the Austin area. When looking at 2018 A2SI income data, we can see that those who fall in the less than $35,000 up to $55,000 income brackets identify lower rates of being able to access affordable, healthy food.

Additionally, access to affordable, healthy food also varies by race/ethnicity. According to 2018 A2SI data, Black respondents as compared to white respondents were 22 percent less likely to agree that they could buy affordable, healthy food near their homes. Meanwhile, Hispanic and white respondent rates were equatable to citywide and MSA rates.

While there are notable gaps in access to fresh healthy foods in the Austin area, the Office of Sustainability, ngos, and community groups are working to address food insecurity. 

The  Sustainable Food Center  (SFC) is one example of an NGO working to address food access and farmer sustainability. SFC is a local Austin based NGO, whose mission is to-

"cultivate a just and regenerative food system so that people and the environment can thrive."- Molly Costigan,Program Director for the Happy Kitchen

Molly Costigan, Program Director for the Happy Kitchen Program describes what this means on the ground- SFC empowers people to realize food sovereignty by helping people “... know how to make...healthy choices and try to ensure that the healthy choices are accessible, meaning that [residents] can get to them, and that they can afford them and that it's culturally relevant and that they can prepare them,”

SFC does this work by focusing on providing food access and education to residents in Central Texas. In addition, they provide a robust program to support local farmers. This support includes grant resources and farmer education on regenerative farming practices as well as linking farmers to wholesale retailers and local farmers markets. 

 The Sustainable Food Center sponsors  two farmers markets , the Downtown market in Republic Square and the Sunset Valley market in the Toney Burger Center in the Austin area. SFC farmers markets are dedicated to producers and feature over 100+ farmers and local artisans. To make these farmers markets financially sustainable they offer a market sponsorship program, open to ‘mission aligned’ partners. Visitors to Sustainable Food Center farmers markets enjoy a menagerie of local produce and a chance to meet central Texas farmers.

While the Sustainable Food Center does not have a specific definition when it comes to resilience, their work reflects community and climate resilience. SFC provides greater access to healthy foods for disadvantaged populations, thereby building food resilience or food sovereignty. This work is done through their farmers markets and their community cooking classes. Sustainable Food Center farmers markets accept WIC and SNAP and FMNP benefits. Thanks to SFC’s collaboration with a national network they are able to provide customers the ability to Double Up Food Bucks, which provides customers with up to $30 in matched benefits in SNAP, WIC and FMNP that can be used to purchase fruits and vegetables.

Molly spearheads the cooking program at SFC. These cooking classes promote and support rich cultural cooking traditions. While disadvantaged/underserved communities struggle to access healthy, nutritious foods, Molly cites that they have rich healthy cooking traditions. But these cooking traditions often face a myriad of barriers.

"These traditions can get disrupted by more people working outside the home, moving to a new place, and the added convenience and lower cost of a lot of processed foods."- Molly Costigan,Program Director for the Happy Kitchen

Not only do the classes bring people together but they also build community leadership. The Sustainable Food Center started training community facilitators to teach healthy cooking classes. These classes help build capacity and create community. Molly cites that 

"...some of the participants have... shared experiences from where they grew up or face similar challenges to healthy food access," and through learning to cook with each other they build community. In addition, "education builds capacity...having community leaders teach the classes also encourages them to lead in other ways". For example, SFC has noticed that "churches that have hosted SFC's healthy cooking classes start having healthier potlucks, or make other changes that impact the community beyond their own family."- Molly Costigan,Program Director for the Happy Kitchen

The Happy Kitchen Program is an example of community resilience, driven by creativity and community leadership. Yet, despite creativity and loving hands growing and recreating traditional healthy foods, there are barriers to community and climate resilience work. 

In July of 2018, the City of Austin decided to cancel its mandatory ban on single-use plastic bags after the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the City of Laredo’s ban violated Texas law ( Single-Use Bag Ordinance ). It is this event and many others that make environmentalists feel stifled in Texas. Molly described feeling like the Texas State Legislature can act like a mental barrier. In addition to state barriers, there are also noticeable barriers at the community level such as the passage of environmental bans that may have a disproportionate impact on socially vulnerable populations. Molly points out that in realizing greater environmental sustainability, we need to make sure that any resiliency work provides equitable solutions that do not have a disproportionate impact. Her work and the work of the Sustainable Food Center show us that nonprofits like the SFC that can create community change amidst restrictive state laws and complex social equity puzzles. As Molly says, “The more you know your neighbors, the more you are connected with your community and the more you learn from one another.” 

