Resilient Communities Program
The Resilient Communities Program (RCP) is a competitive grant program designed to fund unmet recovery and mitigation needs for public infrastructure projects that will help HUD-identified and State-identified "most impacted and distressed" (MID) areas become more resilient to current and future flood-related natural hazards. Eligible applicants will be responsible for the implementation, operation, and maintenance of awarded projects.
The State has modeled this program on FEMA's Building Resilient Infrastructure in Communities (BRIC) program, a federal program that awards funds nationally through an annual competition. The purpose of aligning RCP with BRIC is to assist applicants in developing the knowledge and skill set to plan, scope, and use cost-effective methods for resilient infrastructure projects.
Application Period
June 28, 2023 – December 20, 2023
The application period for the Resilient Communities Program ended December 20, 2023. Applications are no longer being accepted.
Program Objectives
Approved activities will focus on achieving the following objectives:
- Reduce or eliminate the long-term risk of loss of life, injury, damage to and loss of property, and suffering and hardship by lessening the impact of future disasters.
- Recover from the disaster impacts of Hurricane Ida.
- Protect publicly funded recovery investments in impacted communities.
- Expand awareness of BRIC within the state and help build the capacity of local governments to apply for funding through BRIC and/or other FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance programs.
Eligible Applicants
Cities, townships, counties, special districts and federally recognized tribal governments within the HUD or State-identified MID counties listed below or wholly within one or more of those counties are eligible to apply to RCP. Each applicant is eligible to apply for no more than one (1) distinct project. Exceptions to this will be made for multi-jurisdiction applications.
The counties are: Bergen, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Union, and Warren.
Examples of Eligible Activities
Examples of eligible activities may include but are not limited to:
- Property acquisition and demolition
- Property acquisition and relocation
- Structure elevation
- Construction or reconstruction of infrastructure
- Installation of public works, facilities
- Structural retrofitting
- Infrastructure retrofits
- Site or other improvements
- Dry floodproofing
Application Submission Requirements
- Project Description
- National Objective
- Disadvantaged Communities
- Budget
- Cost-effectiveness
- Public Notice and Community Outreach
- Partnerships
- Implementation and Timeline
Program Priorities and Scoring
- Mitigates the risk to public infrastructure, people, and property.
- Protects and benefits disadvantaged communities.
- Is a cost-effective solution to natural hazard risk(s).
- Promotes resiliency through ancillary or triple bottom line benefits (social, environmental, and economic benefits).
- Considers climate change and future conditions.
- Leverages federal, state, and local partnerships.
- Is designed and scoped with public input and meaningful stakeholder engagement.
- Can be feasibly implemented and completed by the applicant within budget and timeframe required by the program.
- Incorporates nature-based solutions.
- Project scope generated from previous qualifying resilience/ infrastructure planning awards.
- “Shovel Ready” (planning and engineering is advanced enough that, with sufficient funding, construction can begin within a short time)
Additional Information
- Projects must adhere to a three (3) year period of performance (upon execution of grant).
- RCP provides a maximum award up to $5 million.
- Applications that meet the minimum eligibility requirements will be reviewed by a panel as part of a technical scoring process.
More Information
Resilient Communities Notice of Funding Availability
Resilient Communities Overview Presentation
Resilient Communities Policy Manual English
Resilient Communities Policy Manual Spanish
Resilient Communities Program Factsheet English
Resilient Communities Program Factsheet Spanish
Contact Us
For additional information, email:
ResilientCommunities@dca.nj.gov