On November 14th, a community action forum was held at the Beraca Baptist Church in Canarsie. The action forum was the next step in an ongoing process to empower the residents of Canarsie to enhance their community’s resilience in the face of a changing climate, weather hazards, urbanization and other forces of change and stress. With funding from the Anne and Bernard Spitzer Charitable Trust, the Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay (the Institute) has been leading this effort for the past year through our Cycles of Resilience project. The Institute partnered with Public Agenda, the Canarsie Community Development Inc., the Fresh Creek Civic Association, and the Canarsie Neighborhood Alliance to develop and implement strategies of public engagement, and provide science-based knowledge products and tools that are needed to help residents prioritize actions and plan for a better future. SRIJB Consortium members Stevens Institute of Technology, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities have played key roles in developing new products and processes.
Thanks to a $138,000 grant from the New York Community Trust, the Institute will continue the Cycles of Resilience work in Canarsie and expand our partnership to eastern Queens where we will partner with the Eastern Queens Alliance. In Canarsie, residents have prioritized creating an emergency preparedness and response plan so the community can be prepared for the next major hurricane or other extreme weather event. In eastern Queens, the Cycles of Resilience process will help those communities build relationships with government agencies, researchers and other communities around Jamaica Bay.
The Cycles of Resilience project is a great example of how SRIJB produces integrated knowledge that increases well-being, and adaptive capacity in coastal communities surrounding Jamaica Bay. We are grateful for the support of the New York Community Trust and the Anne and Bernard Spitzer Charitable Trust in allowing this work to advance.
We would like to give special thanks to Gardy Brazela and the 69th Precinct Community Council, Assemblywoman Jamie Williams, the office of Senator Roxanne Persaud, and all members of the community for their attendance at the forum and their support of the Cycles of Resilience. Last but not least, we would like to thank our gracious hosts, Beraca Community Church for welcoming us into their space.
