Developed by American Red Cross in cooperation with ISET, this document provides materials for the planning

and delivery of a workshop to engage with stakeholders and, using systems thinking, to begin

an urban assessment. The overall goal is that this will be one of the first steps to developing integrated programming at the community level to build overall urban resilience.

Stakeholder engagement is a core component of the preliminary urban assessment process. However, it is flexible enough to be used throughout the project/program implementation cycle with minor tweaks. Both people in vulnerable communities AND the people who provide, design, maintain, and make and enforce policies about access to services and resources have key perspectives on community and city vulnerability. Only by enabling dialogue with and between people from both groups, and with people working at the community but also the city, regional, and possibly national scale, can you really begin to identify opportunities for RCRC action that will build city-wide resilience.