Coastal climate adaptation requires moving beyond abstract environmental narratives toward place-based, community-led dialogue. Largs, a coastal town in Scotland, faces a subtle yet critical challenge: while severe storms and regular flooding have impacted residents for years, these events have become normalised. Rather than recognising escalating risks, the local community often perceived severe weather as an unavoidable routine, making constructive dialogue challenging.

In response, Flooded with Individual Resilience was developed as a place-based storytelling toolkit designed to foster meaningful local dialogue. Built on narratives, the tool leverages personal stories of everyday resilience during severe weather events to ground conversations in lived experience rather than abstract concepts.

On the back of the storytelling cards, the tool integrates core community values identified and recognised by the residents themselves. Paired with structured reflection prompts, these cards allow participants to discuss environmental shifts, shared vulnerabilities, and local priorities openly, using a shared language rooted in everyday life rather than abstract labels. By replacing defensive or political debates with value-driven reflection, the toolkit enables coastal residents and local facilitators to process shared experiences, strengthen community cohesion, and build a foundation for collective action in response to escalating weather impacts.