In this session, Dr. Merrie Koester, director of the Kids Teaching Flood Resilience (KTFR), of the University of SC Center for Science Education, will share the results of five years of case studies aimed at pre-disaster mitigation through youth and family-based flood and hurricane resilience education. Centering a community empowerment strategy that aligns with the needs, systems, and values of a community, (beginning with its youth) the model seeks to tap into the inherent resilience and build the collective efficacy of low income, flood prone communities, so often deemed “vulnerable” or “powerless” in traditional, deficit-based models of social vulnerability. Poor, ethnic minority communities are those most adversely affected by environmental issues like sea level rise and climate change. They are also the most likely populations to lack access to traditional means of information disbursement. EDUCATIONAL VULNERABILITY –the lack of access to or awareness of knowledge and resources that might reduce one’s risk of harm from a hazard—can be directly mitigated through the design, development, and implementation of culturally responsive, socially empowering, community-specific hazard risk literacy and messaging programs. The Charleston Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan specifically includes Educational Vulnerability as an area of concern. KTFR is a nationally recognized NOAA Weather Ready Nation Ambassador program, co-created in community with the Charleston, SC, City and County emergency management directors, Charleston County Project Impact, the SC Association of Hazard Mitigation, professional storm water engineers and flood plain managers, multiple cultural leaders, school officials, community STEM experts, and higher education researchers.