Across the country, and especially in Florida, climate resilience has become an increasingly important topic to local governments, scientists, planners, and residents. While local governments make efforts to adapt to climate impacts, regional efforts may offer a more comprehensive look at issues that span across a region as well as provide support to local governments that may not have the capacity to hire staff dedicated to resiliency. As Florida continues to rapidly develop and expand its population, taking a holistic approach to analyze and provide solutions for climate change impacts on the economy, quality of life, environment, and infrastructure is paramount to creating resilience on a broad scale.

As a result of these regional challenges, the Northeast Florida Regional Council (NEFRC) applied for and received funding through the Resilient Florida program to become a Regional Resilience Entity (RRE) and create a Regional Resilience Action Plan (RRAP). As a Regional Resilience Entity, NEFRC can equitably distribute resources across the region. NEFRC drafted the first phase of its RRAP as a voluntary tool for the region. The plan includes policies local governments can adopt to adapt to address climate impacts as well as a broad set of best practices to build resilience. NEFRC serves as a resource for its local governments in the space of resilience, economic development, planning, and emergency management, making this entity the ideal space to convene stakeholders and recommend actions to local governments.

In drafting the first phase of the RRAP, NEFRC convened stakeholders from local governments, federal and state entities, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, and businesses from around Northeast Florida to gain a broad range of expertise in all areas of resilience. Stakeholders divided their expertise into four committees to assist in drafting the RRAP: economy, quality of life, environment, and infrastructure. All committees were tasked with writing a section of the RRAP that focused on their specific topic.

As part of this process NEFRC formed a committee focused on economic resilience in the face of climate change made up of small business owners, resilience experts, and economic development experts. This committee helped to foster a spirit of collaboration between stakeholders from across the region. Over the course of nine months, the committee met to define the body of knowledge around economic resilience, identify key topics for regional economic resilience, write objectives, and research examples of best practices. Championed by a strong committee lead and local experts, the committee met virtually one to two times a month to iteratively work toward drafting the RRAP. Ultimately, the committee identified workforce development, historic preservation & tourism, housing, and growth & mobility as the four most important topics that will create economic resilience for Northeast Florida.

One of the biggest obstacles at the start of this process was getting the right stakeholders in the room. Economic resilience for climate change is a relatively new field of study, meaning NEFRC had to be creative to piece together robust expertise on the committee. As the committee began to work towards writing the economic resilience section of the action plan, NEFRC had the opportunity to leverage partnerships with regional stakeholders to diversify the expertise of the committee. Throughout the process, NEFRC collaborated with local experts, educators, economic development professionals, resiliency professionals, business owners, and workforce development experts.

To adapt to working at a regional scale, NEFRC used technology to make committee meetings accessible to all participants. Zoom helped the committee work collaboratively with committee members across the seven-county region effectively and efficiently. Utilizing the share screen function, notes and ideas were refined and edited in real time.

NEFRC has heard positive feedback from the finalized phase 1 of the RRAP from local governments and stakeholders, including recognition from the 2024 NADO Impact Awards. As NEFRC drafts phase 2 of the RRAP, NEFRC will reengage the committees for their expertise and collaboration.

Lessons learned from the collaborative process:

• Use feedback from meetings meaningfully: Take time after meetings to regroup and add input to draft products. Recording virtual meetings or taking verbatim notes is a good way to ensure that stakeholder feedback is captured.
• Working with the right people in the room is invaluable: Leverage regional partnerships to invite stakeholders with a broad range of expertise to collaborative meetings.
• Meet people where they are: Technology is a friend to regional collaboration because it reduces barriers to additional travel time and conflicting schedules. Adapt the format of meetings to address the unique communication styles of participants. Encourage meeting participants to voice their ideas verbally to the group, in the chat box on Zoom, or even after meetings via email.