SCDRP Newsletter: April 17, 2025

We're bringing back the SCDRP Partner Picks Summer Speaker Series, where you, our members, choose the speakers for the June, July, and August Partnership Meetings! Fill out the survey linked below to nominate a summer speaker.

Image credit: Christine da Rosa

Community-Based Organization Cultural Brokering 

Report by Christine da Rosa

This report explores the importance of Cultural Brokering in disaster recovery through a case study of community-based organizations that supported Latino/Latine wildfire survivors in Jackson County, OR after the Almeda Fire of 2020. 

Notable quote: “The Cultural Broker model—which was developed by Browne (2015) to describe the cultural needs of Hurricane Katrina survivors—offers a theoretical framework for understanding how culturally responsive CBOs operate in wildfire recovery, namely by mediating communication and interactions between institutions practicing recovery culture and communities practicing wounded culture.”

Cooling efficacy of trees across cities is determined by background climate, urban morphology, and tree trait | Communications Earth & Environment

Study conducted by Li, H., Zhao, Y., Wang, C. et al. 

This study looks at how urban trees cool cities and the factors that promote cooling, such as tree traits, urban design, and climate. The study provides guidelines for urban planners to maximize tree benefits for cooling. 

An Opportunity to Build, In the Crisis 

Article by David S. Beckman, president of the Pisces Foundation, about the need for philanthropic organizations to support field-building in the nonprofit sector. 

Notable Quote: “The nonprofit sector needs funding for capacity; for shared communications, tools, and connections; for strategizing across multiple organizations; for bridging differences to catalyze bigger tents of aligned interest; and for developing and executing field-level agendas. Overall, the organizations that collectively work to strengthen our commonweal need funding for connecting, sorting, and selecting priorities, and then acting at scale.” 

The Rise of Chief Resilience Officers in Protecting States

Article posted by Fors Marsh 

This article on the role of Chief Resilience Officers in the US includes what CROs need to succeed, the work that current CROs are engaged in, and the future of the role. 

Do you have an announcement, question, or a request for information, resources, or connections that you’d like to send out to SCDRP’s wide network of disaster resiliency and climate professionals? Email us at scdrp@secoora.org with your request and contact information, and it may be featured in our next newsletter!

Join us! Discover SCDRP Membership options and benefits by clicking below:

Natural Disaster Relief Scholarship 

Through the Natural Disaster Relief Scholarship, the OVC Scholarship Network provides a $1000 award each semester to a student who has been greatly impacted by natural disasters within the United States in the last 10 years.

Apply by April 23, 2025

2025 IAEM Scholarship, International Association of Emergency Managers

Undergraduate and graduate scholarships will be awarded, including a special $10,000 scholarship award for doctoral research students named to honor Dr. E.L. Quarantelli, a pioneering scholar in the field of disaster research and emergency management. 

Applications due May 30, 2025

Foreverglades Research Enhancement Grants - Everglades Foundation

These grants provide graduate students up to $30,000 for research-related expenses in areas related to the Everglades ecosystem. Research topics on the Florida Bay ecosystem, climate change, habitat restoration, fisheries or wildlife ecology, and resource management are of special interest to several of our named awards. ForEverglades Research Enhancement Grants will also support research related to the physical, chemical or biological processes of freshwater or estuarine ecosystems of the Everglades, or research in resilience, climate change, economics, policy or social interactions as they relate to the greater Everglades ecosystem. Applicants need to have a Faculty Advisor that oversees the work and the grant budget.

Application Deadline: June 6, 2025 

Resilience Resources

Funding for Climate Justice: This site was created to help the climate justice movement in the U.S. better understand federal funding opportunities and relevant movement resources. This website also serves as a hub for information on legal, technical, financial, and other resources to protect climate funding from clawbacks and communities from harm. Among the publicly available resources we have collected and summarized, you will find comprehensive overviews of what funding is at risk, trackers on federal orders and actions as well as trackers for movement litigation initiatives, hubs for locating retracted federal data, and recommendations for how to protect your organization and your funding legally.

Coastal Pollution Data Explorer: This tool from the NOAA Center for Coastal Ocean Science allows users to access chemical contamination data for coastal waters near their community to view and download current data or trends over time. This tool includes contamination data from 1986 to the present in select coastal waters of the U.S.

Workshops, Trainings, and Events

Calls for Information, Comments, Surveys, Applications:

SASMI Project Identification Survey This questionnaire is a tool to identify and gather information about potential Salt Marsh conservation, protection, and restoration projects along the Georgia Coast.

The National Hazard Mitigation Association (NHMA) is inviting abstract submissions for their 2025 Practitioners Meeting taking place on July 17, 2025. The organizing committee is calling on practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and stakeholders to submit ideas for sessions that address this year’s theme The Mitigation Revolution: Practical Ways Communities are Reducing Risk. 

The submission deadline is May 16, 2025.

Join FEMA’s Youth Preparedness Council (YPC)

The intent of the Youth Preparedness Council is to bring together young leaders who have an interest in making a difference in their communities and in advancing disaster preparedness efforts on a national and local level. Youth Preparedness Council members complete disaster preparedness projects that help improve the disaster resiliency of the nation. The application cycle will be announced shortly.

The University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) is seeking applicants and internship partners for the new Professional Science Master (PSM) degree as part of UVI’s Marine and Environmental Science program (MMES).

NOAA’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) is gathering input from users of tidal datums and coastal tools, like flood forecasting models and inundation maps, on the upcoming National Tidal Datum Epoch (NTDE) update. This quick, 3-minute survey will help NOAA understand how these changes may affect coastal practitioners and guide the creation of resources to better support communities facing coastal flooding and other challenges. Your feedback will be valuable in shaping tools to meet the needs of those working along our coasts.

The Southeast Regional Climate Center (SERCC) requests feedback on "Expanded Caribbean Section of Southeast Quarterly Impacts and Outlook Report"

The American Society of Adaptation Professionals invites its members and organizations with experience in environmental justice and community advocacy to sign-up to provide technical assistance for communities impacted the most via the EPA Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Centers (“TCTAC”) Program.

Thank you to our Supporting Group Members!

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