What does Community Led Disaster Planning look like?

Michelle Dunscombe
Michelle Dunscombe
@michelle-dunscombe
5 years ago
30 posts

There is a small group of us across the globe exploring how ABCD can support Community Led Disaster Planning and we'd love to here your stories.

There are some great initiatives so let's connect up and share our learnings and see where it leads us.

Cheers

Michelle

Ian Cunningham
Ian Cunningham
@ian-cunningham
5 years ago
11 posts

Thanks for starting this thread Michelle. I'm not personally involved but also interested to hear what's happening in this space. I really enjoyed this journal article re: some work by FEMA in the USA. The file is attached and abstract is below.

Whole Community Resilience - An Asset-Based Approach to Enhancing Adaptive Capacity Before a Disruption

Robert C. Freitag, Daniel B. Abramson, Manish Chalana, and Maximilian Dixon 2015

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Conventional hazard mitigation and pre-disaster recovery planning processes typically begin with hazard scenarios that illustrate probable events and analyze their impacts on the built environment. The processes conclude with responses to the hypothetical disruption that focus on “hardening” buildings or structures or removing them from threatened areas. These approaches understate the importance of natural and social sources of adaptive capacity. Three “proof-ofprinciple” exercises designed to strengthen the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)’s Risk MAP (Risk Mapping, Assessment, and Planning) process in Washington State suggest how better to conduct hazard mitigation and recovery planning. Each begins with workshops where stakeholders identify built, natural, and social assets that contribute to human wellbeing (HWB) before introducing earthquake scenarios that affect HWB. Participants then identify assets that could facilitate adaptation to changed circumstances (a “new normal”). Participants discuss how these assets would achieve the goals of comprehensive community planning as well as hazard mitigation and recovery from disaster. Neighborhood- scale social organization emerges as an actually occurs can enlarge the menu of mitigation strategies. Planning for adaptation can also help communities achieve many non-risk-related objectives.

Michelle Johnston
Michelle Johnston
@michelle-johnston
5 years ago
1 posts

Hi, Im Michelle Johnston, a 3rd year Community Development Degree student. My passion is Emergency Management. I’m a Volunteer Firefighter and also care for my elderly ex mother in law (50 hours per week). I co-manage a fb page that promotes interoperability and collaboration between the emergency management services worldwide.

 Im currently working on transforming information from the fb page into a knowledge library.

The biggest challenge I face is complacency mitigating fire risk.

Others could help with Ideas, knowledge and thoughts.

Jana Carp
Jana Carp
@jana-carp
5 years ago
6 posts

I'm part of the small group that Michelle is referring to -- I worked for two years as a community engagement consultant in northern California for the Fire Learning Networks and introduced ABCD to that organization (a partnership between The Nature Conservancy, the US Forest Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and other federal agencies). 

Ian:  Thanks for posting that JAPA article. City and regional planners (the journal's audience) can be very helpful partners.  Those who focus on neighborhood and district planning often have the fine-grained sense of the community and a comprehensive appreciation for social (economic and cultural) diversity that supports wide participation.

Michelle:  Where are you located?  I would love to know more about your experience of complacency.  Perhaps we could compare that to my experiences in rural areas where agency representatives thought people were complacent about fire.  It was the opposite, but there was no way for them to know that without personal, out-of-the-box interaction.  (E.g., "the community" not showing up for presentations or meetings was not an accurate indication of their interest in mitigation.)

Thanks for your thoughts - I'd like to hear more and to contribute to imagining what "community-led disaster preparation looks like".

Jana Carp
Jana Carp
@jana-carp
5 years ago
6 posts

Also check out this graphic image of the components of a Fire Adapted Communities (from the Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network).  It doesn't specifically refer to process (e.g., ABCD) but is meant to be used to support all kinds of conversations.

Here's a link to the blog post: https://fireadaptednetwork.org/resource/fire-adapted-communities-graphic-and-facilitators-guide/

Michelle Dunscombe
Michelle Dunscombe
@michelle-dunscombe
5 years ago
30 posts

[quote="Ian Cunningham"]

Thanks for starting this thread Michelle. I'm not personally involved but also interested to hear what's happening in this space. I really enjoyed this journal article re: some work by FEMA in the USA. The file is attached and abstract is below.

