Kids Teaching Flood Resilience is (KTFR) is a community resilience building initiative 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.   All case studies foreground an awareness of the disproportionate impacts of climate change on low-income, historically marginalized communities.  Since 2015, 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,  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 a 10 question Flood Resilience Literacy Questionnaire. 

We then ask, "Are we HURRICANE SMART?" , TAKE A QUIZ, and collect more data about where knowledge capacity gaps exist.  We assess our capacity to swim and make 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.     

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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 mentors: City emergency management experts, cultural leaders, school officials, professional artists, volunteer STEM experts, and higher education researchers.

Have produced a toolkit of creative, evidence-based, persuasive, and culturally responsive hazard mitigation programs/products whose goal is to mitigate harm from extreme weather before a disaster strikes.  

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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, and City of Charleston Dept. of  Emergency Management have served as mentors and knowledge generators in the emerging project.  Both the College of Charleston and the Citadel have served as higher education partners in this collective impact effort to GET HURRICANE SMART!

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

excellence.