The Social Resilience Project
With changing climate conditions, coastal Maine faces more frequent and more severe weather events, bringing flooding, high wind impacts, and damage to road and electric infrastructure to our communities.
Central to the project’s vision is looking beyond the physical impacts of coastal hazards such as power outages and washed-out road culverts, and instead focusing on how these physical impacts pose risks to certain members of our communities. There are community members and groups who, due to economic and/or social circumstances, will be at greater risk and have less resources to respond to and recover from storm impacts. The Social Resilience Project creates dialogue and connections between the groups that play a role in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from these events as well as supporting and reducing the impacts on our most vulnerable community members. To learn more about social vulnerability and social resilience, see the resources below.
What is Social Vulnerability? (Nov 2021)
E. Johnson et. al., A lifeline and social vulnerability analysis of sea level rise impacts on rural coastal communities. Shore and Beach 86 (4), 38-44
Building social resilience in Maine
To help support building social resilience in Maine communities, the project works in identified regions of the state to strengthen cross-sector networks in providing services to people with heightened social vulnerability during storm events.
Current SRP regions include:
Southern Midcoast Region (Link to new project page)
Lincoln County Region (Link to new project page)
Social Resilience Planning Guidebook
To help enable other regions in Maine and beyond to explore opportunities to build social resilience, the project team developed a guidebook that describes the phases of the process, shares lessons learned, and provides adaptable models for all related resources needed to implement a Social Resilience Project in other regions. See the resource below.