Whole Community Resilience - An Asset-Based Approach to Enhancing Adaptive Capacity Before a Disruption

Robert C. Freitag, Daniel B. Abramson, Manish Chalana, and Maximilian Dixon 2015

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Conventional hazard mitigation and pre-disaster recovery planning processes typically begin with hazard scenarios that illustrate probable events and analyze their impacts on the built environment. The processes conclude with responses to the hypothetical disruption that focus on “hardening” buildings or structures or removing them from threatened areas. These approaches understate the importance of natural and social sources of adaptive capacity. Three “proof-ofprinciple” exercises designed to strengthen the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)’s Risk MAP (Risk Mapping, Assessment, and Planning) process in Washington State suggest how better to conduct hazard mitigation and recovery planning. Each begins with workshops where stakeholders identify built, natural, and social assets that contribute to human wellbeing (HWB) before introducing earthquake scenarios that affect HWB. Participants then identify assets that could facilitate adaptation to changed circumstances (a “new normal”). Participants discuss how these assets would achieve the goals of comprehensive community planning as well as hazard mitigation and recovery from disaster. Neighborhood- scale social organization emerges as an actually occurs can enlarge the menu of mitigation strategies. Planning for adaptation can also help communities achieve many non-risk-related objectives.

[/quote]

Thanks for sharing this article Ian - I really appreciate your contribution to the conversation

Michelle Dunscombe
Michelle Dunscombe
@michelle-dunscombe
5 years ago
30 posts

[quote="Michelle Johnston"]

Hi, Im Michelle Johnston, a 3rd year Community Development Degree student. My passion is Emergency Management. I’m a Volunteer Firefighter and also care for my elderly ex mother in law (50 hours per week). I co-manage a fb page that promotes interoperability and collaboration between the emergency management services worldwide.

 Im currently working on transforming information from the fb page into a knowledge library.

The biggest challenge I face is complacency mitigating fire risk.

Others could help with Ideas, knowledge and thoughts.

[/quote]

Hi Michelle

Great to see you here. I'd love for you to join our developing Community of Practice as I think by thinking differently about working with communities can reduce the level of complacency. I'm happy to catch up over a cuppa for a conversation at any time.

Cheers

Michelle

Michelle Dunscombe
Michelle Dunscombe
@michelle-dunscombe
5 years ago
30 posts

[quote="Jana Carp"]

I'm part of the small group that Michelle is referring to -- I worked for two years as a community engagement consultant in northern California for the Fire Learning Networks and introduced ABCD to that organization (a partnership between The Nature Conservancy, the US Forest Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and other federal agencies). 

Ian:  Thanks for posting that JAPA article. City and regional planners (the journal's audience) can be very helpful partners.  Those who focus on neighborhood and district planning often have the fine-grained sense of the community and a comprehensive appreciation for social (economic and cultural) diversity that supports wide participation.

Michelle:  Where are you located?  I would love to know more about your experience of complacency.  Perhaps we could compare that to my experiences in rural areas where agency representatives thought people were complacent about fire.  It was the opposite, but there was no way for them to know that without personal, out-of-the-box interaction.  (E.g., "the community" not showing up for presentations or meetings was not an accurate indication of their interest in mitigation.)

Thanks for your thoughts - I'd like to hear more and to contribute to imagining what "community-led disaster preparation looks like".

[/quote]

Hi Jana,

Thanks for your contribution. I agree with your out-of-the-box interaction. Michelle Johnston lives about 45 minutes from me so plenty of opportunity to have a conversation.

Cheers

Michelle

Michelle Dunscombe
Michelle Dunscombe
@michelle-dunscombe
5 years ago
30 posts

Hi Everyone,

Here is a great Resilience Strategy that was shared with me recently when I was in the UK. 

What else would you add for your community? What ABCD Tools would you include?

Let's keep the conversation going.

