Digital Coast Connects is a partner-led effort to bring together local networks in a meaningful way to address coastal issues. With available funding, NOAA supports on-the-ground projects focused on flood resilience, especially those that benefit local communities.
This partnership-led effort was developed to locally “connect” partner organizations. The combined memberships of the Digital Coast Partnership number over 100,000. Harnessing this experience and technical expertise for coastal communities can provide incredible returns.
Photo Credit: Kari Hagenow, The Nature Conservancy Wisconsin
Community allies against coastal hazards
Digital Coast Partners work together to tackle flooding, sea level rise, and other coastal hazards, acting as trusted allies for communities at risk.
Bringing real-world knowledge, grounded in community needs
With more than 100,000 members across coastal states, Digital Coast Partners bring invaluable local knowledge and insights to the table. This ensures that solutions are rooted in the real-world needs and challenges of coastal communities.
Collaboration for lasting impact
Shared community needs drive long-term collaboration among Digital Coast Partners. By pooling their resources, expertise, and perspectives, they work together to address the urgent and complex challenges facing coastal areas over the long-term.
No one can tackle these challenges alone
Many of the challenges coastal communities face—such as flooding, rising sea levels, and extreme weather—are too large for any one group to solve. Digital Coast Partners collaborate to provide the expertise and resources necessary for communities to become more resilient to these evolving threats.
Planning smarter, together
Digital Coast Partners help communities plan more effectively, by sharing valuable data, insights into risks, and lessons learned from around the country.
Bringing people, science, and data together to meet community need
Connects creates a bridge between coastal communities and the information and resources they need to address urgent challenges.
Amplifying community voices
Connects amplifies the voices of coastal communities, ensuring their needs are heard and acted upon.
Accelerating community preparedness
Connects enhances community preparedness by integrating high-quality, nationally vetted data and tools into local decision-making.
In 2024, Coastal States Organization worked with the Delaware Coastal Management Program and the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program to support two Digital Coast Connects Projects.
Partners in Wilmington, Delaware worked to sustain the operations of the Delaware Resilience Hub to help community members get connected to trainings and resources for disaster preparedness.
Partners in Wisconsin worked to sustain a network of partners via the East River Collaborative which is focused on resilient watershed planning for communities that are located in the East River Watershed in Wisconsin.
The East River Collaborative is a regional network of municipal, state, federal, non-profit, and university partners across the East River watershed committed to supporting the resiliency of the northeast Wisconsin’s East River and the human and ecological communities alongside it.
By collaborating across the boundaries of towns, municipalities, cities, governments, and organizations, The Collaborative strengthens capacity to implement change by planning at the watershed scale.
East River Collaborative members attending a field trip in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in Fall 2024.
Photo Credit: Kari Hagenow, The Nature Conservancy Wisconsin
East River Collaborative members attending the National Adaptation Forum in May 2024 in St. Paul Minnesota.
Photo Credit: Kari Hagenow, The Nature Conservancy Wisconsin
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This project focused on equipping local municipal staff and partners within the East River Collaborative (ERC) with knowledge and tools to better work with and learn from vulnerable communities within the watershed while implementing flood resilience projects.
East River Collaborative members attending a panel on community engagement.
Photo Credit: Kari Hagenow, The Nature Conservancy Wisconsin
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Learning about the Menomonee Valley Partners and how they advance public access and community engagement. Photo Credit: Kari Hagenow, The Nature Conservancy Wisconsin
The work was facilitated by The Nature Conservancy Wisconsin, with support from Wisconsin Sea Grant.
The Wisconsin Coastal Management Program and the NOAA Office of Coastal Management provided advisory support to guide this project.
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National Adaptation Forum
In May 2024, a group of nine East River Collaborative members attended the National Adaptation Forum in Minneapolis, MN.
Representatives attended from NEW Water, New North, Inc., City of De Pere, City of Green Bay, Wisconsin Sea Grant, University of Wisconsin Extension, Village of Bellevue, and The Nature Conservancy.
The participants generated a list of resources, best practices, tools and examples to better reach underserved communities, as well as a list of audience engagement techniques that were used at the forum and could be adapted for ERC events and engagement.
Milwaukee Knowledge and Learning Exchange
In mid-October 2024, the East River Collaborative brought a group of members to Milwaukee for a two-day learning experience titled “Milwaukee Flood Resilience Tour: Community Engagement for Safer Spaces and More Fun Places”.
