Purpose
In this activity, you will build off of your original core planning team and stakeholders to convene local and regional organizations, leaders, and community members to take ownership of, and implement, resilience strategies developed and prioritized in Step 4.
Why?
Implementation of community resilience strategies requires dedicated support from a team. It also requires support from leadership and community buy-in. When thinking about the composition of your Community Resilience Implementation Team, consider involving the same representative groups including the core planning team, advisory committee, and various community stakeholders; however, it is likely essential to expand your outreach to include additional community groups, businesses, departments, non-profit organizations, non-governmental organizations, and more.
When?
This process should be ongoing as you implement resilience strategies, identify new funding streams, and update plans as needed.
Tips
- Center equity in implementation. Meaningful engagement with frontline community members and organizations will enhance the effectiveness of your work. Rely on strong community leaders for their local expertise, to inform implementation considerations, and as potential gatekeepers. Don’t underestimate the importance of having local champions on your Implementation Team; look to informal local leaders who are trusted in your community as well as individuals who are enthusiastic about resilience and skilled people from various departments to join the Team. Make sure at least one member, ideally more, is skilled at community engagement and can continue to lead on those efforts.
- Foster regional partnerships. Consider working closely with other communities in your region. For example, if your community relies on the county for critical services, consider bringing in a county staff person to the team, even if it isn’t a county-level plan.
How does my community do this?
- Define what you will need, who needs to be involved, and brainstorm a list of potential individuals to fill implementation roles. In addition to your department and staff, include community members that you interacted with at engagement events and those individuals that exhibited local expertise, knowledge, and enthusiasm during previous steps of the planning process. The size of your Implementation Team is generally dependent on the size of your community and the number of strategies you have developed. Bigger is not always better, as a large implementation team can be difficult to manage. Take advantage of the Implementation Team template in the workbook to help organize your team.
- Determine the objectives and scope of work for the implementation team. Before you invite people to join your Implementation Team, you will need to define the objectives and scope of the Implementation Team itself. You will also need to define the responsibilities of each member as well as the general term served by each member (could be from 1-3 years, depending on your resilience goals and needs). Providing clear responsibilities upfront is essential for long-term participation and successful implementation efforts.
- Select and invite implementation team members. Review the list of potential individuals and select and invite members of your team. Additional key questions to consider include the following.
- Are they willing and able to participate?
- What is the capacity of your core implementation team?
- Do they have the knowledge and understanding to complete their potential role?
- How long have they been in the community? Do they have strong existing ties to your community?
- What is their current job description and what additional responsibilities are they managing?
- What local knowledge or expertise do they bring to the team?
- Do they represent a diverse cross-section of your community?