Resilience Hubs: A Climate Change Resource for Vulnerable Populations in the United States

The threat of climate change disproportionately impacts racial and ethnic minority communities in the United States. Communities experiencing environmental racism are more sensitive to the effects of social stressors such as lack of access to adequate and appropriate healthcare, education, and economic stability. As a result, these communities often have fewer social resources to both protect themselves and to recover and adapt from extreme weather events such as flooding, wildfires, hurricanes, poor air quality, and temperature extremes. Climate change exacerbates the historic, systemic oppression of vulnerable communities and worsens existing disparities resulting from cumulative environmental hazard exposure. Community resilience, in the context of climate change, is the capacity of a community to protect itself and to recover from disasters and cumulative burden via social infrastructure. Community resilience can be increased through physical structures which maximize social interactions via Resilience Hubs where residents can gather. Resilience Hubs strengthen community solidarity and offer aid to community members suffering from cumulative effects of climate change and climate disasters. This chapter discusses community-based Resilience Hubs as a method of addressing the disproportionate impact of climate change on vulnerable racial and ethnic minorities.