As federal disaster support grows less certain, practitioners across the Southeast and U.S. Caribbean are building the peer networks and practical strategies they need to work together, supporting each other and the populations they serve.

Emergency managers in the Southeastern U.S. and U.S. Caribbean have always operated on the principle that all disasters start and end local. But recent shifts in federal disaster policy have made that reality more acute, leaving local and state practitioners to shoulder greater responsibility with fewer resources than they have historically relied upon. The Southeast and Caribbean Disaster Resilience Partnership (SCDRP) brings the region’s emergency management community together to share expertise, forge new partnerships, and develop concrete strategies for navigating that shift.

SCDRP’s 10th Annual Meeting, themed “Navigating Extreme Events: Doing More with Less, Together,” convened more than 140 disaster and resilience professionals in Charleston, SC March 4-5, 2026. The following day, an invitational Emergency Management Roundtable brought together a select group of emergency managers and multisectoral partners for a more focused working session. Together, the two events were designed to move beyond discussion toward practical, operational outcomes structured around the specific capacity gaps practitioners are facing now.

The Roundtable was designed to produce a regionally grounded Action Plan: a collection of replicable strategies for strengthening extreme weather readiness, recovery, and resilience across the region. Session recordings will be made available to extend the reach of both events beyond attendees, and SCDRP will continue distributing materials and building on connections formed through its website, social media, and mentorship program throughout 2026. A particular priority is ensuring robust participation from rural, island, and historically underrepresented communities and groups that tend to face the steepest capacity gaps and have the most to gain from peer-to-peer knowledge sharing.

CO2 Foundation is glad to support this convening. Investments in the connective tissue of emergency management — the relationships, shared frameworks, and peer networks that allow practitioners to learn from one another — pay dividends across every extreme weather event that follows.