The goal of Future Coast is to promote consideration and discussion among community residents of local impacts from coastal flooding and sea-level rise, and potential long-term policy responses. We hope you will consider hosting your own discussion of these issues using the tools from this website. Examples of possible venues include: high school and college classes, homeowner associations, church groups, and business organizations.

Use our Host Guide to help guide you in running your own discussion, as well as our other resources in taking your group through these three steps:

1) Find out what people think.
Take the sea-level rise quiz and test your knowledge, or survey your group before and after you discuss coastal flooding and sea-level rise. Do their opinions change? We can provide you with a version of the online survey just for your own group. You will be able to see results instantaneously. To have links to a group
online survey emailed to you, contact Karen at [email protected].
(If you don't need group results, you can take the survey here.)
Photo courtesy Cecily Cutshall
2) Get informed about the issue.
Use the Issue Book and Participant Guide, as well as local and state reports, to find out more about coastal flooding and sea-level rise. View the videos of experts on science and policy. Look at the online maps depicting different sea-level rise scenarios, and their effects on individual properties, neighborhoods, and the county.

3) Start a conversation.
Use the Host Guide for ideas of what to ask, and how to ask it, so that everyone in your group feels comfortable in participating. A "roadmap" for discussions about sea-level rise and coastal flooding is designed for short sessions with small groups. Follow up your conversations with a post-survey and see whether people have changed their minds (we'll send you an online link). Join the Future Coast Facebook site and follow us on Twitter to keep in touch with others in the community who are interested in this subject.

4) Tell us how it goes! We would like to hear from you what worked -- and what didn't -- when you have hosted your own discussions on coastal flooding and sea-level rise, even informal ones. You can email us at [email protected], or leave your comments on our online Google Group. Your feedback helps us in evaluating this model of public engagement and the project's online tools.