Workshop focuses on building resiliency
Given recent major weather events like last year's tornado and other recent storms experienced in Woodbridge, we find ourselves in a new era of more unpredictable and severe weather that can potentially cause more damage in our community.
In order to be as proactive as we can in preparing and protecting our Town, in July 2018 we conducted a half-day Community Resilience Building Workshop at the Woodbridge Town Library. As part of our participation in the Sustainable CT program we applied for and won a ‘mini-grant’ to host this workshop, which was run by a facilitator from the Nature Conservancy and brought us together with participants from our neighboring Town of Bethany to discuss issues that may effect us both.
First Selectman Beth Heller said, "By bringing together community and Town staff members, and reaching across the town line to collaborate and share resources, we were able to comprehensively identify and prioritize steps to reduce risk and improve resilience for both communities. At the workshop we clarified and advanced our comprehensive community resilience planning and hazard mitigation efforts."
These objectives included:
- •Understanding connections between natural hazards and local planning/mitigation efforts;
- Evaluating strengths and vulnerabilities of residents, infrastructure, and natural resources;
- Developing and prioritizing resilient actions for the municipality, local organizations, institutions, businesses, private citizens, neighborhoods, and community groups; and
- Identifying immediate opportunities to advance actions that reduce the impact of hazards and increase resilience in our Towns.
A Summary of Findings Report is now available online (click to view PDF).