Roadmap to Resilience Project

Aerial View of Rolla, Missouri.

The Roadmap to Resilience is a two-year project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy in February 2019. The grant funds were awarded to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources—Division of Energy (MO-DNR). Paragon Solutions, Inc. and AECOM were sub-recipients of the grant funding.

The project seeks to assist small- to medium-sized communities with the development of their own customized resilience plans through several tools to make the planning process more straightforward and impactful. Paragon has partnered with MO-DNR and AECOM to bring this resource to communities that have yet to build robust resilience plans.

Cost share partners of the project include the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (MEEA), Missouri Public Utility Alliance (MPUA), ReNEW Missouri, St. James Winery, the Missouri Office of Public Counsel, and the Consumers Council of Missouri.
Rolla, St. James, and Stockton agreed to participate in the project as partner communities, where stakeholder engagement sessions were held to collect valuable insight and data to better inform the Roadmap to Resilience and community case studies.

Tools Developed Under This Project:

  • Stakeholder engagement best practices
  • Guidance on how to perform baseline analysis
  • Information on how to leverage partners and existing assets
  • Identification of and suggestions for using a variety of funding sources
  • Direction to helpful federal and national laboratory resources
  • Metrics to measure success

AECOM leads the technical assistance portion of the project; the firm has a wealth of experience with resilience planning through their work on the 100 Resilient Cities effort. Paragon leads the stakeholder engagement portion and provides additional technical support; Paragon’s team is well-versed on resilience through its work with the U.S. Army and Corps of Engineers.

Paragon assisted in hosting a webinar series to outline the Roadmap to Resilience and practical steps that communities can take in developing their own resilience plans. For more information, the webinar recordings and slides can be accessed here: Roadmap to Resilience | energy.mo.gov