Community's RISE is an inclusive SLR education and outreach program that spans ages, locations, and demographics to generate better prepared coastal constituencies. The program activities target different community sectors: 1) educator workshops encouraging application of an updated SLR curriculum for high school students; 2) Community Connection Dialogues that connect community leaders working on SLR with engaged constituents to inform and empower future action; and, 3) pop-in immersive SLR experiences at "every day" locations (e.g. baseball games, art walks) to reach those without the means/motivation to engage in SLR resilience. In this presentation we will describe the overarching project and the methods for developing and implementing this framework. Additionally, though some literature is available regarding residents' perspectives around SLR and willingness to pursue resilience actions, there have been few efforts to evaluate and share the results of extension, outreach, and education work affecting perceptions and willingness to take action for SLR resilience. Therefore, an important component of this project is evaluating the effectiveness of these efforts to educate and inspire action among participants. A RE-AIM evaluation framework is being used to determine the reach, effectiveness, maintenance at the participant level and adoption, implementation, and maintenance at the programmatic level. In this talk we will review the evaluation framework and how it can be applied to education and outreach programs broadly to assess their effectiveness. We will also discuss what we have learned so far regarding our program and make recommendations for future SLR-focused education and outreach programming.

The Community's RISE project works to bring community members at all levels of understanding and engagement into the conversation about future flood resilience and direct them towards the next steps in their pathway to fostering a resilient community. As part of our Community's RISE project, we're connecting with teachers and educators through our Sea Level Rise in the Classroom curriculum. This curriculum features lessons on sea-level and flooding basics, natural solutions such as living shorelines, ordinance and policy solutions, and community planning. The curriculum was developed in collaboration with educators in the Gulf and after completion we conducted hand-ons trainings so educators can confidently instruct their students fostering community members that support personal and community solutions to rising seas.
The curriculum connects students with the tools to explore the local impacts of sea-level rise as well as learn how to identify stakeholders, assess risk, and other essential skills on their pathway to understanding how to create a community resilience plan. Educators were surveyed before and after workshops and will continue to be interviewed to determine their use of the curriculum materials and sea-level rise resilience education in their classrooms. These evaluations allow us to track impacts of this type of education, success of uptake, and effectiveness at meeting learning and behavior change objectives. This portion of the session will explore the curriculum activities, how the high school classroom can be part of community wide resilience efforts, and evaluation results.

The Community's RISE project works to bring community members at all levels of understanding and engagement into the conversation about future flood resilience and direct them towards the next steps in their pathway to fostering a resilient community.
One component of the Community's RISE project is Community Connection Dialogues which focus on connecting residents with sea-level rise information and resources. Community Connection Dialogues are designed to connect informed and engaged constituents with municipal officials who are actively supporting sea-level rise and flood resilience activities in their communities. These events introduce residents to the basics of sea-level rise, the science behind changing flood risks, the associated impacts of sea-level rise, and how to plan and prepare in their community. Each event is co-hosted by a local community organization and a municipal partner who are able to highlight ongoing resilience actions in the area and provide expertise and resources for continuing discussions on building resilience to sea-level rise in the future. This presentation will introduce the process for conducting the Community Connection Dialogues and review data collected to evaluate their effectiveness at increasing knowledge and changing behavior for both community residents and municipal officials.

The Community's RISE project works to bring community members at all levels of understanding and engagement into the conversation about future flood resilience and direct them towards the next steps in their pathway to fostering a resilient community. As part of this project, we're connecting with residents throughout the northern Gulf Coast via Pop-In events. The Pop-Ins are immersive sea-level rise experiences at "every day" locations (e.g. baseball games, art walks) to reach those in our community without the means or motivation to otherwise engage in future flood resilience. Pop-Ins are designed to be conducted by our community partners in each of 12 locations (4 Florida panhandle, 4 Alabama, 4 Mississippi). 
Our Pop-in activities are designed using lessons learned from past experiences, social science research on sea-level rise and flood risk perceptions, and input from an advisory board of citizens ranging from novice to experienced in outreach in science and climate. Games and hands-on activities are curated for hyper local engagement using imagery and examples from the coastal towns and cities where each Pop-In is held. This session will discuss the process of creating and evaluating content for this type of event as well as explore some of the content used at these events. These Pop-Ins represent one part of our three-part strategy to foster a scientifically and civically literate community that can actively support cultures, economies and economies that are resilient to sea-level rise.