Amherst Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Process
Amherst, MA
In 2018, the town of Amherst, MA received a Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Planning Grant to discuss and develop ways to build community resilience in Amherst. Linnean served as the town’s MVP service provider—a process which included bringing together a Core Team of town staff to plan the Community Resilience Building Workshops, developing maps and reference materials, facilitating the two half-day workshops, and producing a summary report.
The workshops were attended by town staff, representatives from key institutions, organizations, and businesses, as well as community members invested in the town’s resilience. In addition to focusing on a range of infrastructural and environmental concerns, the group emphasized the importance of rethinking models of town and community engagement to address longstanding inequities and to make participation more inclusive, accessible, and relationship-focused.
Following the workshops, Linnean worked with community members and town staff jointly to design a set of public follow up meetings as a way to pave the way for ongoing resilience planning that specifically centers the experiences of residents most affected by climate change—namely, renters, low-income residents, people with disabilities, and Black, Indigenous, and people of color. These conversations directly shaped the subsequent community process for developing the town’s Climate Action, Adaptation, and Resiliency Plan in 2020.