The Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has developed a program to strengthen community resilience, the Enhancing Community Resilience (EnCoRe) initiative. EnCoRe aims to reduce inequities in health and community resilience; advance research and practice in health and community resilience; and build the capacity of communities for addressing the impacts of climate change and disasters on at-risk populations. To achieve these goals, EnCoRe will long-term, multiyear community engagement projects that partner directly with select communities across the Gulf region and Alaska.

This report develops findings and recommendations intended to help guide EnCoRe in identifying, selecting, and engaging with communities as it moves forward with the initiative. Strengthening Equitable Community Resilience examines past and current community engagement efforts and other relevant materials, particularly those that have included communities in the Gulf region and Alaska, for the purpose of identifying guiding principles and lessons learned and then develops a set of guiding principles to identify criteria for selecting the participating communities in the EnCoRe program.