Resilience is a buzzword we’re hearing everywhere these days. When you think about coastal Mississippi and Alabama, what are some of your favorite places to visit? What are some of your favorite activities to do? Fostering resilient communities means protecting our environment, economy and culture to withstand the increasing and changing hazards.
The Mississippi- Alabama Sea Grant Consortium is excited to announce our new COAST (Community Outreach and Strategic Training) Resilience Institute. This year-long program is aimed at equipping elected officials, municipal staff and other community leaders with the latest science-based research for enhancing decision-making and increasing resilience.
Myself and my Sea Grant Colleagues Qiyamah Williams, Tracie Sempier and Stephen Deal will be working together to provide a series of workshops in Mississippi and Alabama in 2024. This fall, we reached out to a variety of our coastal leaders to help us shape the training topics we will offer. It’s been exciting to see our coastal communities think about ways to increase resilience in a wide variety of areas.
Trainings will be offered in four sessions: winter, spring, summer and fall. Participants are eligible for AICP and CFM credits. There are no minimum attendance requirements to participate.
We’re kicking off our winter training in January and February with our first five trainings;
- Current and Future Flood Risk, Jan. 11, 9-10 a.m., at the Mississippi State University Coastal Research and Extension Center, 1815 Popp's Ferry Road, Biloxi, Mississippi.
- Weather Wise, Jan. 18, 10 a.m.-Noon, at the Waveland Public Library, 345 Coleman Avenue, Waveland, Mississippi.
- Weather Wise, Jan. 23, 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., at Graham Creek Nature Preserve, 23030 Wolf Bay Drive, Foley, Alabama.
- Resilient Building Standards and FORTIFIED, Feb. 15, 9-11 a.m., at the Pascagoula River Audubon Center, 5107 Arthur Street. Moss Point, Mississippi.
- Resilient Building Standards and FORTIFIED, Feb. 26, 9-11 a.m., at the NOAA Gulf of Mexico Disaster Response Center, 7344 Zeigler Blvd., Mobile, Alabama.
You can sign up online for any or all of these trainings.
We’ll be offering additional topics throughout the year including topics like the Community Rating System and green infrastructure.
Continue to check in with our registration page as we add new topics in the coming months. If you have any questions about this new program, I’d love to hear from you at [email protected] or you can reach out to the project manager, Qiyamah Willams, at [email protected].
Meet the author
Ali Rellinger, Ph.D.
Coastal Resilience Specialist
Ali Rellinger is a Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant-supported coastal resilience specialist. Her work focuses on resilience to flooding in both the natural and built environments. She leads a variety... Read more
Phone: 228-546-1030
Email: [email protected]