Building Systems-Level Resilience
Resilience Foundations Certificate Program
The Resilience Foundations Certificate Program is an 18-week course that equips and unifies leaders across diverse sectors with standardized frameworks and competencies in systems-level resilience to enhance cross-sector coordination and support community sustainability.
Introduction
The Resilience Foundations Certificate Program is an 18-week course that equips and unifies leaders across diverse sectors with standardized frameworks and competencies in systems-level resilience to enhance cross-sector coordination and support community sustainability. Grounded in the unique challenges and strengths of Virginia, the program addresses the state’s increasing exposure to climate-related risks such as sea-level rise, recurrent flooding, extreme heat, and economic disruption. Participants will explore real-world strategies drawn from Virginia’s leadership in coastal resilience, equitable adaptation planning, and intergovernmental collaboration. By focusing on the Commonwealth’s ongoing resilience initiatives—from the Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Planning Framework to local and regional resilience hubs—this program prepares professionals to build adaptive capacity and drive systemic change across communities statewide.
The Program is grounded in Resilient Virginia’s systems-level approach, emphasizing a holistic framework to build stronger, more resilient communities. The program focuses on four key interdependent pillars: Ecosystem Services, recognizing the essential benefits nature provides—such as clean air, water, and biodiversity; Built Environment, promoting buildings and infrastructure systems designed to withstand and adapt to changing conditions; Community Empowerment, enabling local stakeholders to lead resilience efforts through education, collaboration, and preparedness; and Economic Activities, encouraging long-term economic strategies that support environmental stewardship and community well-being. Together, these pillars provide a comprehensive foundation for fostering resilience across diverse sectors and regions.
Learning Outcomes
- Understand Systems-Level Resilience
Explain how ecological, infrastructural, community, and economic systems interact to support resilient communities. - Analyze Change, Risk, and Vulnerability
Identify the drivers of environmental and social variability, assess associated hazards and risks, and evaluate how vulnerability is distributed across individuals, systems, and communities. - Apply Systems Thinking to Resilience Challenges
Use systems thinking tools and methods to analyze complex, interdependent challenges and identify leverage points for effective resilience-building strategies. - Develop and Evaluate Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies
Design context-appropriate solutions that reduce risk and vulnerability, enhance adaptive capacity, and promote both short-term and long-term resilience. - Integrate Equity into Resilience Planning
Recognize structural inequities in resilience planning and propose inclusive approaches that ensure all communities have access to the resources and opportunities needed to thrive. - Facilitate Collaborative and Informed Decision-Making
Understand and apply decision-making frameworks that account for diverse perspectives, values, and lived experiences within organizations, governments, and communities. - Communicate Effectively Across Audiences
Tailor messaging and engagement strategies to convene stakeholders, build consensus, and foster broad participation in resilience-building efforts. - Lead and Manage Change in Complex Systems
Apply principles of change management to lead organizational, institutional, or community transitions toward greater resilience and sustainability. - Design Resilience Strategies That Are Locally Relevant and Scalable
Translate resilience concepts into actionable plans that address local needs while aligning with broader regional, state, or national resilience goals. - Engage in Lifelong Resilience Learning and Leadership
Cultivate a commitment to continuous learning, innovation, and leadership in advancing resilience in professional, civic, and personal contexts.
Modules
- Variability and Change
Why and how variability and change occur across the interdependent pillars - Understand how natural and human systems experience variability and change.
- Explain how change occurs across the four interdependent pillars of resilience.
- Analyze the drivers and patterns of variability in social, economic, and ecological systems.
- Hazards and Impacts
Why and how variability and change create hazards and subsequent impacts across the interdependent pillars - Identify the link between variability/change and the creation of hazards.
- Evaluate the direct and indirect impacts of hazards across systems.
- Assess the cascading effects of hazards on communities and infrastructure.
- Vulnerability
Why and how individuals and systems are vulnerable to systems-level impacts and how to decrease vulnerability by increasing adaptive capacity and reducing exposure and sensitivity - Define vulnerability in the context of systems-level resilience.
- Identify factors that contribute to individual and systemic vulnerability.
- Propose strategies to reduce vulnerability by increasing adaptive capacity and decreasing exposure and sensitivity.
- Risk
What constitutes risk (ie probability and consequence), how risk is impacted by individual perception, lived experiences, and preferences, and methods for measuring risk - Define and calculate risk using concepts of probability and consequence.
- Recognize how perception, experience, and values influence risk assessment.
- Apply methods for assessing and communicating risk in community contexts.
- Adaptation and Resilience
What constitutes adaptation and what means are available to adapt and what constitutes resilience and what means are available to improve resilience - Distinguish between adaptation and resilience within social-ecological systems.
- Identify tools and strategies for enhancing adaptive capacity.
- Propose actions to improve resilience at community and systems levels.
- Hazard Mitigation
How to plan for and prevent hazards from having a negative impact on the interdependent pillars that make up a resilient community - Understand the principles of hazard mitigation across the four pillars.
- Design strategies to reduce or prevent negative impacts from known hazards.
- Integrate mitigation planning into community and infrastructure development.
- Systems Thinking
Why and how to think in systems to address inclusive community resilience - Apply systems thinking tools to analyze complex, interdependent systems.
- Identify leverage points for intervention within systems.
- Understand the role of feedback loops and interconnections in resilience planning.
- Equitable Future
Why and how to make sure all communities have access to the resources they need to succeed - Recognize systemic inequities that affect access to resilience resources.
- Explore strategies to ensure inclusive and equitable resilience planning.
- Promote justice-centered approaches in resilience and sustainability efforts.
- Change Management
Why and how to effectively manage change among communities, organizations, and systems - Understand key principles of organizational and community change.
- Apply change management frameworks to support resilience initiatives.
- Identify strategies for leading and sustaining change in diverse contexts.
- Decision Making
Theories and methods for understanding decision making among communities, organizations, and political systems - Explore decision-making theories relevant to resilience and governance.
- Analyze how decisions are made at individual, organizational, and political levels.
- Utilize decision-making tools to support inclusive, evidence-based planning.
- Communication and Convening
Strategies for bringing together and speaking effectively to diverse audiences - Develop strategies for communicating resilience concepts to varied audiences.
- Facilitate inclusive discussions and collaborative problem-solving.
- Design convening processes that build trust and shared understanding
- Dynamic Module
Module design based on the cohort’s needs and priorities
Pilot Cohort
The Pilot Cohort will start on March 22, 2026. Registration for this cohort will start soon.
Contact resva-admin@resilientvirginia.org if you’d like to learn more about the Certificate program.