History

For those not familiar with the Community and Regional Resilience Institute (CARRI) -- In early 2007 the Department of Homeland Security suggested the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) look at "resilience" as part of the congressionally mandated Southeast Region Research Initiative (SERRI).  With that, we began a fairly comprehensive examination to determine what the term resilience meant in the context of homeland security.  

All of this suggested to us that ORNL and its partners at Savannah River National Laboratory and in our partner universities could best contribute to the growing resiliency effort by concentrating on community resilience, eventually linking communities to regions and regions to the nation.  

Our initial investigations took the form of engaging a wide spectrum of individuals, organizations, and governmental entities.  We talked to anyone with experience who would talk to us - over one hundred experts and practitioners from government, private industry, academia and non-governmental groups - about the state and direction of resiliency.  
 
These wide ranging conversations led us to the Community and Regional Resilience Institute (CARRI). 

As CARRI began to take shape, there was a growing realization that the necessary understanding about community interdependencies and interconnectedness could not happen in national laboratories or academic institutions alone.  There clearly needed to be a strong, coordinating research component to the program but the real learning must come from working in, with and around communities. 
 
The capabilities of resilience experts was coupled with the everyday experience and understanding of people who face the challenges on a daily basis.  Additionally, if this program was to have national implications, then communities must allow us to study what is common and what is unique. 

As a result, we approach three communities to enter into this journey with us.  We looked for communities that were economically, geographically and demographically diverse, but also offered a unique perspective towards natural or man-made disasters.  In the end, we added the three partner communities of Gulfport/Gulf Coast of Mississippi, the Charleston, South Carolina Tri-County Area and the Memphis, Tennessee Urban Area. 

2008 was a year of significant progress for CARRI - researchers located throughout the nation; local research teams from our three partner communities; CARRI community engagement teams; and, most importantly, our dedicated local partners.
 
Using input from the communities, lessons learned from around the nation, and the guidance of ORNL-convened researchers, CARRI has developed a community resilience framework that outlines both processes and tools that communities can use to become more resilient.  

Today, the Community and Regional Resilience Initiative has become the Community and Regional Research Institute.  As we move forward, CARRI will also begin to demonstrate that resilient communities can gain economically from their resilience investments through our development of a new and innovative community resilience certification system that recognizes community processes and accomplishments in support of greater resilience.