Unexpectedly, the repercussions of a global pandemic underwrote the urgency for more research and policy related to community resilience as this project developed. While many of the organizations and community members we interviewed framed resilience in terms of response to extreme weather-related emergencies, the COVID-19 pandemic has sent the nation and our own community into shock. Disorganized response at the national level has meant less funding for states and municipalities, exacerbating many of deep, structural inequities that disproportionately cause suffering in communities of color and poor neighborhoods. 

Preliminary data indicates that those hardest hit and affected by the COVID-19 pandemic are communities of color and poor neighborhoods. For example the 78744 zip codes as well as zip codes throughout the eastern crescent show a disproportionate number of COVID-19 cases as compared to other areas in Austin. 

Below are some program updates during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The Office of Sustainability put together analysis and recommendations for implementation of  Phase 2  of its Climate Resilience Plan just days before the country began to shut down. As of right now work on resilience hubs has slowed down, as well as work on other projects, with focus and energy put toward COVID-19 relief efforts.

• The Austin City Council worked quickly to allocate federal monies granted through the CARES Act and has since passed a resolution to create a Chief Resilience Officer that would help the city navigate climate and community resilience issues. The City also passed a resolution to develop a Civilian Corps program, to assist those who are without work due to the pandemic. Finally, the City’s latest resolution, the $70 million RISE fund, allocates direct cash assistance to Austinites, including undocumented neighbors.

• EcoRise quickly adapted content more suitable to online learning, creating new materials and providing professional development for teachers who were struggling to shift from classroom teaching to remote learning overnight.

• UT’s Campus Environmental Center project teams shifted their work, with Trash to Treasure donating over 1,000 pounds of shirts to make cloth face masks, the Environmental Justice team and Microfarm are working to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) to agricultural workers, and the Microfarm donated over 140 pounds of produce to the Central Texas Food Bank and UT Outpost. 

• GAVA has created a bilingual  list  of COVID-19 resources for residents that include food access, telehealth, utilities, transportation,and educational resources. Thanks to a community member with food handling experience and support from Urban Roots, GAVA was able to help distribute fresh produce to 30 households in the 78744&45 zip codes. Additionally, thanks to the All Together ATX program, the Dell Medical School, the City of Austin RISE program, GAVA has been able to provide cash assistance to residents in need in the 78744-45 zip codes. 

• The Sustainable Food Center has been actively working to address food insecurity issues throughout the pandemic. SFC has maintained its farmers markets, as well as created  a list of food access points  which provides information on how to pick up fresh produce from farms, csa’s, as well as food resources for low-income families. Residents can access recipe ideas online through SFC’s website, blog and social media. Additionally, the Sustainable Food Center has partnered with  Farm Share Austin  to provide home delivery of fresh produce in zip codes which once had a farmers market. To promote food gardening, SFC’s  Spread the Harvest Program  is also running which provides seeds, fertilizer and other gardening resources to income eligible residents.

• While in-person programming has been put on hold for Austin Youth River Watch, similar to ecoRise, AYRW provided environmental education programming online. Currently, AYRW is focusing on increasing student stipends as well as looking at providing  social services and food  deliveries to student’s homes. Summer online programming will start in July and focus on career training and environmental education. Finally, Austin Youth River Watch has been celebrating their graduates with  social media posts . These posts highlight River Watchers, congratulating them and recognizing their hard work. 

• The Austin Program of the Nature Conservancy has been cancelled.

One of the clear lessons from this work is that there are many avenues of building community and climate resilience. Data and perceptions tell the same story of social vulnerability in areas that have experienced disinvestment, areas largely inhabited by lower income communities of color. While the pandemic and ongoing racial violence challenges every institution and community worldwide, its organizations and community organizers at the local level that will continue to define, challenge, and create more just and resilient systems.