Resilience Hub Community Engagement
The Minneapolis Health Department together with key community organizations have begun a community-centric planning process to shape the development of three Resilience Hubs–potentially serving 168,000 residents–to address the environmental and climate injustices faced by the surrounding disadvantaged communities. Minneapolis Climate Action is one of the key partners for the North Minneapolis focused area of this work.
The Resilience Hubs will include multiple sites; One Northside Hub along the Plymouth Avenue corridor: The North Minneapolis Resilience Corridor will potentially include multiple partners in the ecosystem.
One example includes the Culinary Wellness Center of the Minneapolis Public School District; Often known as The Nutrition enter, and has some history supporting emergency response; having helped provide food to North Minneapolis after a devastating tornado in 2011.
The vision is of a Resiliency Corridor, where adjacent organizations will provide more gathering space and a range of community services. It will be operated in partnership with Minneapolis Climate Action, a non-profit focused on action, policy, and culture shift to address climate change, and Renewable Energy Partners, a Black-owned renewable energy developer. These organizations co-manage a robust green career training center on the Plymouth Avenue corridor.
The functions of the Resilience Hubs along the corridor will be to support the surrounding community both in “ordinary” times and during emergencies, especially those brought on by climate change. The Hubs will provide critical shelter, power, and access to resources in extreme weather events. Over the longer term, the Hubs will also serve as vital community-serving and capacity-building facilities year-round. The Southside Hubs are already community gathering spaces run by Minneapolis American Indian Center (MAIC) and Sabathani, both of which, along with the Northside Hub, will be getting micro grid installation to provide power in emergencies.
For your reference, link to Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN) 5 Foundational Areas for resilience hub design guide. List of the main 5 area for consideration in planning.
Minneapolis Climate Action embarked on the journey to begin community engagement to foster deeper engagement in the process of development of resilience hubs and leverage the existing community assets.
Summary of Minneapolis Climate Action Engagement
| August 2024 | August 7, 14 & 21, 2024 |
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| Key Information |
The key high level themes that emerged from the sessions: 1.) All things to meet basic needs first - Food access, communications plan, cohesion across plans. 2.) Advance planning is required: at all levels. In home, community & institutions 3.) Tools are key to our survival: plans of all kind. How do we bank & manage the required tools? 4.) Any plans & actions will require resources: Who, how, when & where do we access them? |
Next Phase: Continue to develop Action Plans: research where and how to access current resources with community and within local community-based organizations. Plan Hub development elements |
| January 2025 | January 8th, 13th, 15th & 22nd, 2025 |
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| Key Information |
The key high level themes that emerged from the sessions: 1.) What is the responsibility of our local energy providers? What about the Public Utilities Commission? Who is protecting consumers? What are our rights? 2.) What is the process to begin advanced resiliency planning? At all levels in home, community & institutions? What emergency preparedness plans exist? 3.) How do we leverage existing assets? (aware citizens & organizations) that are thinking about resilience? What tools are needed to become Ambassadors for this work? How do we bank & manage the required tools? |
Next Phase: Assessing and activating current resources within local municipalities. Develop, aggregate and deploy tools for resilience Ambassadors in community, research groups and hub operations trainings. |
Strategies for Engagement
PHASE #1 Engagement Methodology
August 7th, 14th & 21st, 2024
We built off of previous community engagement that has shown climate/environment is a priority issue for residents of North Minneapolis. We began to co-create a community-driven plan for a more resilient community. What resources do they still need/want? What they dream of? How can you feel more prepared for the next emergency/disruption?
Bete’ Noire Consulting conducted a three-phased approach that included a series of community meetings to gather input on shaping the plan for a resilience hub in North Minneapolis.
The “Got Climate Resilience?” Engagement series included the following themes to help encourage community participation: Tropical, Welcome to the Greendome, and The Blackout.
Each event included viewing short films on climate resilience followed by a robust facilitated dialogue to help to meet different learning styles. These activities supported re-engagement to help deepen core knowledge and understanding in a communal method.
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Session Focus Areas (Each session in Phase #1 was held in-person at the Capri in North Minneapolis) |
Outcomes & Actions |
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Hub Education and Visioning Session #1 Target Goal: Educate the community about energy resilience and sustainability needs that have rapidly changed. Resilience Hub video example: https://youtu.be/dOpAl2hdB3Y?si=mYCgQw9qh9m9d9Y |
Plan ahead & know your options. Raise your awareness & build community with your neighbors. |
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Hub Education and Visioning Session #2 Target Goal: Illuminate and harvest the community knowledge about energy resilience and community sustainability. |
Ensuring Youth help shape the plan and are aware of what actions to take. |
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Hub Prioritization and Pre-Design Elements Session #3 Target Goal: Understand community priorities for pre, during, and post-emergency or outage. |
Leveraged Urban Sustainability Directors Network 5 Foundational Areas for Resilience Hub development framework to begin identifying core action areas. |
PHASE #2 Engagement Methodology
January 8th, 13th, 15th & 22nd, 2025
This phase of community engagement focused around the activities to co-design our resilience hub/corridor. We invited community and partners in the ecosystem along the resilience corridor to engage in the planning process. Link to the Ecosystem Mapping that emerged from Phase #1 and Phase #2 of community engagement. This is iterative work and this map will likely change based on interests, capacity etc.
A series of four engagement opportunities were offered, allowing for more options and opportunities for deeper engagement, as well as building on knowledge from each session.
All 4 sessions included topic areas: Core Partnership Development, Ambassador Activation, Visioning the Hub & Corridor Design. Each session was partially customized based on who was in attendance. Session attendees included community members, various industry professionals, neighborhood associations, youth & elders, local government staff, and more.
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Session Focus Areas (Each session in Phase #2 was held in-person at the RCTC in North Minneapolis) |
Outcomes & Actions |
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Proposed Phase #3 Beyond Engagement to Action
PHASE #3 Engagement Methodology
2025 dates TBD
Resilience Hub Site Co-design and leveraging connections and identified resources from the first two phases of engagement.
Phase #3 of community engagement could focus on coordinated actions in all 3 Tiers of Resilience planning needs identified. (Basic, Ideal, Optimal) Working with existing plans and coordination comprehensive plans to implement activities to co-design our resilience hub/corridor and its daily function.
| COMFORT Validate |
CONNECTION Share |
RELIANCE Ask & Answer |
PARTNERSHIP Explore |
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Continue intentional community centered and community led Honoring guiding principles and community values Asset based approach to increase validity and visibility |
Co-development of tools for engagement in various mediums Co-lead a broader awareness campaign tandem with Minneapolis Health Dept. Co-applications and resilience hub Cohort partners |
Supporting the growth of world-resilient, community based Action Teams related to each of the USDN 5 Foundational areas and beyond. Hub Co-design session in World Cafe |
How do we work in conjunction with Community Members, Partners, Organizations, Stakeholders, and more along this corridor? How do emergency systems inform the process in emergency preparedness plans? How is information relayed? How do hub sites function across multiple resilience levels (Basic, Ideal & Optimal)? |
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Advancing equity— Address inequity through programs and policies. Resources and support to work with partners in vulnerable populations in order to stabilize or reduce negative impacts and develop solutions that will include their communities. |
Specific/unique opportunity— We have a set of circumstances that provide a unique, specific time and opportunity with this area. Maybe the “stars align” in a way that may not happen again anytime soon. |
Leadership buy-in/interest— Senior management staff or elected officials (mayor, city council, county) to explore ways to foster cohesion across planning efforts. |
Community partners and assets— We have university researchers, community organizations, business partners or institutional partners in the community with an interest in this area and they are ready work with us. |