Climate Change Adaptation as Means for Economic Development: Strategies for Building Rural Climate Resilience and Workforce Capacity

Join us on Tuesday, September 19, from 12-3:30 PM ET to explore strategies for building climate resilience and economic opportunity in rural communities. Don’t miss this free virtual event.

The American Society of Adaptation Professionals (“ASAP”) is planning a national AmeriCorps program to address climate impacts and workforce needs in rural communities. We seek to simultaneously build the capacity of leaders in rural communities to address the climate impacts they’re experiencing, create the conditions for more resources to make their way into rural communities, and create lasting climate resilience and positive economic impact. We need your help to guide our work. Join us for a virtual event to:

• Learn more about ASAP’s work co-designing technical assistance, workforce development, and education programming with members and partners.
• Share your insights on climate adaptation and economic opportunities, needs, and barriers in rural communities.
• Connect with ideas and potential partners to bring climate resilience resources and principles to your own programming or climate adaptation work in rural communities.

Who Should Attend?

• Practitioners, community leaders, and applied researchers who are passionate about learning and sharing ideas at the intersection of climate adaptation, national service, and economic and workforce development in rural communities.
• ASAP Members who want to inform the ASAP Network and organization’s activities in the national service or rural communities space.
• Rural community residents who want to share their perspectives on – and get resources for – their climate adaptation and workforce development needs.
• People or organizations implementing national service programs who want to improve their program to meet climate adaptation and/or economic and workforce development needs in rural communities.

Agenda Overview

• Welcome from ASAP’s Executive Director, Dr. Debra Butler.
• Meet other participants in the room in small groups.
• Hear a high-level overview of each of the event’s four tracks:
  • Community-Defined Climate Resilience Needs
  • Developing the Climate Resilience Workforce
  • Needs and Opportunities for Funding and Financing Climate Resilience Work 
  • Programming Options for Catalyzing Implementation of Climate Resilience Work
• Learn about the work ASAP and our partners have completed in each track area, then participate in interactive discussions and exercises to share your insights and brainstorm the next steps.
• Join regionally-specific conversations to apply insights to opportunities and needs in particular places.
• Generate and summarize the next steps for this work.

Please contact ASAP’s Program Assistant Megan Putnam at mputnam@adaptpros.org with any questions about the convening. 

This material is based upon work supported by AmeriCorps, the operating name of the Corporation for National and Community Service, under Grant No. 23NDCMI002. Opinions or points of view expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of, or a position that is endorsed by, AmeriCorps.