“Towards a Rust Belt Humanities Ecosystem” sought to create synergy amongst three regional institutions: 1) Ursuline College; 2) The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Humanities Institute at Cuyahoga Community College (a 2-year institution); and 3) the non-profit organization, “Teaching Cleveland” (focused primarily on high school students). We are united in our commitment to teaching local students who are emplaced and rooted in the NE Ohio region and preparing them through humanities lenses to be civic actors and change-makers in a city that is often neglected in our national sphere. Our project consisted of creating three discrete opportunities for our student populations to interact. These activities centered Rust Belt futures–specifically focusing on climate change and the power of humanities storytelling to create parables of resilience in the face of complex, twenty-first century problems.