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In honor of National Preparedness Month, Main Street America’s National Park Service Main Street Community Disaster Preparedness and Resilience Program has been working with their partners and local community leaders to host Takeovers on MSA’s social channels. This week, we welcomed to our Instagram Stories the Allapattah Collaborative CDC, a Main Street program in Miami, Florida.
Climate gentrification is a large issue that the Allapattah Collaborative CDC focuses on in their preparedness and recovery planning. Executive Director Mileyka Burgos-Flores, whom the NPS Main Street Community Disaster Preparedness and Resilience Program is fortunate to have as part of the Advisory Committee, has presented on the risk and impacts of climate gentrification in Allapattah at one of the Program's national workshops. This provided a close look at what is happening on the ground there--both the serious risk of losing the physical and cultural fabric of Allapattah, made even more urgent by repeated disasters, but also their strategic and equitable resilience work toward lessening the effects of climate gentrification.
In their Instagram Stories Takeover, the Allapattah Collaborative CDC shared more about their experience with disaster planning, resilience, and climate gentrification, as well as the community impact of their work. Read more about their Takeover below, and be sure to check out their exemplary work in our Instagram channel’s Story Highlights.
Voices of Key Stakeholders
As a central part of their Takeover, the Allapattah Collaborative CDC interviewed key partners in their disaster preparedness and resiliency initiatives. Each stakeholder spoke to a particular topic or theme related to the community’s preparedness needs and the Main Street program’s efforts, including climate resilience, climate gentrification, and policy suggestions for supporting the community in preparedness and resiliency initiatives. Read snippets from these partner interviews below:
Frances A. Colon, International Climate
“One of the inevitable impacts of climate change on our community in South Florida will be prolonged and extreme heat waves. This impacts the members of our community that are most vulnerable, like workers that spend hours outside, the elderly, and children. One of the things we have to demand of our decision-makers are more green spaces, more parks, where there are more trees and canopy that reduce the temperature and where our families and communities can spend time cooling off and getting relief from the heat.”
Jane Gilbert, Chief Heat Officer at Miami-Dade County
“As your chief heat officer, I will be expanding and enhancing our public education and outreach, our emergency management procedures and facilities and working to address our urban heat islands through cooler pavements and tree planting.”
MacKenzie Marcelin, Climate Organizer for Florid Rising
“What are some things that local government can do to mitigate climate gentrification? Reducing cost and bills for folks across the board. And specifically, for me, when it comes to clean energy, expanding solar, expanding energy efficiency programs and weatherization programs, and making it more accessible for communities to reduce cost and energy waste.”
Want to get started assembling stakeholders for disaster preparedness in your Main Street district? Don’t miss the Opening Plenary of the Disaster Preparedness Roadmap: Building Main Street Resilience session from the 2021 Main Street Now Conference. Learn how to talk about climate change with just about anyone from Dr. T, President and CEO of The Case Made.
Making a List
Located in southern Florida, Miami is no stranger to hurricanes. As such, part of the Allapattah Collaborative CDC’s Takeover included a focus on hurricane preparedness, highlighting their partnership with the South Florida Red Cross. A Story card was dedicated to a hurricane preparedness checklist, which included items such as water, non-perishable food, can opener, first aid kit, masks, flashlights and batteries, multipurpose tool, cell phone and charger, emergency contact information and critical documents, and extra clothing and blankets.
Not sure where to start with sharing disaster preparedness resources for your community? Check out these great resources from Ready.gov for both small businesses and community members.
Voices from the Community
In addition to hearing from stakeholders, The Allapattah Collaborative CDC also highlighted the resilience of small business owners and other community members. One such interview came from small business owner Fidel Aquino, owner of Aquino Tailor. Read a snippet of his interview below:
"It’s thanks to the Allapattah Collaborative CDC, Mileyka, Santander, and their team that they provided the necessary protective gear and knowledge of how to protect us from COVID-19. The Collaborative’s prevention methods and training were the ingredients we needed to safely reopen and that have helped us remain in business to this day. Thank God!”
We are grateful for the Allapattah Collaborative CDC's involvement in the NPS Main Street Disaster Preparedness and Resilience Program and our celebration of Preparedness Month! Be sure to check out their full Instagram Takeover here.
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