Municipal Resilience Program

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Resilient Rhody, Rhode Island’s first comprehensive climate resilience action strategy was released by Governor Raimondo in July 2018. The strategy identifies priority actions the state can take to build statewide resilience. Common throughout Resilient Rhody is the need to work collaboratively with and in support of municipalities statewide.  

The Municipal Resilience Program (MRP) provides direct support to cities and towns to complete a municipal-driven process that will bring together climate change information and local knowledge to identify top hazards, current challenges, and community strengths. This process will identify priority projects and strategies to improve the municipality’s resilience to all natural and climate-related hazards using a flexible, tested approach called Community Resilience Building (CRB).

Upon successful completion of the CRB process, municipalities will be designated as a “Resilient Rhody Municipality” which enables municipalities to apply for dedicated action grants to implement identified projects.

PROGRAM OUTCOMES

• Understand connections between ongoing community issues, climate change and natural hazards, and local planning and actions in the municipality;
• Understand how climate change will exacerbate or lead to new community issues, hazards and other challenges the municipality faces;
• Identify infrastructural, societal, and environmental vulnerabilities and evaluate strengths that help make the community more resilient to climate change and natural hazards;
• Explore nature-based solutions to build resiliency in the municipality;
• Develop and prioritize actions and clearly delineate next steps for the municipality, local organizations, businesses, private citizens, neighborhoods, and community groups; and 
• Implement identified actions and apply for available action grants.
   

WORKSHOP FACILITATORS

MRP facilitators are trained to provide technical assistance to communities in completing the assessment and resiliency plan using the Community Resilience Building Framework. Towns and cities will be assigned a lead facilitator and workshop facilitators upon acceptance into the program. 

The MRP workshops are being delivered and funded with support from the Nature Conservancy (TNC).

ACTION GRANTS

A minimum of $1M in MRP action grants are available for eligible projects across the municipalities in the 2019 cohort. Eligible projects are required to be identified through the Community Resilience Building process, improve climate resilience, and a capital investment resulting in construction. MRP implementation grant funds are not available for research-related activities such as studies and strategic plans. 

Grant eligibility must fall under Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank’s broad portfolio of programs and can include but not limited to, dam repair and removal, road elevation, hardening or elevation of pump stations, berms and levies, culvert repair, green stormwater infrastructure, back-up power and energy efficiency, watershed restoration, urban tree planting, and coastal erosion control. 

Municipalities will be required to match grants with a 25% local project cost share.

PARTICIPATING MUNICIPALITIES

2019 Cohort: 

Westerly, South Kingstown, Portsmouth, Barrington/Warren 

2020 Cohort:

RFR to be released in December 

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS REPORTS

South Kingstown
Westerly 
Portsmouth 
Barrington
Warren