Overview

With humanity at a crossroads from the Climate Crisis and other unprecedented ecological and social challenges, now more than ever leaders and citizens from all sectors – from our neighbors to elected officials – must come together to build resilient, equitable and regenerative communities.

Collective Resilience envisions a future where we prioritize our natural world , where our values are rooted in ecological and social justice. We envision resilience hubs, spaces and neighborhoods in every community, centered in community care, inclusivity and environmental stewardship. 

The purpose of Collective Resilience is to provide guidance for community spaces to activate as resilience hubs and spaces – better prepared for the climate crisis, social and environmental challenges. 

With the explosion of resilience hub sites and networks developing around the country, Collective Resilience is excited to be one of the few organizations in the country focused exclusively on helping them to evolve and flourish, from our growing library of online resources to presentations, funding support, workshops and strategic planning. We are proud of our holistic, community-driven and scalable approaches, centering equity and prioritizing frontline communities hurt first and worst by the climate crisis.

• To introduce new sites and potential partners to the resilient places vision and resources which support their development.
• To promote an expanded vision of resilient places which goes beyond models that many cities are currently promoting. This expanded vision includes holistic programming and a greater variety of types of sites.
• To catalyze not just the individual sites but also broader resilient networks, which include the functional and geographic networks of the organizations that support the specific sites
• To promote a fund for resilient places that can distribute funding easily to the sites, including during emergencies.

History & Accomplishments

Collective Resilience was founded in 2022 by Susan Silber, who co-created and directed its predessesor the NorCal Resilience Network from 2014-21. Susan created the organization to fill a gap in the rising enthusiasm for resilience hubs vs. the clear dearth of advocacy, capacity building and funding for them, especially the community-owned sites. 

Samples of our work include:

• The “Building Momentum for Resilience Hubs” webinar series, in collaboration with the Thrive Alliance of San Mateo County, with more than 250 participants and 20+ guest speakers from around the country.
• Grant writing support for a $20 million dollar grant to the EPA’s Community Change program to catalyze a resilience hub through the Black Cultural Zone
• Co-creation of the City of San Leandro’s Resilience Hubs Initative
• Presentations and workshops with numerous organizations, including the California Public Utilities Commission, California Adaptation Forum, San Mateo Climate Collaborative Summit and Emerald Cities Collaborative.

Collective Resilience is fiscally-sponsored by Inquiring Systems.

Leadership

Susan Silber
Founder and Program Director

Susan is the driving force behind Collective Resilience. Her passion lies in working with solutions-based grassroots projects to help create a more resilient, healthy and equitable world. Susan has more than 30 years of experience working as program creator, fundraiser, project manager, strategic planner and educator in the field of community resilience and sustainability. She has created (or co-created) the NorCal Resilience Network, Nature’s Voices Project, Climate Action Groups at the Ecology Center, the Green Star Schools program with the Green Schools Initiative, and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Costa Rica.

Phoenix Armenta

Sr. Manager for Climate Equity and Community Engagement at Bay Conservation Development Commission