COMMUNITY-DRIVEN VISION, POWER, AND SOLUTIONS FOR CLIMATE RESILIENCE

Launched in 2017 after the development of the CDCRP Framework, the  National Association of Climate Resilience Planners (NACRP) is a multi-stakeholder, peer-learning resource, and referral network, including grassroots, frontline community groups, facilitators, and partners that fosters effective, place-based climate resilience planning and implementation, by which we actively cultivate a community of practice of the Community-Driven Climate Resilience Planning Framework on a national scale.

 

The association is dedicated to advancing the practice of community-driven planning through: continued development and dissemination of  the Community-Drive Climate Resilience Planning Framework; endorsements to aligned organizing and political advocacy platforms and calls to action; sharing on-the-ground experience and people’s plans, tools, resources, and training; regular peer-to-peer learning and in-person gatherings; and a program to credential and promote community-driven planners rooted in frontline communities.

 

The People’s Climate Innovation Center and Facilitating Power currently hold the planning and staffing of the NACRP with the guidance of Advisors made up of NACRP Founders.

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Community-driven planning is about self-determination for Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities. More capacity in our communities to develop our own solutions and plans is what’s needed to replace the exclusionary practices of top-down planning. The engine of community-driven planning includes three interconnected practices:

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1. VISIONING: Community vision is about defining for ourselves what it is we want to build together as a community, as opposed to accepting the vision that is set for us by profit motives. Facilitative leaders create space for communities to expand our understanding of what’s possible, and orient ourselves towards what’s needed for the next seven generations.

2. SOLUTIONS DEVELOPMENT: Community-driven solutions development starts with communities coming together to assess community threats and assets. Based on this analysis, facilitative leaders support groups to develop, or identify, solutions that match their community’s own unique experiences and get at the root causes of the crises we face.

3. POWER BUILDING: No community-derived solutions or plans can move into action without community power. It takes political, economic, and cultural power to assert community priorities and ensure they are resourced and implemented. Many of the same power-building strategies and tactics that are used to stop harmful practices can be drawn on to advance transformative solutions.