Description
1) Insights From the Community: Partnership and Trust Through Equity-Focused
Community Engagement
Alyx Colgan,
Guidehouse, acolgan@guidehousefederal.com
Co-presenters: None
Abstract: Community engagement is critical to ensuring all
communities are considered, included, and consulted when developing emergency
mitigation and preparedness plans. Historically underserved communities have
typically been denied the opportunity to engage with the government and provide
inputs on the solutions and strategies that will best meet their needs.
Therefore, community engagement is critical in building trust, establishing
equitable solutions, and ensuring solutions meet the unique needs of communities. FEMA and Guidehouse have been working
together to develop town hall conversations with local communities. Through
intentional outreach, these conversations have drawn support and attendance
from groups all across various communities – representing a diverse group of
thought and experience to inform FEMA’s understanding of how communities
prepare for, cope with, and recover from disasters. This presentation will provide inclusive
and equitable approaches for engaging community members and maximizing
collaboration to achieve effective disaster resilience and response outcomes.
The presentation will share stories from town halls to highlight the unique
learnings that come from listening to communities. Throughout, individuals will
learn principles and strategies for effective community engagement.
2) Building Equitable Resiliency and Risk Communication Tools in Georgia with
Online-Mapping Technology
Nick Jones, EADA, GISP, CFM, Dewberry, njones@dewberry.com
Co-presenters: Jarrett Mattli, GISP, CFM, Dewberry, jmattli@dewberry.com
Abstract: Effective flood
risk data for rural Georgia areas can be sparse in coverage, outdated, or
simply difficult to interact with for many communities. Recent online mapping innovations can provide
more equitable access to comprehensive flood information. Georgia has taken
advantage of these new technologies to improve data access via a variety of
dashboards and web mapping applications.
Georgia’s BLE homepage provides a significant portion of its population
with an opportunity to access extensive flood hazard data in areas where
supporting information may not have been previously available. With Georgia’s BLE Dashboard, community
stakeholders have a more complete picture of flood risks. This website provides users with the ability
to navigate a wide swath of recently completed BLE analysis in Georgia, with
more areas on the way. Users can access
building footprint level flood hazard results; get at-a-glance reports on
depths and water surfaces; see how flooding differs from effective maps;
generate printable Lidar-based LOMA reports; and download supporting BLE
datasets on the fly. Georgia's
Resilience Blueprint website provides an equitable way to access flood risk
assessment information through use of public online dashboards and story
maps. These resources provide community
officials and citizens with an opportunity to learn more about flood risks in
their jurisdictions. This collection of
dashboards and story maps are custom curated to support community mitigation
and planning activities, as well as education and awareness. The Resilience Blueprint provides on-demand
access to the following data: flood loss estimates, CRS statistics, soils data,
future conditions analysis, freeboard boundaries, approximate dam inundation
areas, inundated structures, CSLF statistics, and flood probability. This presentation will demonstrate GADNR’s
BLE Homepage and Resilience Blueprint sites, demonstrate their use and
functionality, provide scenarios for their application, and explain how these
sites are important for building equitable access to flood hazard information
in Georgia.
3) Real World Experience Bringing Equity into a Flood Management Plan Update Process
Chrys Bertolotto, King County Washington, cbertolotto@kingcounty.gov
Co-presenters: None
Abstract: This presentation will review real-world experiences and key insights gathered as King County Washington applies equity-focused community-engagement approaches in an update of its Flood Management Plan. After completing academic and community-based research and planning phases, the agency is now working to open conversations with those communities facing the greatest challenges in preparing for, adapting to and recovering from flooding.
Planned engagement strategies include funding community “ambassador” partnerships, attending local meeting and events, increasing access to King County-sponsored open houses, utilizing online surveys and addressing equity barriers in advisory boards. The implementation of this outreach is still underway. Despite that, community and institutional obstacles, cultural norms and blind spots are emerging. This presentation will review the main strategies in its community engagement plan, the obstacles encountered, how approaches were modified to continue moving a pro-equity agenda forward and the resulting outcomes.
Contributors
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Alyx Colgan
Alyx Colgan has 11 years of experience, with 5 in education and non-profit leadership supporting teachers, principals, and school systems leaders in Miami-Dade County to address educational equity across roughly 40 low-income schools. Her work included facilitating conversations with white teachers on the role of race, class, and privilege in the classroom, to develop knowledge and skill of classroom teachers rooted in equity. Ms. Colgan directly supported students through a program called R.O.O.T.S, Realizing Our Own True Strengths, where she worked directly with inner-city high school students to use their stories and experiences to advocate for community-level change. In her support of educational equity, Ms. Colgan became a founding member of the Liberty City Community Collaborative for Change, a grassroots organization addressing poverty, food access, education, and violence in Miami’s Liberty City community. The group supported projects that addressed barriers to access for community residents and developed public health solutions to tackle key community challenges. Ms. Colgan has a master’s degree in public health and a culminating thesis on community-driven disaster risk reduction. Her research focus centered on autonomous and sustainable initiatives in Haiti, including the use of women’s savings and lending groups as a means to reduce poverty and increase resilience to climate change. At Guidehouse, Ms. Colgan supports the National Security Segment’s Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Group as a pillar lead. She has a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Certification from Cornell University where she took coursework on DEI in the workplace, counteracting unconscious bias, improving engagement, and fostering an inclusive environment.
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Chrys Bertolotto
Chrys Bertolotto is a Project / Program Manager for King County Washington River and Floodplain Management Section. She has over 30 years in community engagement and natural resources program leadership, working in university, non-profit and municipal settings. For the past 10 years, she has initiated and grown programs to meet the needs of communities of color, covering a range of topics. As a social scientist, communicator, and pragmatist, Chrys brings research methodology, an adaptive mindset and a love of words into innovative outreach, engagement and behavior change programming. Chrys has an MA in Organizational Development and a BS in International Environmental Studies.
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Nick Jones
Nick Jones is an experienced GIS specialist with extensive experience working to support hydrologic and hydraulic engineers. This experience includes the production of DFIRM data and maps. Mr. Jones is an expert user of Esri products for digital terrain modeling, Python tool creation, mapping, analysis, and AGOL website development.