Resilience Hubs: Lifelines in the Last Disaster – And for the Future

Representatives of dozens of local organizations gathered recently to consider the unthinkable, framed concisely in a question posed by Kate Pett, Thrive Asheville’s deputy director: “The next time this happens, how can we be better prepared to take care of each other?” Because, as attendees agreed, it’s not so much a question of “if” we have future harmful storms but “when.”

One key to recovery and strengthening community connections is through resilience hubs, the lifelines that emerge in the wake of disaster - as they did after Helene struck. To better understand what worked and what could be improved in the event of future storm events, Thrive Asheville hosted The Rise of the Resilience Hubs, the latest in Thrive’s Lessons for the Recovery series, designed to promote learning about successful preparedness and recovery efforts, according to board member Pete Perez:

"Events like this are important to our community because our community has one unified goal above all others right now, and that is to rebuild the community we love and make it more resilient and better than ever. Bringing together leaders in the community that have been supporting and rebuilding along with City and County leaders allows us to align as one force in these rebuilding efforts."

The next step in Thrive’s Lessons for the Recovery will be a summary of the hundreds of thoughts and ideas shared by workshop participants, to inform projects and priorities that support the community’s vision of rebuilding. Watch for that update coming soon!