Resilience Force (original) (raw)

PREPARING AND REPAIRING AMERICA IN THE FACE OF DISASTER

WHAT WE DO

Climate disasters are our new normal. But we can prepare to face them better, and emerge stronger in their wake, by building a new resilience economy.

Resilience workers are the ones who help us come home after the storm. They’re America’s white blood cells. But they’re hanging by a thread. We’re working to build them into a stable, well-paid, million-strong corps that can do year-round climate adaptation and preparation, as well as rebuild after storms.

We’re also working to rewrite the rules of recovery, so that the billions we spend after disasters don’t deepen inequality, but become an engine of racial and economic equity.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Help us strengthen and secure America’s Resilience Workforce—the people whose commitment, heart, and expertise let us come home after the storm.

HOW WE GOT STARTED

2005: Hurricane Katrina turns the U.S. Gulf Coast into the world’s largest construction site. Thousands of migrant workers arrive to staff a rebuilding of post-war proportions. These are the first resilience workers

2008: 500 resilience workers trafficked from India to Mississippi and Texas escape from labor camps and march to Washington, DC, to demand their labor rights. Their fight reflects a growing sense of self-identity among resilience workers, doing recovery work with pride, but demanding to be treated better.

Though Katrina was said to have been a once-in-a-century storm, by 2018 there have been 150 more billion-dollar climate disasters around the U.S. The resilience workforce now works year-round, staffing a dozen recoveries or more. In Florida after Hurricane Michael, workers found Resilience Force

Ongoing hurricanes, fires, and then the COVID-19 pandemic spark a demand for resilience workers throughout the U.S. The City of New Orleans partners with Resilience Force to form a permanent Resilience Corps. In California, Sonoma County embraces resilience work. U.S. Congress introduces the first legislation to fund and formalize this workforce.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

In 2022, the Department of Labor formally recognizes resilience workers at a New Orleans summit and presides over a breakthrough high-road labor standards agreement between workers and major national companies driving post-disaster recovery work.

Putting their commitment and sense of vocation over their fear, resilience workers defy a new wave of anti-immigrant demagoguery to deploy to Florida and rebuild after 2022’s Hurricane Ian.

WRITTEN BY AWARD-WINNING JOURNALIST SARAH STILLMAN, THIS PIECE FOLLOWS A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF RESILIENCE WORKERS MAKING RECOVERY POSSIBLE FOR COMMUNITIES ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY WHO HAVE BEEN HIT BY INCREASINGLY FORCEFUL CLIMATE DISASTERS.

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