The tour explored Milwaukee’s flood resilience projects and highlighted how regional and community-based organizations are working together to engage residents and transform neighborhoods with innovative nature-based flood solutions.
The tour included learning from local experts on engaging underserved communities, site visits to cutting-edge green infrastructure projects, and in-depth discussions on lessons learned and best practices for community engagement. In total, 18 tour participants interacted with 12 practitioners representing eight different Milwaukee-area agencies or organizations.
Demographics and Outreach Strategies for Vulnerable Communities
In the second half of calendar year 2024, the Collaborative supported the City of Green Bay and the Village of Allouez by providing technical assistance and resources for improved communication and outreach between the municipalities and neighborhoods within them that fall within the 100-year floodplain and are designated as “highest vulnerability”.
They used the East River Watershed Social Vulnerability Index, created in partnership with UW Sea Grant, The index used the Center for Disease Control (CDC) Social Vulnerability Index as a starting point but focused specifically on natural disasters.
This analysis helped the City and Village best focus outreach and engagement efforts when capacity and funding is limiting.
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The funding helped East River Collaborative facilitate several professional development opportunities to build the capacity of partners.
It allowed for one-on-one discussions to emerge with two municipalities that contain the most vulnerable census tracts based on the Collaborative’s social vulnerability index analysis.
The discussions and learning opportunities led to recommendations for community engagement that the Collaborative will build and implement in the future.
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The Collaborative members are moving forward in continuing to build capacity to implement the lesson learned and support their community and municipal partners.
They would like to see this form into a more comprehensive strategy – a playbook for how members of the ERC can effectively do outreach and engagement in the East River watershed and the local resources that are available for them.
They are also actively thinking about and exploring the opportunities for hyper-local partnerships that could help advance community engagement prior to implementation of green infrastructure projects.
For more information on the East River Collaborative:
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According to the Urban Sustainability Directors Network, Resilience Hubs are community-serving facilities augmented to:
1) support residents and
2) coordinate resource distribution and services before, during, or after a natural hazard event.
They leverage established, trusted, and community-managed facilities that are used year-round as neighborhood centers for community-building activities
Snapshot from a Delaware Resilience Hub training event earlier during the summer of 2024.
Photo Credit: Stacey Henry & Delaware Resilience Hub
Community Emergency Response Team kit. The Community Emergency Response Team Program educates community members to assist during times of disaster when professional responders are not immediately available.
Photo Credit: Stacey Henry & Delaware Resilience Hub
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In 2021, Hurricane Ida caused massive flooding and devastation in the mid-Atlantic, including in Wilmington, Delaware.
Stacey Henry, a local resident, inspired by this catastrophic event and her lived experience with this flood, created the Delaware Resilience Hub .
The Hub provides community resources for disaster preparedness and assistance before, during, and after emergency events.
The project goals were as follows:
1) provide disaster preparedness trainings for community members
2) create and distribute resilience kits in association with training events,
3) provide shelter services during hazardous events (such as acquiring a mobile solar unit to serve as a power back up and assessing weatherization options for the facility)
4) address material needs of community members so that they have the capacity to participate in the disaster preparedness trainings offered by the resilience hub
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The work was conceptualized, led, and implemented by Stacey Henry, a local resident of Wilmington; and her team of volunteers for the Delaware Resilience Hub.
CSO staff provided fiscal, project management, and accounting related support.
Delaware Resilience Hub Facebook Page
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Although the grant-supported work is complete, this effort is ongoing. Recent accomplishments related to flooding include:
1) Grant funding was used to purchase a mobile solar-powered trailer that will enable Delaware Resilience Hub’s disaster response efforts, as well as allow them to bring trainings directly to communities.
2) Funding supported the procurement of emergency supply kit materials and energy stipends. Kits and stipends were distributed to community members that completed DE Resilience Hub’s in-person trainings on topics such as flooding, extreme heat, and emergency preparedness.
3) Funding was also used to support accessibility of in-person community training events, via transportation reimbursements, food/beverages, participant stipend gift cards, and other in-person meeting logistics.
In summer 2024 alone, the Hub gave out 500 kits to the most vulnerable populations and will continue to do work on this going forward.
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The Delaware Resilience Hub is working with multiple partners to seek long-term funding for their continued operations.
They are also assessing the possibility of an environmental community connector, a central location for all groups working on climate and environmental issues to train and educate their communities
For more information on the resilience hub:
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Other Digital Coast Connects Projects Digital Coast Partnership
Funded by:
