On July 26 and 27, the U.S. Chamber Foundation hosted the 12th annual Building Resilience Conference. This event gathered professionals with resilience- or crisis-related roles in their business, government agency, or NGO and dedicated sessions to dialogue and best practices that will improve resilience locally and strengthen communities globally.

Disasters of all kinds are occurring more frequently in both familiar and novel forms. Many of the systems bolstering our communities, such as transportation, public communication, and emergency response, are already stressed, underfunded, or untested in crisis.

At the same time: 

• As of late, incidents requiring rapid response are causing resource constraints and fatigue for the people on the response and recovery front lines.
• There are continued concerns about inclusively serving underserved populations, especially in the context of crisis response requiring pre-established community networks and trust.
• Community-, state-, and federal-level processes and bonds forged during the pandemic may not be sustainable as that global challenge wanes.
• When existential threats and compounded risks meet these above realities, systems and people become more stressed – and more susceptible to failure. 

The opportunity ahead? Establishing and testing partnerships now to improve community-level capabilities for the day they are needed most. 

The 12th Annual Building Resilience Conference ignited conversations and brought together the brightest minds on how to improve resilience locally and strengthen all of us globally.