Resilient Communities for America Agreement
The Resilient Communities for America Agreement is a national campaign to mobilize hundreds of U.S. local elected officials - mayors, county executives, city council members, etc. - who pledge to create more resilient cities, towns, and counties, built to overcome the nation’s extreme weather, energy, and economic challenges. The campaign is designed to inspire greater local leadership on resilience, and to provide local governments that join the campaign with critical resources to help them achieve their goals. The campaign is intended to be an inclusive initiative under which additional non-profit organizations, public agencies, and private companies can become partners and offer their own resources and expertise to advance community resilience.
Four major organizations have collaborated to develop the RC4A including: ICLEI–Local Governments for Sustainability, the National League of Cities, the U.S. Green Building Council and the World Wildlife Fund.
The campaign’s goals are to:
• Secure a leadership commitment to address community resilience from 200 local elected official signatories in the first 12 months after the campaign launched in June 2013, and 1,000 by 2015.
• Secure greater state and federal funding, support, and collaboration with local governments to support local initiatives on resilience and preparedness, infrastructure renewal, and energy security.
• Measurably improve the resilience of all communities that participate in the campaign.
The "centerpiece" of the campaign is the Resilient Communities for America Agreement, a document that local elected officials will sign to formalize their commitment and showcase their leadership. The Agreement is a sign-on letter for mayors and county leaders who pledge to create more resilient cities, towns, and counties - and share their challenges and successes to help other local governments. RC4A will inspire greater local leadership on resilience and provide local governments with free resources to help them achieve their goals.
The Agreement letter specifies two separate commitments:
Local elected officials commit their city or county to taking action to improve resilience. But since the resilience needs of communities vary greatly from place to place, there are no one-size-fits-all goals or targets for the campaign. This means that each local government decides for itself what its goals and initiatives should be, based on local circumstances.
Local governments agree to share their progress, solutions, and success stories with other local governments. The campaign is intended to help cities and counties learn from one another to scale the best solutions and innovations quickly. To accomplish this, local government staff will be asked to share their stories annually through the Resilient Communities for America Online Platform.
Additionally, the Agreement calls on state and federal leaders to support local resilience initiatives and take their own actions to improve resilience.
Through the campaign, ICLEI and its coalition of partner organizations will offer ample opportunities for cities and counties to receive recognition and media attention for their resilience-related accomplishments and news announcements.
In addition, signatory local governments will be able to access critical resources at no cost, designed to help them achieve their resilience goals. First among these has been an online community where local officials can find and collaborate with their peers with similar goals and needs, access technical assistance, and find resources.
Any U.S. local elected official can sign the Agreement. Officials with executive authority, such as mayors or county executives, can sign to formally commit their local government to taking action and sharing progress. Other officials, such as city council members or county board supervisors, can sign the Agreement to express their individual commitment for the campaign objectives. Any local government that has an elected official Signatory will be entitled to access campaign resources.
Publication Date: June 2013
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- Agency guidance/policy
