Hello all of our
Residents for Resilience Friends!
I hope you had a wonderful Holiday. December seemed to fly by with all of the celebration events, but our R4R team did get in a few important meetings that I’d like to share with all of you.
Meeting with Joyce Coffee, President of Climate Resilience Consulting:
An introduction meeting was arranged between R4R and Joyce Coffee, LEED AP, who is founder and President of Climate Resilience Consulting. Ms. Coffee expressed interested in our new organization after hearing me speak at the Climate Summit. She wanted to learn more about the critical water concerns I spoke of, and about some of our residents topics of interests. Tricia Halliday, David Punchard and I emphasized our R4R goal of bridging the communication gap between local government, top climate resiliency specialists and our residents regarding our alarming water issues. We hope to invite her back to speak with all of our Residents for Resilience members in 2024.
Ocean Conservancy Meeting:
Some of our R4R Team also attended an Ocean Conservancy meeting where they shared valuable information on Critical Water Infrastructure case studies in Jacksonville, Orlando, and Miami-Dade. These case studies focused on areas with a high percentage of disadvantaged residents (59%), and aimed to understand the impacts of water-based hazards in order to improve marine and coastal water quality, and quality of life.
Tricia and I requested that Broward County be included in future studies, particularly due to on-going research on the alarming rates of advanced breast cancer in our county due to high levels of arsenic, and glyphosates. R4R is also concerned about Forever Chemicals, PFAS’s which pose a significant health risk. According to the Sun Sentinel, Broward County has hired a consultant to explore what changes can be made to reduce the volume of these toxic chemicals in our drinking water. If you would like to join our upcoming meeting with this organization which is scheduled for next Thursday at 3:15, the Zoom invite is provided below.
Broward County Joint TAC Meeting:
Broward County Resiliency Officer, Dr. Jennifer Jurado, has consistently supported our R4R movement and always includes us in important county Climate Meetings. These meetings address flood, storm and heat resiliency and provide alarming, but necessary information. Their next joint WAB/TAC meeting is scheduled for next Friday, at 10am, and you can attend either in person (Room 430 of the Government Center East Building, 115 S. Andrews Ave. Fort Lauderdale, Fl 33302) or via Zoom. The invite is included below.
Expert Advisory Board Update:
Our Expert Advisory Board has been very busy preparing proposals and presentations for our various Marine Water Remediation Projects. When we present these projects to our Commission, we hope to have your support. We will send emails with the time and dates of these meetings.
Organization Planning:
Our Advisory Board has been actively involved in organization planning, and has offered some excellent tips and suggestions on how to strategically move our not-for-profit forward. We are fortunate to have such an amazing group of board members supporting Residents for Resilience!
“Water-Logged” Seminars
We have chosen “Water-Logged” as the name for our up-coming seminars. Waterlogged typically refers to something that is heavily saturated with water, which represents the overwhelming challenges and depth of the critical issues we face concerning water, which we are addressing. It effectively conveys the concept behind the name choice. As David Punchard stated," this name can be used to suggest an exploration of issues such as flooding, waterway pollution, and storm and drinking water management in Fort Lauderdale, highlighting how these factors impact public health and the ecosystem. These informative forums will feature top specialists who will provide presentations, suggest solutions and answer questions on our four critical water concerns; drinking water safety, flood mitigation, storm resiliency and waterway remediation. The Marine Hub will be partnering with us on these live and Zoominar forums.
More information and invitations to these events will be coming soon.
The first segment in this series will be titled; “Beneath the Surface” and will take an in-depth look at the alarming condition of our precious waterways. Stay tuned for further details.
We would again like to welcome our new members who are
joining our team daily!
Don’t forget to send in your questions, comments, and pictures of polluted waterways. Your eyes, ears, and instincts are needed!
Thanks for Caring!
Wishing you a Happy and Healthy New Year!
Suzee
Suzee Bailey
Founder Residents for Resilience
.
If you are interested in getting more involved with some of the critical issues
with which we are trying so diligently to address
please contact us at:
res4resilience@gmail.com
...and don’t forget to share this information with your
family and friends!
