The Center for Community Safety and Resilience (CCSR) and the School of Public Affairs hosted a conversation focused on community resilience in Colorado. The discussion focused attention on the risks that Colorado faces and actions that governments are taking to build resilience across the state. The event took place on September 24^th in conjunction with National Preparedness Month.

Panelists included Elisabeth Cohen, the climate adaptation and resiliency manager in the City of Denver's Climate Action Office (CASR); Marguerite Harden, Local Resiliency Manager for the State Department of Local Affairs, Colorado Resiliency Office; and Ashley Solzman, Chairman of the Boulder County Commissioners and former Louisville Mayor and City Councilor. Professor Deserai Anderson Crow, who co-directs the CCSR with Dr. Sheila Huss, moderated the panel.

The risks humans face and the myriad factors that cause events like pandemics, natural disasters, mass violence, and other crises will increase in the 21st Century. This Thrive conversation was rooted in the hopefulness of change – that communities adapt and learn from past crises to do better in the future. Panelists lauded the work being done across Colorado at the municipal, county, and state-levels to learn from past events and do better next time, whether it’s from wildfires, floods, or the pandemic.

Community members who joined the conversation asked the expert panelists about ideas for communicating risk to the public and increasing participation and engagement in government decision-making. Take-away messages for the audience and practitioners included: (1) meet your neighbors and make connections in your community, (2) provide specific logistical support like childcare and parking to increase turnout at local government events, and (3) meet the community where people are and talk to them in a way that makes sense for their lives. The panelists challenged everyone in the audience to do a little bit more towards helping build community resilience.

For more information about the Thrive Series events and other upcoming events, please visit the University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs website. You can also view the recording from the “Community Resilience in the Face of Growing Challenges” panel online at https://youtu.be/FJIbZgmo1Ps

Images taken by Paul Wedlake, Senior Photographer and Videographer at the University of Colorado Denver

The Center for Community Safety and Resilience (CCSR) at the University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs envisions thriving individuals and families in safe and supportive communities. CCSR advances that vision through research-based evidence and practice toward individual and community safety, resilience, and justice.

• CCSR is dedicated to effective programs, practitioner and community education, and public policy advocacy and analysis.
• CCSR broadens and deepens work on interpersonal violence to advance social justice, increase public safety, eliminate individual and societal violence, and strengthen community resilience. We:
• Bring diverse, intersectional, and intersectoral issues front, center, and woven throughout.
• Focus on social determinants of health and community determinants of violence.
• Examine individual and community resiliency to violence, trauma, and crisis.
  

Thrive Series: Community Conversations in Justice and Resilience: What Does it Mean to Thrive?