This paper aims to present an approach that was developed as part of the Community-University Alliance Research (CURA) entitled “Coastal Communities Challenges of the Estuary and the Gulf of St. Lawrence under a Changing Climate” (CURA-CCC). We describe the process of capacity building we used in several coastal communities in Eastern Canada to enhance their resilience. We use the examples of the municipalities of Maria and Bonaventure in Quebec to illustrate this approach, which is based on participatory action research. The co-construction of adaptation strategies that emerged from this work is based on an exploratory model examining the hazards and their effects on these communities, considering the uncertainty of knowledge and capacities of the actors to act. These coastal habitats are subject to climate change hazards including storm surges causing coastal erosion, floods and river overflows. It is important for these communities to develop a better understanding of these issues when developing long-term collective solutions that can go beyond their local territories. In fact, we believe that such an approach could potentially be used in several other coastal rural areas of eastern Canada.