Climate-Smart Area Resilience Center: Climate ARC, and National Network of ARCs by Resilience Rocks !

Thanks for the great comment Joelien.  HUD just announced award winners in the $1 Billion N.D.R.C. (National Disaster Resilience Competition), and the local area and State of Colorado did not receive any award for assistance.  A big zip.  Considering there were only 40 some odd qualified applicants (Declared Disaster Areas), it was a heartbreaking disappointment, and a huge opportunity lost.  Who knows, but perhaps better facilities (and “pop-ups” as you suggest), could have made for a more effective public engagement process in the NDRC application preparation, and could have helped.  A chicken/egg conundrum, and I believe, exactly the point of the “Fostering Climate Collaboration” challenge!   We will be rewriting our proposal more along the lines of your thinking, with a “grassroots” approach to the challenge.  It really is all about public engagement and education, and understanding that “governments” per se, won’t save us.  Education and public engagement is the key.  Reaching out to people “where they are” is a critical aspect, and should be part of the process towards establishing any physical space.  We will be exploring a hybrid of the two concepts.  Thanks again!

Well thought out concept! Just a few comments:

Given the sophisticated nature of the project, you may want to develop a strong coordination mechanism including  a Monitoring and Evaluation Plan.  Also useful to seriously consider sustainability of the project beyond the funding period.