An Introduction to Community Resilience Hubs

As communities confront the increasingly frequent threat of climate-induced disasters and the resulting power outages, there is a growing movement to develop community-based Resilience Hubs that provide essential services before, during, and after major disruptions. Resilience Hubs are existing trusted community facilities, such as community centers, already serving as spaces for community gathering, shared learning, and collaboration that can be enhanced to mobilize and support communities during times of crisis. (See the Urban Sustainability Directors Network’s Resilience Hub initiative website to learn more about Hubs: http://resilience-hub.org/.)

While resilience measures can take many forms, most Resilience Hubs include onsite forms of generation to keep things running during utility power outages, ideally clean generation through technologies like solar PV and battery storage. This valuable backup power allows Resilience Hubs to provide vital services during outage events such as heating and cooling, food distribution, phone charging, and community mobilizing. This Clean Energy Group webinar introduced the Resilience Hub concept, explained how the development of Hubs can strengthen local resilience in the face of climate impacts, and discussed the process of conceptualizing and implementing a community Resilience Hub, with a focus on energy resilience measures.

Panelists:
• Kristin Baja, Climate Resilience Officer, Urban Sustainability Directors Network
• Seth Mullendore, Vice President, Clean Energy Group
• Abbe Ramanan, Project Manager, Clean Energy Group (moderator)

This webinar was presented by Clean Energy Group’s Resilient Power Project. Learn more at www.resilient-power.org.