In a world of constrained resources, communities need new ways to plan for and invest in the future. Resilience Districts are one path forward. California Forward and Resilient Cities Catalyst are turning Resilience Districts from statute into practice through the Resilience District Incubator project. The Incubator is made possible by the generous support of iAlumbra Philanthropy and part of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Making Missing Markets Initiative.
Communities are being asked to do more with less. What if they had a way to proactively invest in a safe, climate-resilient future?
Across the country, local governments face a difficult reality: tighter budgets, competing priorities, and growing pressure on public resources. At the same time, climate impacts like wildfire, drought, flooding, sea level rise, and extreme heat are becoming more frequent and more costly.
Resilience Districts offer one promising way to support communities in sustained funding, long-term planning, and decision-making that reflects local priorities. In both California and Connecticut, the legislatures have taken action to support communities with district-based models that better align governance, financing, and implementation around long-term resilience goals. In practice, these models remain relatively nascent, shaped by barriers such as limited local capacity, complex governance questions, and the challenge of building a clear investment pathway for resilient development.
That’s why California Forward (CA FWD) and Resilient Cities Catalyst (RCC) launched the Resilience District Incubator to work directly with communities exploring whether a resilience district could help them better invest in and deliver long-term resilience investments.
Today, we are excited to announce the first cohort of pilot communities in California and Connecticut:
- California:
- City of San Rafael and County of Marin
- North Coast Resource Partnership
- County of Los Angeles
- Connecticut:
- Town of Groton
- City of Bridgeport
These communities represent a range of geographies, regional economies, climate risks, and governance contexts, but share a goal — to test whether a resilience district can help them proactively invest in becoming safer and more resilient.
In Connecticut, the Incubator is being carried out in collaboration with the Connecticut Green Bank (CGB) to explore how resilience district financing could connect with Connecticut’s investment tools. CGB brings deep expertise in structuring innovative financing for public benefit — and a shared interest in understanding what it will take to move climate resilience projects from concept to implementation in Connecticut communities.
“We can’t one-time grant our way to resilience — and that’s exactly the problem California communities are up against right now,” says Nuin-Tara Key, Chief Operating Officer, CA FWD. “With the state managing structural deficits and federal funding cuts, the Resilience District model offers communities a vehicle for stable, recurring local revenue that can leverage private capital and attract additional public funding. This isn’t about local communities going it alone; it’s about building the right governance structures, financing tools, and technical capacity to generate sustained investment in resilience.”
“Resilience districts represent a powerful tool for local governments, helping to overcome some of the built-in constraints that have held back progress for decades. Too often, cities and counties are forced to think in one-year budget cycles, even when the challenges they face, like climate risk and infrastructure investment, play out over decades. The Resilience District model unlocks a longer-term horizon. It allows local governments to align their financing with the true scale of their ambitions, turning what are currently fragmented, year-by-year funding decisions into sustained, multi-decade investment strategies.
Local governments already have many of the ingredients they need: strong project pipelines, clear plans, and a deep understanding of what their communities require. The challenge has been connecting those plans to reliable, long-term funding. By bringing those pieces together, resilience districts create the conditions for local governments to deliver projects that not only reduce risk, but make places more livable, more equitable, and more prosperous over time. We are excited to be working with a cohort of leading cities and counties who are ready to think at that scale and help define what this model can achieve”, says Andrew Salkin, Founding Principal, RCC.
What it means to be a Resilience District Incubator pilot community
In 2026, pilot communities will:
- commit to working collaboratively on solutions to address their most pressing climate risks and priorities
- Identify key projects and investments needed to protect communities that are feasible to fund and move forward
- explore funding and financing options that support resiliency goals over the next 50 years
- determine what partnerships would be needed to advance resiliency projects
The Resilience District Incubator is a structured learning pathway to help pilot communities understand the resilience district model and assess whether it may be viable or useful in their local context. Through the Incubator, pilot communities will receive direct technical support, input from cross-sector experts, opportunities to learn alongside peer communities, and practical tools to support decision-making, while committing staff time and engagement throughout the program. The Incubator does not provide direct grant funding to participating communities, nor does it require a local funding contribution.
The goal of the Incubator is for pilot communities to complete the program with a concrete understanding of the steps, considerations and partnerships needed to evaluate and advance public and private financing tools that support long-term resilience investments.
“At iAlumbra Philanthropy, we are committed to advancing solutions that align economic and environmental incentives in ways that create lasting, community-centered impact,” says Chrissy Sollenberger, Director of Special Projects at iAlumbra Philanthropy. “The Resilience District model reflects this vision by demonstrating how strategic investment can reduce costs, strengthen environmental outcomes, and enable more coordinated, long-term planning across infrastructure systems. We hope this initiative continues to grow, so that municipalities most burdened by climate-related costs can plan for the long term and realize their community visions.”
“Every one of Connecticut’s 169 municipalities was built before we understood what climate change would demand of our infrastructure,” said Bryan Garcia, President and CEO of the Connecticut Green Bank. “As we invest in our future, we need to ensure what we build is made to last. Resiliency Improvement Districts provide a practical path to turn years of planning into action by connecting municipalities with capital markets and economic development tools to bring critical resilience projects off the shelf and into reality.”
Why these pilots matter & what comes next
These pilot communities are helping answer a bigger question: how do communities move from recognizing the need for resilience to building the systems required to deliver it?
The insights generated through this work will help clarify what makes resilience districts hard to launch, what it takes to move them forward, and how similar efforts could take shape in California, Connecticut, and beyond.
As the pilots move forward, we’ll share what we’re learning: what’s working, what’s challenging, and what it means for others exploring similar models.
