Our Vision

What We Believe:

We believe that an engaged community is a strong one; that civic interactions and community engagement grow best in places that have resilient and well-utilized social and environmental features. Throughout small towns and communities in Maryland and the District of Columbia, Common Resilience Partners has been committed to preserving, protecting, and promoting these features across public and private spaces.

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How We Work:

We've been experiencing years of political division, social isolation, and a growing disconnect from our shared communities at large... but we encourage a renewal of shared places: community settings where public life and private activities overlap. These "third places" (neither fully public, nor strictly private) range from town-owned properties and parks, to breweries and gardens, even to the local farms that not only feed us, but are sometimes attractions and gathering places in themselves.

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Common Resilience uses our years of experience within community development, economic justice, and small business support programs to ensure that these third places are encouraged and supported. Not just to preserve and protect the lands, buildings, towns, and businesses themselves; but to help them be that common ground upon which a strong community grows.

 

We provide these services by connecting funding sources with community leaders and needed contractors; and guide them through a project management process that ensures good ideas become successful realities. We pride ourselves on being hands-on project managers that help town officials, business owners, and non-profit directors implement and complete a program in an effective, efficient, and impactful way.

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The Birth of Common Resilience Partners

 

Common Resilience Partners is the newest phase in our efforts to protect and promote the character and contributions of small local communities. CRP builds upon the success of SB Works, a DC-based non-profit dedicated to small business support and advocacy by complimenting its economic resilience mission with its own focus on social and environmental resilience.

 

While proud of SB Works' success and growth, the impact and implications of climate change grew as well, especially for businesses and communities near Maryland’s waterways. Places like Ellicot City, MD were having "once in a century" floods year after year; historic communities along the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries remain prone to flooding; and ecologically responsible growth has taken on more importance as our population grows and resources are stretched. Add to this the sense of a lack of unified community and belonging- and we have a growing concern that our shared meeting places are losing their value even as people search for more of this literal and figurative common ground.  We are excited to help develop communities, places, and towns with stronger social networks, more engaging activities, and a deeper connection to the land.