​​Like many South Florida residents, I found myself asking questions that seemed like they should have simple answers.

• Is my drinking water safe?

• Is it safe to enjoy our waterways?

• Will my neighborhood flood again?

• How can we better protect our coastlines while restoring the health of our waterways and marine ecosystems?

But perhaps the most important questions of all were these:

How do residents know when it's safe to enjoy our waterways? Where do they find clear, timely, and easy-to-understand public health and environmental information? And how do today's decisions affect the future resilience of our communities?

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Those questions became deeply personal after I contracted a MRSA infection following a paddleboarding outing several weeks after more than 200 million gallons of wastewater had spilled into Fort Lauderdale's waterways, parks, neighborhoods, and streets. Although no one could say with absolute certainty where the infection originated, my doctors believed it was likely the result of exposure to contaminated water.

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That experience changed my life.

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With a background in broadcast journalism, I assumed finding reliable information would be straightforward. Instead, I discovered a significant information gap. Water quality information was often difficult to locate, challenging for the public to understand, and, in many cases, outdated. Public health advisories and safety information were not always easy to find, leaving many residents with more questions than answers.

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Determined to help fill that information gap, I began researching these issues more deeply, and realized my story wasn't unique. Residents throughout our community were asking many of the same questions about drinking water, water quality, flooding, stormwater management, coastal resilience, and the health of our waterways and marine ecosystems. I also heard from people who shared stories of serious illnesses after working or recreating in local waterways. While every situation was different, one thing became increasingly clear: residents were struggling to find the clear, timely, and easy-to-understand information they needed to make informed decisions for themselves and their families.

The deeper I looked, the more I realized these weren't separate issues.

Everything is connected!

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The choices we make, the infrastructure we build, and the way we manage our water all influence one another. What happens upstream can affect everything downstream. What we do on land impacts our waterways, our drinking water, our marine ecosystems, and ultimately the resilience of our communities. That's why Residents for Resilience is committed to helping people understand not just individual issues, but the connections between them. Because when we understand the connections, we begin to see the solutions.

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Since it's hard to care about what you don't know about, that realization became the foundation for Residents for Resilience - because there are some critical issues we do need to be concerned about.  R4R strives to close the information gap by connecting residents with trusted experts, scientific research, educators, environmental organizations, businesses, universities, and government leaders. Together, we translate complex environmental information into practical, easy-to-understand knowledge while fostering collaboration that turns innovative ideas into real-world solutions.

Today, our work focuses on four critical water issues that affect the health, safety, environment, and quality of life of every South Florida resident:

💧 Safe, Clean Drinking Water

Protecting one of our most essential natural resources through education, awareness, collaboration, and science-based solutions.

🌊 Flood Mitigation & Stormwater Management

Promoting innovative, nature-based, and engineered solutions that reduce flooding while improving water quality and strengthening community resilience.

🌴 Storm Resilience & Coastal Protection

Helping communities prepare for stronger storms, sea level rise, and the changing environmental challenges facing South Florida while protecting our coastlines and neighborhoods.

🐚 Waterway & Marine Ecosystem Restoration

Supporting education, research, collaboration, and innovative restoration projects that improve the health and quality of our priceless waterways - helping to  protect the marine - ecosystems that helps sustain our environment, economy, and quality of life.

While each of these issues is important on its own, our mission isn't simply to educate residents about them individually, it's to help people understand how they are connected, why those connections matter, and how, by connecting people, science, and information, we can better identify environmental challenges, understand their root causes, and work collaboratively to develop innovative, practical, science-informed, and nature-based solutions that transform awareness into action and build a healthier, more resilient South Florida.

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Because informed and connected communities - 

build a stronger and more resilient South Florida! 

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