City residents around the world are facing a housing crisis, rising living costs and growing climate-related risks. These issues affect almost all urban residents’ daily lives, but they do not affect all communities equally. For some communities, these challenges are compounded by historic inequities that have resulted in living in higher risk areas or consistently receiving less support to meet these growing challenges. These communities have grown resilient out of necessity, but city leaders have a responsibility to work with these communities to identify and address the challenges they face.
That is why the Resilient Cities Network (R-Cities) brought cities, local and national nonprofit organizations together for two days of peer-to-peer learning and knowledge exchange on building resilient communities. Hosted in Chicago — where neighborhood action is shaping how the city responds to cascading crises — this Knowledge Exchange created space to reimagine how we work together to support communities in the face of rising risks and economic uncertainty.
We are committed to supporting community-led efforts and partnerships to build a safer future for all in the face of these challenges. This Knowledge Exchange brought together city leaders, communitybased organizations, academia, resilience experts and philanthropic organizations to reflect on what’s working, challenge what isn’t and explore how we can build an enabling environment for community resilience to take root and grow.
The inspiration for this exchange, its direction and the insights in this report draw from partnerships and experiences developed through the R-Cities’ Resilience for Communities (R4C) program.
The R4C program supports local leaders in Boston, Houston, Greater Manchester and Melaka to break down silos, build trust, and deliver bold, community-led resilience initiatives. In Boston and Houston, this work has been ongoing since 2021 and began with a community selection process, followed by a baseline resilience assessment, a co-design phase and project implementation in Fall 2024.
R4C is supported by the Urban Climate Resilience Program, a global initiative led by the Z Zurich Foundation and supported locally by Zurich North America to support vulnerable urban communities impacted by climate change.