Community-Centered Resilience: Lessons from Louisiana

This briefing outlines a community-centered resilience approach in Louisiana, detailing a process of outreach and engagement to develop parish-level plans that address flood risk, land loss, and economic prosperity.

• The Louisiana Office of Community Development implemented a resilience planning process involving a sequence of identifying challenges, proposing strategies, evaluating visions, and developing policies and projects. The 2017 outreach and engagement phase included 71 community meetings with 2,835 individual participants, followed by plan development and implementation in 2018.
• The LA SAFE initiative integrated high-rated community strategies with existing efforts and future flood risk data to create draft projects. The resulting portfolio of popular strategies includes infrastructure improvements such as improved drainage systems, culvert and ditch maintenance, and cross-parish stormwater management, as well as social and economic initiatives like job training programs, increased affordable housing options, and cultural camps.
• The resilience strategy emphasizes a regional approach across six parish plans, focusing on planning around industries, supply chains, and future growth corridors located on high ground.

APA

Sanders, M. D., Russell, L. W., Jr., D. B., & Kozak, J. (2019). Community-Centered Resilience: Lessons from Louisiana. Environmental and Energy Study Institute. https://www.eesi.org/files/Mathew_Sanders_110619.pdf

Chicago

Sanders, Mathew D., Liz Williams Russell, Donald Bogen, Jr., and Justin Kozak. Community-Centered Resilience: Lessons from Louisiana. Environmental and Energy Study Institute, 2019. https://www.eesi.org/files/Mathew_Sanders_110619.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Sanders |first1=Mathew D. |last2=Russell |first2=Liz Williams |last3=Jr. |first3=Donald Bogen, |last4=Kozak |first4=Justin |title=Community-Centered Resilience: Lessons from Louisiana |publisher=Environmental and Energy Study Institute |date=6 November 2019 |url=https://www.eesi.org/files/Mathew_Sanders_110619.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{sanders2019communitycentered, author = {Sanders, Mathew D. and Russell, Liz Williams and Jr., Donald Bogen, and Kozak, Justin}, title = {{Community-Centered Resilience: Lessons from Louisiana}}, institution = {Environmental and Energy Study Institute}, year = {2019}, month = nov, url = {https://www.eesi.org/files/Mathew_Sanders_110619.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }