Communities Together

A Guide for Resilient Community Center Design in Island Communities

Summary: Communities Together is a resource to help communities design resilient community centers, strengthen organizational capacity, promote year-round education, and be able to face climate, social, and economic changes. It offers practical suggestions, including developing community organization, operational capacity, and relevant physical assets to achieve resilience.

The guide is an expansion of the Community Development chapter in the Keep Safe guide. After the hurricanes, many established and emerging communities in Puerto Rico realized the importance of having resilient community centers to withstand chronic shocks and stressors. Local government officials and nonprofit organizations that provided aid after the hurricanes, identified the lack of resilient community centers as a priority to rebuild community capacity

Services: Project lead and management, content development, graphic illustrations, and final production.

Team: This effort was a partnership between Enterprise Community Partners, ReImagina Puerto Rico – a project of the Resilient Puerto Rico Advisory Commission, Mercy Corps Puerto Rico and ResilientSEE partners: Perkins and Will, and Design Ed 4 Resilience. Please see the guidebook for a full list of content developers and advisors.

Completion Date: 2019

Impact: Communities seeking to create or strengthen community centers around the world.