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About Partners for Action
Partners for Action (P4A) was a research initiative within the University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Environment that worked for over a decade to empower Canadians to become flood resilient in evidence-based and inclusive ways.
With founding sponsorship from Co-operators and Farm Mutual Re, and over a decade of engagement and applied research, P4A has laid the groundwork for ongoing applied work and cross-sectoral learning on equity in risk mapping and disaster risk reduction, community-engaged communications, and climate adaptation.
When P4A was established in 2015, our initial work centred on developing a network of flood risk reduction experts and stakeholders, establishing an Advisory Committee, and on creating publicly-accessible preparedness resources and floodplain maps through its stewardship of FloodSmartCanada.ca.
Over its decade-long lifetime, the research initiative has expanded upon its strategic focus areas, working to foster partnerships across the country, bridge gaps through collaborative convenings and systems-thinking, and lead innovative research in emergent solution spaces. Although P4A officially would down operations in Fall 2025, the importance of flood and climate resiliency work is more pressing than ever. Some of the work will continue in different ways, and we are committed to ensuring that key pieces of work will remain publicly accessible.
Thank you to all the partners, collaborators, and changemakers who have engaged with us via applied research, partnership development, knowledge mobilization, and public outreach.
Learn more about P4A's impact and legacy
The importance of our work
Across Canada, damage from extreme weather has resulted in major costs to taxpayers and insurers and with projected changes in climate, these events are only going to get worse. The true cost of these disasters is measured by how resilient individuals and communities are. Multiple social deprivations can leave populations unable to recover from a major shock, like a flood event. As such, P4A’s research set out to build individual and community resilience to natural hazard events.
For more than ten years, P4A served as a thought leader in the Canadian flood resiliency space, engaging in applied research, multi-sectoral dialogue, and knowledge mobilization. Partnership has been central to P4A’s approach: strategic collaborations have allowed P4A to focus on changing the flood response landscape at both the ground level and with policy makers.
Applying a lens of climate justice, climate adaptation, and climate action to its work, Partners for Action has moved the conversation and multi-level action forward in three strategic focus areas:
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Partnering for adaptation
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Localizing community-engaged flood risk awareness and preparedness
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Developing equity-informed flood resilience planning and foresight
Reflecting on the past 10 years, P4A played an instrumental role in catalyzing innovative, collaborative research and convening stakeholders across Canada as a leader in whole-of-society flood resiliency. The work achieved through P4A—raising awareness, advancing equity-driven planning, and promoting actionable climate adaptation strategies—stands as a testament to the power of partnerships, applied research and stakeholder engagement that P4A has become known for.
With founding and continued support from The Co-operators and Farm Mutual Re, Partners for Action (P4A) began in 2015 with the mandate to reduce flood risk through research, engagement, and capacity building. From the start, P4A recognized that addressing the needs of those most at risk requires accurate and accessible information about hazards and adaptation. Over the past decade, P4A has led this charge by amplifying the voices of Canadians, identifying systemic barriers faced by marginalized groups, and developing tools to make vulnerability more visible in disaster risk reduction.
