NACo receives federal funding to strengthen coastal counties’ resilience

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has selected NACo’s  Community Resilience and Economic Development Program team to receive a grant from NOAA’s Coastal Resilience Grant Program. The competition funds projects that build resilience, including activities that protect life and property, safeguard people and infrastructure, strengthen the economy, or conserve and restore coastal and marine resources.

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Contact Sanah Baig, program director.

Over the next three years, NACo will provide technical assistance to coastal communities to help them better prepare, plan for, absorb the impacts of, recover from or adapt to extreme weather events and climate-related hazards.

NACo will join with the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) and the Coastal States Organization (CSO) in this effort to assist coastal communities in developing strategies and policies that will result in more resilient coastal region economies and better stewardship of natural assets.

The program will have two phases: the development of a web-based, multimedia training program and a technical assistance (TA) program including several regional training workshops.

The web-based guide will teach coastal managers how to educate and work with local elected officials on coastal management issues to improve their community’s resilience to changing coastal and economic conditions. The guide will synthesize existing tools in a way that is simple and easy to use. It will also connect local coastal managers and local elected officials with NOAA and other federal programs and to each other to create a coastal resilience network.

The in-person program activities will take place in coastal communities within the Gulf of Mexico NOAA Region (Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas).

Applications inviting teams from these regions to apply will be available  in 2018.