ARISE Toolkit

Adaptive and Resilient Infrastructures driven by Social Equity (ARISE) is a major, 5-year investment in Kansas by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). NSF uses EPSCoR to ensure every citizen has access to STEM experiences by increasing research capacity in traditionally under-funded regions of the country—like Kansas. For every dollar it invests in Kansas, the state gets back twice that in non-EPSCoR funding. Learn more on the ARISE Kansas Project Overview

Any opinions, expressed here are those of the author(s) for this project (OIA-2148878), and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF.

The aim of this toolkit is to provide practical guidance to support community engagement for ARISE – a novel project seeking to help Kansans rebound faster and suffer less from large-scale disasters. This statewide initiative seeks to advance the resilience of infrastructures that all Kansans depend on—such as water, energy, and transportation systems—by creating tools that ensure support for our most vulnerable communities in both rural and urban areas. Our research is rooted in community engagement and blended with education to pave the way for statewide benefits.

Community engagement is an approach to addressing community issues and promoting wellbeing. It involves building relationships and working together to develop more effective interventions, programs, services, and policies and to empower communities as key actors in improvement efforts. The Community Engagement Toolkit offers a comprehensive approach and integrated resources to guide the community engagement approach supported in the ARISE Kansas NSF EPSCoR grant.

This toolkit provides support throughout the community engagement process by promoting common principles to guide the efforts. It outlines questions to encourage dialogue, recommends activities, and provides examples and links to tools to support learning and action in your community.