Kids Teaching Flood Resilience is (KTFR) is a community resilience building initiative founded and directed by Dr. Merrie Koester of the University of SC Center for Science Education.   Our STORY positions youth as resources of knowledge and resilience about what to Notice, KNOW, and DO in the event of extreme weather.   Our work foregrounds an awareness of the disproportionate impacts of climate change and flood hazard risks on low-income, historically marginalized communities.  Since 2016, we've built our capacity building  model in mostly Title 1 schools serving families living in low income, flood prone neighborhoods.  We begin each new project by identifying pre-existing conditions of "Educational Vulnerability” – that is, the lack of awareness of or access to knowledge that can mitigate one’s risk of harm from a flood hazard.  We also develop, through field work and place-based learning, an appreciation of the vital role of coastal saltmarsh ecosystems in mitigating coastal U.S. climate change impacts.  We establish baseline knowledge and behaviors with the official KTFR Flood Resilience Literacy Survey.

 

We then ask, "Are we HURRICANE SMART?" and collect more data about where POWER KNOWLEDGE gaps exist. A GET HURRICANE SMART Rap with hyperlinks to "smart tools" help us build flood and hurricane LITERACY.  Our feature film creates an As-If world where many forms of vulnerability--both situational and educational--take center stage. The film's story provides a framework for honestly assessing one's capacity to swim and making commitments to learn how. We talk about how and why so many people fail to ignore hurricane evacuation orders

because they think they are safer than they really are.  Our KTFR & YOU channel on YouTube has a playlist of KTFR POWER KNOWLEDGE Videos  to guide your RESILIENCE CAPACITY BUILDING. 

 

Finally, often working with incredible professional artists, we take the work LIVE, making science informed hazard risk reduction communication artifacts like public service announcements and leading family-based GAME ON / Situation HURRICANE events!     

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OUR SLOGAN:  LEARN and COMMUNICATE LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT!

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OUR PROJECTS...

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Have been designed with input from phenomenal community Thought Leaders: City and county emergency management experts, civil engineers, environmental scientists, cultural leaders, school officials, professional artists, and higher education researchers.

 

Have been field tested with experience Teacher Leaders. Together, we have built a set of KTFR Storymaking Tools--creative, evidence-based, persuasive, and culturally responsive hazard mitigation programs/products. We aim to mitigate harm from extreme weather so that we can keep hazards like hurricanes from becoming DISASTERS.  IN DISASTERS, PEOPLE DIE! 

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Center an analysis of flooding as a socioscientific situation, inside of which there can often exist relationships between development practices, sea level rise, and flooding events, especially those occurring in low-income, under-resourced communities.  

 

Have included leaders from over 16 organizations, including the National Weather Service , NOAA Office for Coastal Management, the SC Sea Grant Consortium, the Citadel STEM Center, the Near Center for Climate Studies at the Citadel and City of Charleston Dept. of  Emergency Management ,their GIS office, and Youth Volunteer Corps have served as mentors and knowledge generators in the emerging project.  

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Have earned us recognition from NOAA as a Weather Ready Nation Ambassador program of

excellence. And now, the NOAA National Disaster Preparedness Program has stepped up with funding support to help our partnership scale and sustain the work!