The "Colorado Youth Empowerment and Community Resilience" education project led by NOAA Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado, in partnership with NOAA's Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments partner Western Water Assessment, and the Compact of Colorado Communities, will inspire steps towards community resilience in rural Colorado with teachers and students acting as change agents. The project will develop instructional units around four critical weather and environmental hazards (drought, flood, wildfire, extreme heat) and train teachers on implementing the curriculum to achieve literacy around natural hazards. The youth engagement component will include four newly-developed immersive scenario-based role play games focused on those four natural hazards. Participating middle and high school students will explore a locally relevant natural hazard scenario and learn about existing mitigation and response plans.

Building on their role play experience, students will identify and develop real-world resilience strategies for their communities and present their ideas at a community Resilience Expo. The Resilience Expo will provide a platform for dialogue between students and community stakeholders—community and business leaders, student peers, families, local non-governmental organizations, and elected officials. Students are encouraged to develop and implement student-led resilience action projects in their communities. These local efforts will inform ongoing statewide resilience efforts by inviting teachers to participate in the annual statewide resilience summit, Colorado Communities Symposium, to present about their resilience strategies. The project will fill a critical gap in Colorado's resilience planning which does not include teachers and youth. The project will be guided by seven NOAA science advisors, include NOAA assets, and be implemented together with over 20 partners and collaborators.