Community+resilience+to+crises

[] ** What is community resilience? ** Community Resilience is a complex topic so there's not just one definition. When defining community resilience we prefer to use the definition provided by the Australian Government's Social Inclusion Board: >  Community resilience means the capacity of communities to respond positively to crises. It is the ability of a community to adapt to pressures and transform itself in a way which makes it more sustainable in the future. Rather than simply 'survive' the stressor or change, a resilient community might respond in creative ways that fundamentally transform the basis of the community.

** Why do we need community resilience? ** The severity of a disaster is determined by both the scale of the disaster and the level of community preparedness. Australia is vulnerable to a variety of shocks and natural disasters. Community resilience is critical in minimising the effect of these disasters and contributes to a quicker, more effective response. ** How do we build community resilience? ** There is no hard and fast rule how to build community resilience however it is best strengthened continuously, not just in times of crisis. It involves people getting together to create sustainable links within their community. ** How do I know if my community is resilient? ** The level of interconnectedness between members of a community is a key component and indicator of the level of community resilience. For example, do you know your neighbours? Are you actively involved in your local community? Do you know what to do before, during and after a natural disaster?

[]  **Communities of knowledge** is about recognising the important role knowledge and information have to play in natural disaster preparation and response. The conversation participants highlighted the importance of education and identified several areas where knowledge is important:  **Active communities** highlighed the importance of local leadership and local decision-making. Key suggestions included:  **Community networks** is about people connecting with their local, geographic community. Across all the conversations, some of the most common suggestions included:
 * Educate the community
 * Community education
 * Simulation exercises or drills – know what to do in an emergency
 * Knowing what to expect, where to go
 * Create an emergency folder in your house with key documents/contacts, details
 * Awareness of what volunteer opportunities are out there
 * Community mapping
 * Educational materials about process and expectations
 * Resource-mapping
 * Skills audits
 * Local leadership
 * Empowerment – being proactive, mitigation strategies
 * Involve people in decision making process
 * Local people making decisions about infrastructure/land use
 * Networking amongst local community groups
 * Build strong social networks
 * Use local people who have the skills and expertise
 * Build volunteering base
 * Develop spirit of self-help

[]

2.2 RESILIENCE AND THE RESILIENT COMMUNITY Many attempts have been made to define ‘resilience’, in both DRR and CCA contexts. The variety of academic definitions and concepts can be confusing. For operational purposes it is more useful to work with broad definitions and commonly understood characteristics. Using this approach, system or community resilience can be understood as the capacity to: • anticipate, minimize and absorb potential stresses or destructive forces through adaptation or resistance • manage or maintain certain basic functions and structures during disastrous events • recover or ‘bounce back’ after an event ‘Resilience’ is generally seen as a broader concept than ‘capacity’ because it goes beyond the specific behaviour, strategies and measures for risk reduction and management that are normally understood as capacities. However, it is difficult to separate the concepts clearly. In everyday usage, ‘capacity’ and ‘coping capacity’ often mean the same as ‘resilience’. A focus on resilience means putting greater emphasis on what communities can do for themselves and how to strengthen their capacities, rather than concentrating on their vulnerability to disaster or environmental shocks and stresses, or their needs in an emergency.

[] Throughout the document, resilience is defined as: The capacity of an individual, community or system to adapt in order to sustain an acceptable level of function, structure, and identity.

and a working definition of Community Resilience is given as: “Communities and individuals harnessing local resources and expertise to help themselves in an emergency, in a way that complements the response of the emergency services.”

[] // National Strategy for Public Health and Medical Preparedness // ||
 * Where local civic leaders, citizens, and families are educated regarding threats and are empowered to mitigate their own risk, where they are practiced in responding to events, where they have social networks to fall back upon, and where they have familiarity with local public health and medical systems, there will be community resilience that will significantly attenuate the requirement for additional assistance. ||  ||
 * || // —Homeland Security Presidential Directive 21 (HSPD-21): //