Our research claim:

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When community mentors Invest their time to Connect with students, they can Act together to jointly Respond to real problems of place.   In the process, all stakeholders are Empowered, and communities become more resilient.  We believe that just because a population is labeled or classified as being at risk from a hazard, does not mean they are helpless or lack inherent resilience or the CAPACITY  to mitigate their harm from a hazard.  This especially includes our so-called  vulnerable adolescents.

 

We are now in our sixth year of field testing innovative hazard mitigation tools, all designed to meet our City’s call to action to improve access to information about flooding hazards in vulnerable communities.  Through a combination of  critical thinking, creative making, testing, and sharing of ideas and artifacts, students are positioned as resources of knowledge about their vulnerability to extreme weather events.   They learn to make scientific claims based on evidence they gather and vet with community STEM mentors.   We believe this I.C.A.R.E. approach can become a model for other similarly flood-impacted communities in the United States. We hope many "I's" who care will join to become WE, who move forward together, becoming WEATHER-Smart, Place-Wise, STORM SURGE-smart, PREP-smart, and Water-Safe.