Sep 15, 2023, News Release

ALBEMARLE COUNTY and CITY OF CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – Together, Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville, announce the launch of Resilient Together. This project seeks to identify opportunities and design strategies to build community resilience to climate change.

Locally, we are experiencing longer, hotter heat waves, more destructive storms, wildfire smoke, and invasive pests. Scientific projections show these challenges will increase in the coming years and decades, with implications for our community’s health and well-being.

“Sometimes resilience means adapting systems and behaviors to climate change,” notes Gabe Dayley, Albemarle’s Climate Protection Program Manager. “Other times it means strengthening community networks or emergency response.”

Emily Irvine, Charlottesville’s Climate Program Manager says the impacts of climate change do not stop and start at the jurisdictional boundaries between Charlottesville and Albemarle County. “Studies have shown that the jurisdictions have similar vulnerabilities and challenges. Collaborating will help produce better, stronger results.”

The planning effort will take approximately 18 months, resulting in two complementary plans that support each other and recognize the similarities, differences, and unique needs of both jurisdictions.

The project team, made up of staff from Albemarle County, the City of Charlottesville, and the University of Virginia, will partner with regional and local organizations and community members to identify how to adapt and build resilience to climate change.

The phases of the project and their objectives include:

  1. Discover: Build relationships and a shared understanding of how climate change will affect the area
  2. Define: Define the scope and goals for the Climate Adaptation and Resilience Plans
  3. Design: Brainstorm, develop, and refine ideas for strategies, projects, and programs that will meet the defined goals
  4. Decide: Draft, review, revise, present, and adopt the plans
  5. Do: Implement the plans

The community is invited to participate in building community resilience. The first steps include signing up to receive project information, visiting the project webpage, and attending the Tuesday, September 26th Open House Project Kickoff at Carver Recreation Center from 4-7 pm