Building resilience in Boulder

When a flash flood struck Helen Zhang’s neighborhood in Boulder, Colo., she had no idea what to do. “I was in my garden-level basement, and water started gushing in through the windows. So, I ran around desperately trying to get buckets, anything I could,” she said. “When a real crisis happened, I felt really lost.” Now Zhang is better prepared, and she’s helping her whole neighborhood be more prepared, too. As a volunteer leader in her community, she has connected neighbors with each other and, in doing so, has helped create a shared sense of resiliency by showing those neighbors how they can help one another when the next disaster hits. This work was made possible through Cities of Service (in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the AmeriCorps VISTA program).