The Initiative

The Gulf Research Program (GRP) seeks to build the capacity of local stakeholders to better collaborate in adapting to disasters that affect the health and resilience of their communities. Through its Adaptive Capacities for Transformation Initiative in East Baton Rouge Parish, LA (ACT Baton Rouge), the GRP is engaging with community experts in the planning, implementation, evaluation, and sustainability of solutions that advance a shared vision for disaster adaptation.

Launching in 2026, ACT Baton Rouge will bring together individuals from local nonprofits, foundations, academia, and government to co-create such a vision and co-plan for solutions that could advance it. Using a 4-step scientific process, the GRP and experts will develop an evidence-based and community-driven framework of priorities for What Communities Need to Deal with Disasters that affect the health and resilience of communities throughout East Baton Rouge Parish.

Step 1: Brainstorming

Step 2: Sorting and Rating

Step 3: Connecting

Step 4: Storytelling and Strategizing

Each step required active participation from stakeholders (herein referred to as “participants”) and is described in the section below.

Four Steps of ACT Baton Rouge Phase 1: Planning

Brainstorming: Collectively, participants will brainstorm answers to a prompt such as “From your perspective, what do the communities you regularly engage with need to ‘deal with’ the effects of disasters?” The GRP will review research and local plans to identify answers to the prompt that will be used. Responses will be cleaned to ensure each captures a single unique priority and compiled into one list.

Sorting and rating: Individually, participants will sort and rate a final list of priorities. Each participant will sort priorities into thematic groups that best made sense to them and then rate each priority on two values:

Importance: How important is this priority for the communities you work with?

Happening: To what extent is this priority currently happening?

Rating identifies assets (high importance, high happening) and gaps (high importance, low happening). The GRP will then assess gaps for fit with its strategic plan and funding priorities to identify “highly aligned” gaps for investment.

Connecting: Collectively, participants will review data products created from the exercise, relate findings to their on-the-ground experience, and discuss practical uses of the data. They will also indicate which “highly aligned” gaps they wanted to advance. Based on this input, the GRP will issue a planning grant to support collaborations that design solutions.

Storytelling and strategizing: Using storytelling, participants will explain how gaps and related priorities interact to help communities deal with disasters. They will then share, provide feedback, and refine planning grant ideas and strategies for engaging partners and stakeholders.