NEWS

National League of Cities Opens ‘Leadership in Community Resilience’ Grant Opportunity

Dec 15, 2020

The Leadership in Community Resilience (LCR) grant program from the National League of Cities (NLC) supports and enhances local capacity among elected leaders and staff, communities, and community-based organizations as they pursue coordinated climate resilience efforts.

Since 2017, 33 cities have participated in the LCR program.  Climate impacts and other shocks such as Covid-19 have converged with existing stresses such as racial and socio-economic inequities or aging infrastructure to create seemingly insurmountable challenges for local governments. NLC recognizes the ever-growing need to support cities as they prepare for extreme events. Many communities are collaborating closely with local partners to take a holistic, proactive approach to tackling climate impacts by developing robust and equitable programs that also address the stresses that weaken local economies and damage the social fabric of communities.

City plans and programs designed to increase community resilience and connectivity in advance of climate shocks and other events can save lives and reduce recovery costs. These efforts can take many forms including community engagement, regional collaboration, reducing resident vulnerability to climate impacts, or capacity building for staff and elected officials. Applicants should be able to achieve a substantial portion of their proposed project in one year.

Program begins in March 2021 and ends in December 2021.

This year, NLC is proud to partner with the Resilient Cities Network to apply their holistic resilience framework to more cities across the country and share lessons and strategies from their global network of Chief Resilience Officers.

Who should apply?

  • Cities and towns with a population of 5,000 or more are encouraged to apply.
  • Lead applicant must be a municipal government, represented by a department head, other city staff, or elected official (mayor, council member, commissioner, etc.).
  • Local nonprofits and community-based organizations may apply in partnership with a city.
  • Cities may apply on behalf of or in conjunction with a regional climate collaborative.

For more information, visit the NLC website here.