Detroit Resilience Hub Framework: Best Practices for the Implementation of Resilience Hubs in Detroit, Michigan

Abstract

Climate change poses a fundamental threat to plant, animal, and human life. As ever-increasing impacts are felt across the globe, communities face rising stressors such as hotter summers, colder winters, severe flooding, power outages, and decreased food and water supplies. Communities will need to adopt new resilience strategies to best withstand these challenges. A history of systemically racist, destructive policies of urban renewal and post-industrial disinvestment has left much of Detroit’s geography and population over-exposed to climate risk. Resilience Hubs are a relatively new concept that originated in Baltimore, Maryland and have since taken root in communities across the country, leveraging existing community resources and bringing them together into one centralized network (see the Baltimore Case Study on page 33). Resilience Hubs operate at a local level, providing accessibility to residents and facilitating more effective responses in times of crisis, in addition to reducing cost burdens to nonprofits and mutual aid groups.