South Bend

Building resilience in St. Joseph County

From preparing for extreme storms to training the next generation of sustainability leaders, the IU Environmental Resilience Institute has been collaborating with organizations across South Bend and St. Joseph County since day one, connecting community stakeholders to essential capacity, resources, and knowledge.

Together, we are working to accelerate the adoption of climate solutions that bolster community resilience and contribute to a more sustainable, equitable, and prosperous future.

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The climate risk and vulnerability assessment wouldn’t have been possible without ERI and our climate fellow. The technical support and extra capacity provided by the institute is invaluable.

Alex Bazán, Director, City of South Bend Office of Sustainability

Research spotlights

As part of the most comprehensive statewide survey on environmental attitudes every conducted, ERI-affiliated researchers captured a snapshot of what St. Joseph County residents are doing and what policies they support to address climate change.

View the survey

To better understand the ecological, social, and economic consequences of shifting winter precipitation patterns, ERI-affiliated researchers are creating a hydrological model to simulate rain-on-snow impacts.

Learn more

Through paid professional development workshops, ERI and IU partners are connecting K-12 teachers to age-appropriate curriculum on climate and environmental science.

Read about Educating for Environmental Change

ERI-affiliated researchers are leading a collaboration between social scientists and biologists to study farmer decision making and the presence of soil microbes that help plants tolerate drought.

Learn more about the study

Forecasting future climate

The Hoosier Resilience Index is giving St. Joseph County residents a preview of how many extreme heat and precipitation events to expect in the years to come. Click here to view the projections.

From IU student to South Bend sustainability leader

As a 2022 McKinney Climate Fellow, Barbara Dale helped South Bend obtain funding to increase community engagement related to its climate action plan.

Upon graduation a year later, Dale joined South Bend’s Office of Sustainability full time, managing the Climate Action Ambassadors program her grant funded and working to elevate sustainability in the community.

"Being a McKinney Climate Fellow is a three- to-six-month position. You're on a short time frame, which is a difficult thing when you're working in climate change," Dale said. "It's nice now that I'm working and living here, and I can really get to know the community on a personal level and over a longer time frame."

Read a Q&A with Barbara Dale