Crisfield Resilience Academy, Session 6

The Crisfield Resilience Academy focuses on the town of Crisfield, Maryland. As part of its efforts to deal with current environmental challenges such as nuisance flooding, storms, and erosion, Crisfield is partnering with EPA and others to explore nature-based solutions such as green infrastructure and marsh restoration. The Crisfield Resilience Academy examines outcomes associated with community participation and knowledge as the result of educational programming for community members. The Academy will provide opportunities for participants to interact with researchers and experts and gain practical knowledge of environmental challenges, policies, and programs that participants can share with their community networks, thereby supporting increased capacity for local leadership and participation on environmental issues. The study will evaluate the effectiveness of the program in order to improve our capacity for engaging community members in research and education. There are six sessions planned for the first cohort of the Crisfield Resilience Academy from September - November. This is the sixth and final session for the Fall 2024 cohort. It is the only session open to the general public. This session will feature opening remarks from EPA's Jenna Hartley, followed by presentations from the group's participants to their local community members in an effort to increase community capacity and leadership on the local topic of flooding. The session will close with remarks from the City of Crisfield Mayor, and an opportunity for interested participants to sign-up and join the next cohort of the Crisfield Resilience Academy, which launches in February 2025. Since the Crisfield Resilience Academy will have two cohorts (first in Fall 2024 and second in Spring 2025), these materials are designed to be iterative and improved upon in successive versions. Final versions of all session materials, including these Session 6 materials, will be submitted at the end of the study period. 

Impact/Purpose

The goals of the Crisfield Resilience Academy are to 1) increase the knowledge of Crisfield community members about nature-based solutions, benefits and capabilities relevant for Crisfield, and 2) provide feedback on EPA research to ensure that it is responsive to community needs. EPA will also be evaluating the effectiveness of the program in order to improve our capacity for engaging community members in research and education. Data will be collected via pre- and post-surveys, qualitative focus groups, and session evaluation surveys. The hope for the long term importance or significance of the findings are that Academy materials may be transferrable to other communities with similar flooding issues across the country. Those who would be interested in or could apply the results could be in various communities across the country that face consistent and/or nuisance flooding, the Office of Water, or other partners with an interest in flooding as it relates to climate change.

Citation

Hartley, J., E. Eisenhauer, AND R. Kashuba. Crisfield Resilience Academy, Session 6. Crisfield Resilience Academy, Crisfield, MD, November 16, 2024.