The ability of communities to recover and grow in the face of future shocks depends on the capacities that they will build in recovery from today’s crises.

Consider that in 2022 the U.S. alone witnessed more than 15 large-scale disasters, including the Western Wildfires and Hurricane Ian, each costing communities more than $1B. And across the globe disaster like flooding in South Asia to heat and humanitarian crises in Europe and Africa and infrastructure failures leaving communities like Jackson, Miss. without water, are leaving communities more in need of resilience than ever.

These shocks and stresses are compounding. Many of the same communities that were most vulnerable to COVID-19 have also had the highest food and housing vulnerability, the most police violence and the greatest exposure to climate shocks. This is the time for necessary, fundamental change in the ways that our cities and communities plan and act.