2018 Conference

Discussion Symposium

Institutions and communities are increasingly incorporating resilience assessment and capacity building as an essential element of climate action planning. Colleges and universities who are signatories to the Resilience Commitment must collaborate with their communities in an inclusive manner to align goals of their own resilience plans with those of their greater community. In that spirit, in April 2018, Randolph College and Lynchburg College hosted a joint Community Resilience Forum. The goal of this Forum was to bring together key stakeholders from local government, city administration, businesses, educational institutions, and non-profit organizations to identify and prioritize steps to reduce risk and improve resilience across Lynchburg. This Forum provided an opportunity to clarify and advance community resilience planning and hazard mitigation efforts, and promote collaboration. In this Discussion Symposium, we will explain the organization, administration, and outcomes of the Symposium, including the lessons learned. We will also discuss how we involved students at both our institutions in the Forum. Plentiful time will be allotted for discussion and questions.