Back to Blog Listing

The COAST (Community Outreach and Strategic Training) Resilience Institute is a training program offered through Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium designed to equip coastal decision makers with trainings and information that can support enhancing resilience in their communities. Trainings and workshops provided through COAST Resilience Institute are offered in quarterly sessions and are delivered both in-person and virtually to participants across Alabama and Mississippi. COAST training sessions focus on various resilience topics including navigating the National Flood Insurance Program’s Community Rating System, understanding Risk Rating 2.0, and sea level rise and flooding basics.

After a successful inaugural year in 2024 with 21 trainings and 313 total participants, year two of the COAST Resilience Institute is now underway!

Participants learn about resilience tools during a COAST Resilience Institute Training at The University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Research Lab in 2024. (Photo by Melissa Schneider)

In the COAST Resilience Institute's second year, we’ll be introducing several new trainings and workshops focused on resilience in addition to reoffering several resilience trainings and webinars from the first year.

The Sea Level Rise and Flooding Basics training was offered both virtually and in person in 2024. (Screenshot by Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium))

The spring session of 2025 concluded earlier this month and featured a combination of virtual and in-person trainings featuring new resilience topics. Recordings of the virtual trainings are available on the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant YouTube channel or below. 

Risk Behaviors During Severe Weather Events – Learn about the use of social media and how it is utilized by various audiences during severe weather. 

New and Updated Tools for Resilience – Familiarize yourself with tools and websites that can assist coastal decision makers understand and communicate the impacts of flood risk in their communities.

Smart Home America - Resilient Building Standards and FORTIFIED – Learn about test mitigation policies and techniques that can produce safer and more resilient structures.

As the COAST Resilience Institute continues its 2025 sessions, keep on the lookout for information and updates for the upcoming training offerings. Dates and locations for upcoming COAST Resilience Institute summer session trainings will soon be available with topics focusing on insurance, more resilience tools, disaster preparation and resilience planning. 

Meet the author

Andrew Medhurst

Resilience Coordinator for PLACE

Andrew Medhurst assists in leading trainings and workshops for Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant's COAST (Community Outreach and Strategic Training) Resilience Institute. The COAST Resilience Institute... Read more

Catch the latest blogs!

At home or out of town: What should you do when severe weather hits?

Imagine you are driving to a city 10 hours away that you’ve never been to before, and as you get closer to your destination, the sky gets darker. All of a sudden, the emergency alerts on your phone go off saying there is a tornado warning for the area where you are driving. 

Tracie Sempier, Ph.D.

Read more

New research on oyster mortalities underway

This year, three new research projects, funded by the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, aim to determine the causes of SUMS as well as mitigate the damage caused by these unexplained events.

Andrea Tarnecki, Ph.D.

Read more
Read more blogs