Rural communities are increasingly facing challenges from climate-related natural hazards such as drought, wildfire, and flood. These cascading hazards threaten social, emotional, physical, and economic well-being, and pose unique challenges to rural areas which may already struggle to find enough resources. Yet, rural areas are rich in social capital, creativity, and resilience, and future leaders are learning how to build agency and increase their community’s resilience in school. The Hazard Education Awareness and Resilience Task Force (HEART Force) Program is being utilized in middle and high school classrooms across the state to empower students to take action to increase the resilience of their local community, by building a scientific understanding of the risks of local natural hazards, using scenario-based role-play games to gain a systems-level understanding of the risks, and guiding students towards environmental civic action. We will share lessons learned from our work key strategies for trauma-informed approaches to hazard resilience that draw upon cultural knowledge held within these communities rich with social capital. We will also share our research findings that indicate that place-based curriculum and meaningful engagement with local resilience experts and leaders have increased students’ sense of agency and personal interest in resilience.