SPI Insights

Houston Community College (HCC) unveiled its plans on April 26 for a $30 million resiliency center that will feature facilities to simulate high and swift water rescues and High-Line and petrochemical incident response.

The 65,000-square-foot center will be built on HHC’s Northeast Campus where 3,000 to 4,000 local, regional, and national first responders a year will safely train in controlled but authentic field and virtual simulations.

Challenging conditions will be replicated in a swift water rescue channel, deep dive area, and “rocky gorge” of boulders above and below the water surface. The center also will contain a residential housing building, commercial office building, a two-story apartment building, a helicopter rescue simulator, and rope rescue course.

HCC’s first-in-the nation “Resiliency Center of Excellence” is designed to connect residents, employers, civic-community organizations, neighborhoods, and small businesses with fast-tracked education and certification.

Center instruction will facilitate skill mastery in programs such as public safety and rescue, disaster case management, enhanced facility and infrastructure construction, medical triage, data science-Internet of Things-drones, debris removal-reuse, and customized employer content to address persistent challenges from weather-, health-, and man-made disasters.

Interdisciplinary, cross-functional team building, communications, project management, regulatory compliance, and scenario-simulation training are underpinnings of HCC’s inaugural resilience curricula.

In addition, the college will offer its baseline program of Resilience 101 for businesses, employers, and community organizations, as well as Community Emergency Response Team Training for individuals, families, and neighborhoods.