The goal of this training is to improve the practice of climate resilience planning by incorporating the needs and perspectives of populations that are especially vulnerable to changing climate conditions, many of whom are historically underrepresented in civic decision-making. The target audience is any professional, elected, or appointed official or community leader engaged in climate planning at the state or local level. While this training focuses on climate resilience planning, the approach is applicable to resilience planning in any geographical context.

Upon completion, participants will be able to:

• Distinguish populations that have been traditionally identified as socially vulnerable and/or have inequitable vulnerabilities to climate-related hazards;
• Identify and explain underlying factors contributing to social vulnerabilities;
• Incorporate the needs of socially vulnerable populations and communities into a general framework for climate hazard resilience planning;
• Understand emerging concepts associated with community-based, equitable resilience planning;
• Apply tools (like NJ FloodMapper) to identify vulnerable populations;
• Identify other resources in their jurisdiction to integrate the needs of socially vulnerable populations; and,
• Apply concepts of early, participatory processes to engage socially vulnerable populations.