About Resilient Virginia
Build a More Resilient Virginia, Together
Resilient Virginia is a statewide nonprofit bringing people, knowledge, and resources together to strengthen the capacity of communities across the Commonwealth to prepare, adapt, and thrive.
Our Mission
Advancing Whole-Community Resilience Through Collaboration, Learning, and Action
Resilience is strengthened when people work across sectors, systems, and communities rather than addressing challenges in isolation.
Resilient Virginia creates opportunities to connect, learn, build capacity, and move ideas toward action – helping communities and partners better understand resilience needs, strengthen relationships and skills, access useful resources, and identify practical pathways forward.
Our Vision
A Virginia Where Every Community Is Empowered to Thrive Through Whole-Community Resilience
We envision communities across Virginia with the knowledge, capacity, relationships, resources, and opportunities needed to navigate changing conditions and shape resilient futures.
That means strengthening not only individual projects or systems, but the connections among the environmental, physical, economic, and community systems that influence how places function and thrive.
Our Purpose
Turning Our Mission Into Practice
Drive Shared Action
Bring people and priorities together.
Create opportunities for communities, practitioners, organizations, and sectors to exchange knowledge, strengthen relationships, align around shared needs, and identify opportunities to move resilience work forward.
Provide Trusted Guidance
Make complex resilience work easier to navigate.
Connect people with useful information, practical tools, experienced partners, and informed guidance that can help clarify challenges and identify appropriate next steps.
Expand Community Capacity
Strengthen knowledge and resources communities rely on.
Build skills, leadership, relationships, tools, and access to resources so communities and organizations are better equipped to understand resilience needs and take action.
Deliver Practical Results
Turn ideas and priorities into something useful.
Develop programs, resources, plans, projects, learning opportunities, and other tangible outputs that help move resilience from conversation and planning toward implementation.
What We Mean by
Whole-Community Resilience
Strong Communities Depend on Connected Systems
Communities rely on interconnected systems every day. Water depends on energy. Businesses depend on transportation, workers, communications, and supply chains. Public health is influenced by housing, environmental conditions, access to services, and social connection.
Whole-community resilience means understanding these connections and strengthening the systems, capacities, and relationships that help communities prepare, adapt, respond, and thrive.
The Four Pillars of Whole-Community Resilience
Ecosystems
The natural systems and resources that support healthy communities, economies, and environments.
Infrastructure
The essential physical systems and assets communities depend on, including buildings, transportation, energy, water, communications, and other critical infrastructure.
Economy
The businesses, industries, workforce, resources, and economic systems that support community stability and opportunity.
Community
The knowledge, leadership, relationships, participation, and capacity people need to shape their communities’ futures.
Whole-community resilience happens when these systems are understood, connected, and strengthened together.
How We Advance the Work
From Purpose to Action
Our mission and purpose come to life through:
Statewide opportunities for learning, information, collaboration, and connection.
Customized technical assistance, program development, project management, and community engagement.
Time-bound projects and partnerships that apply resilience approaches to real community and regional needs.
What Guides Our Work
Our Values
Collaboration
We believe stronger outcomes come from working across perspectives, organizations, and sectors.
Whole-Community Thinking
We consider the connections among the systems that shape community resilience.
Empowerment
We strengthen people’s ability to understand needs, make decisions, and take action.
Integrity
We work with transparency, accountability, and respect for the communities and partners we serve.
Community-Centered Approaches
We value lived experience, local knowledge, and the priorities of the people closest to the work.
Sustainability
We consider long-term environmental, economic, organizational, and community well-being.
Innovation
We remain open to new ideas, tools, approaches, and partnerships that can improve resilience practice.
Our Team
People Behind the Work
Resilient Virginia brings together experience in resilience planning, program development, community engagement, communications, funding, facilitation, research, and cross-sector collaboration.
Jessica Steelman
Executive Director
Systems-Level Resilience & Sustainability Practitioner
Trish Porter
Director of Programs & Communications
Systems-Level Resilience & Sustainability Practitioner
Board of Directors
Governance + Leadership
Resilient Virginia’s Board of Directors provides governance, strategic guidance, and stewardship in support of the organization’s mission, vision, and long-term sustainability.
