Streams of Solidarity Workshop

Streams of Solidarity in the Cheat River Watershed

The WVU Center for Resilient Communities is excited to announce its first Streams of Solidarity Workshop, scheduled for Fall 2025. The team has embarked on an innovative project to bring together activists, community leaders, first responders, environmental workers, and others into a collaborative process to build more vibrant communities in the Cheat River Watershed. The Streams of Solidarity Workshop is focused on flood resiliency planning, designed to foster community connections across our shared waterways.

As climate change continues to intensify across the globe, climate-related disasters and hazards are expected to become more frequent for communities. West Virginia faces a particular set of circumstances that creates risk and vulnerability to future flooding events. While the environmental factors of flooding may inform where a flood may hit, it does not account for the levels of risk or vulnerability a community will experience once the flood arrives. Responding to future flooding events requires new approaches that work at the grassroots level to mobilize more people to participate in the decision-making process.

The WVU Center for Resilient Communities, in partnership with the Mountain Hydrology Lab and Friends of Cheat organization, invites anyone who lives, works, plays, and prays in the Cheat River Watershed to participate in our Streams of Solidarity Workshop. During this day-long workshop, we invite a diverse set of community voices to engage in a roundtable discussion about the watershed. Through storytelling and assessing maps, we will discuss the strengths and vulnerabilities of our communities in relation to flooding. Participants will also receive information on past flood events, emergency response services, and other community resources, allowing us to collectively reflect and consult on the state of our communities. By listening and learning from one another, we will begin to unpack the diverse perspectives and insights on how to respond and recover from flooding in our region.

Participants will discuss various factors that put our communities at risk of flooding and strategize on how we can collectively address these vulnerabilities. Attendees will have access to useful resources and tools and will learn new ways to approach flood vulnerability. Through this workshop, we hope to work together to conduct a holistic assessment of what makes our communities and watershed vulnerable to flooding and develop new solutions for building a more just, vibrant, and equitable Cheat River Watershed!