Recover Delaware Resilience Planning Guide

PROJECT SYNOPSIS

There is never a comfortable time to start conversations about recovery. Conversations initiated soon after a disaster may be criticized as a distraction from critical response efforts. Conversations initiated in the waning days of disaster response may be greeted with “we’re over it” sentiments as fatigued responders and essential workers seek a comfortable return to normal. This discomfort with recovery conversations is natural. Change is difficult even in times not marked by crisis, and effective recovery planning often demands the consideration and implementation of substantial changes to reduce community vulnerability to future shocks.

The Recover Delaware answer to discomfort with recovery conversations and planning activities is to lean in rather than shy away. Launched by the University of Delaware’s Institute for Public Administration (IPA) in June 2020, the Recover Delaware initiative seeks to provide Delaware’s recovery stakeholders with an ongoing forum for identifying, analyzing, deliberating, and engaging in collaborative action on recovery and resilience planning topics. For the Recover Delaware team, the question is not “when should we start talking about recovery?” but “what topic should we consider next in our continual community conversation about recovery and resilience planning?”

The Recover Delaware initiative operates with two basic premises in mind: 1) Shocks are inevitable, and they result in periodic and substantial disruptions to economic, social, and organizational prosperity and practices; and 2) Collaboration is difficult, especially difficult in times of crisis, and made even more difficult if there is not a common vocabulary and history of collaboration and trust to build upon. Through Recover Delaware, IPA seeks to keep a continual focus on shocks and the likelihood of future disruptions while providing recovery stakeholders with the opportunity to network and practice collaboration as they identify and design recovery and resilience planning initiatives and projects for their communities.

Eighteen months removed from the launch of Recover Delaware, this report documents progress on pilot efforts under the Recover Delaware umbrella. To date, these efforts have focused on identifying, analyzing, and engaging community stakeholders in reflective conversations on topics important to both response and recovery from the pandemic and the long-run resilience of Delaware’s communities and households to future disruptions. In the following six sections, this report documents the status of recovery in Delaware while outlining a framework for continued and enhanced resilience planning:

• Background – A consideration of the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of disruptive events, shocks, and recovery and resilience, including a snapshot analysis of Delaware’s recovery status and emerging opportunities in recovery
• Overview of the Recover Delaware Framework – An overview of the Recover Delaware initiative focused on defining and describing the four component elements of the Recover Delaware framework: 1) conversations about uncertainty, 2) networking and resource connection, 3) assistance with recovery planning, and 4) resources for resilience and competitiveness  
• Recover Delaware Roundtables: Approach – A summary of the four-step approach used to organize and facilitate Recover Delaware Roundtables aimed at meaningful analysis and stakeholder consideration of topics important to recovery and resilience planning in Delaware 
• Recover Delaware Roundtables: Example Applications – A further illustration of the Recover Delaware Roundtable approach based on three applications of the approach, including analysis of recovery challenges and opportunities for Delaware 
• Dimensions of Resilient Recovery for Delaware – A summary of four key dimensions for resilience and recovery planning in Delaware—economy, built environment, community health, and governance—with a framework for planning and action briefly outlined for each 
• Toward an Open Source Recover Delaware – A concluding call to action that outlines necessary steps to continue and enhance the Recover Delaware approach by developing a comprehensive set of ongoing forums and programs that allow stakeholders to initiate and engage in deliberative conversations and action planning activities on a diversity of topics for operational response, short- and long-term recovery and resilience planning, and scenario planning purposes