DENVER — Wednesday, March 4, 2015 -- Gov. Hickenlooper today invited Coloradans to participate in the National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC), a billion dollar federal competition for communities that have been struck by natural disasters in recent years.
The NDRC was announced in July 2014 by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Hickenlooper met with HUD Secretary Julian Castro on Monday and expressed Colorado's enthusiasm and strong commitment to participating in the competition. Public input during this phase of the application process is critical.
“We heard countless stories of survival, kindness and heroics in the face of unthinkable disasters over the last few years,” Hickenlooper said. “This competition provides us an opportunity to share those stories to help Colorado receive the necessary resources to rebuild better and prepare. It just takes a few minutes. Let’s win this award!”
The NDRC makes available $1 billion in funds, with a maximum award of $500 million. Eligible applicants must successfully develop innovative resilience projects that both address unmet needs from federally-declared disasters in 2011, 2012, or 2013 and that make their communities, citizens, and infrastructure more resilient by applying science-based and forward-looking risk analysis to address recovery, resilience, and revitalization needs. Colorado is one of 67 eligible applicants for the NDRC.
In addition the the public input phase, a key component of Colorado’s NDRC application is the Colorado Resiliency Project (CRP). This is a collective effort focused on preserving, protecting and promoting what makes Colorado special. The project will engage residents and learn their stories of resiliency. Molly Urbina, chief recovery officer for Colorado said CRP’s ultimate goal is to create a framework that Colorado can use to empower communities to be more resilient in the face of natural disasters and other potential disruptions.
“Hearing from Coloradans is critical as we look to create a resiliency framework, resilience is an important part of our everyday business,” says Urbina. “This framework is an instrumental component in Colorado’s long term resilience and adds strength to Colorado’s application to HUD for much needed resiliency dollars. We want to collect as many stories of resiliency as we can and nominations for heroes —individuals who came to aid in the face of disaster or hardship—we bring to light what makes Colorado so special: our collective resilience and commitment to helping our neighbors.”
There are a number of ways Coloradans can participate in this phase of the application:
Provide comment and share stories online at:
www.coloradounited.com/resilient
Nominate a ‘resiliency hero’ and take the survey:
www.coloradounited.com/resilient
Participate in a webinar:
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
2 p.m.
To join the meeting:
http://codeptofla.adobeconnect.com/cdbg-dr/
Audio Conference Details:
Conference Number(s):
US (Toll): 1-719-234-7800
Participant Code: 514059
Attend a public meeting:
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
6 p.m.
Larimer County Conference Center
- located on the southeast side the First National Bank Building The Ranch Events Complex - Larimer County Fairgrounds, 5280 Arena Circle Loveland, CO
Contact:
Office of Gov. John Hickenlooper
Val Beck, 303-350-0772 c, [email protected]
Kathy Green, 303-550-9276 c, [email protected]