Ten years ago, The Kresge Foundation partnered with Island Press to answer a critical question: How do we make communities more resilient to climate change and other major disruptions?

The result was the 2015 publication, “Bounce Forward: Urban Resilience in the Era of Climate Change,” which defined resilience as our capacity to anticipate threats, plan for change, and seize opportunities for community benefit. But the framework asked deeper questions: resilient for whom, against what threats, and to whose advantage?

In 2024, Kresge commissioned an updated report to assess our nation’s progress and chart the path forward, especially given today’s political landscape. Through interviews with 30 resilience practitioners—including voices from the original report—Island Press discovered both challenges and hope.

They found that the 2015 framework remains a vital roadmap. And though there has been meaningful progress in climate resilience, equity, energy, health, and urban development, setbacks remind us how much work remains. Most encouraging? Even in uncertain times, there are “welcome glimmers of hope” and promising pathways to stronger, more equitable communities.