Cheers

Michelle

Magdalena Valderrama Hurwitz
Magdalena Valderrama Hurwitz
@magdalena-valderrama-hurwitz
5 years ago
29 posts

Hi, I'm Magdalena Valderrama, also part of the small group with @michelle-dunscombe and @jana-carp. I started out in disaster relief and recovery as a 16-yr-old teen participating in distribution of relief goods while riding in an amphibious vehicle, and have participated in disaster planning work at various stages of my life. This will date me, but it's still in print and may be useful for somebody: http://docplayer.net/3132389-The-state-and-territorial-guide-to-substance-abuse-prevention-in-declared-disasters.html

My husband and I lost our home in the 2015 Valley Fire three months after he retired, which catapulted us into using experience from our previous careers and experiences to step in as community organizers via a new nonprofit focusing on cooperative regeneration. We talk about ABCD from time to time, and focus on everyone's sense of what they have and want to do instead of on what's missing, but have never taken any of these groups through an explicit ABCD exercise.  

Nearly all of the time with my partner is spent in either managing a cooperative rebuilding project that we hope to share in occupancy ourselves in another year or two. I've done a lot with other organizations and residents to try and address disaster planning from the environment side, and continue to take a pulse on the social services side from time to time. @Ian-Cunningham, I'm familiar with the FEMA concept of whole community resilience, though I have to say their actual work here back then made some things worse. (I hope I can move on to my next life and never have to find out that they do things better than before. Happy)  

I love my colleagues in all our projects, and we have had some really great successes each year as the community at the epicenter of the fire. Still, we are extremely aware of the challenges ahead because (1) the county has been hit with a major disaster each of the past 4 years, making it very difficult for the institutions and residents to get a leg up on disaster planning per se, and (2) we must still find ways to reach everyone we need to in this rural area, including generations-old families, new residents, and especially seasonal residents. One such group is an 84-member property owners association (basically a social club). Their interest seems keen, but the summer vacation mind in all-elderly people whose second homes these are and whose grandkids are visiting is very hard to get through to even with grant money to sweeten the idea further. 

 

Angie K
Angie K
@angie-k
5 years ago
8 posts

Hi Everyone.

I have been actively involved in our county COAD for seven years.  That stands for Community Organizations Active in Disaster and we work with our local Emergency Management Agency (EMA).  We are linked to our state INVOAD (Indiana Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster) which is linked to NVOAD (National Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster) which is linked to Homeland Security.  This is a structure already in place that is well organized and very much utilizes ABCD in our community.  Not all counties have a COAD, but working with your local EMA to start one is a great way to work in the ABCD model and not reinvent a wheel that is already rolling.  There are resources to help you do that.  

We just had a 4-county hazmat exercise that was a "dress rehearsal" of sorts for what we would all be doing in the event of an actual emergency.  This allowed us to work out bugs and roll out a new plan a few of us developed to fill the gap between the time a disaster happened and the time the Red Cross and other First Responders could get there.  Most don't realize that gap can be as long as 2 hours or more.  Our EMA director calls that YOYO time...You're On Your Own!  In the 4 counties in the exercise, we were the only county that has a COAD and it made a HUGE difference.  Out local head line front page above the fold was "Noble County COAD Shines at Disaster Training."  

If you want more information, I am happy to direct you.  This is truly the community taking care of one another and being prepared to act instead of REact.

Philip I Booth
Philip I Booth
@philip-i-booth
5 years ago
1 posts

Just started thinking about this topic so delighted to see this forum. I'm part of the Inclusive Community Building team at Barnwood Trust in Gloucestershire: https://www.barnwoodtrust.org/what-we-do/growing-communities/inclusive-community-building/

Michelle Dunscombe
Michelle Dunscombe
@michelle-dunscombe
5 years ago
30 posts

[quote="Angie K"]

Hi Everyone.

I have been actively involved in our county COAD for seven years.  That stands for Community Organizations Active in Disaster and we work with our local Emergency Management Agency (EMA).  We are linked to our state INVOAD (Indiana Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster) which is linked to NVOAD (National Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster) which is linked to Homeland Security.  This is a structure already in place that is well organized and very much utilizes ABCD in our community.  Not all counties have a COAD, but working with your local EMA to start one is a great way to work in the ABCD model and not reinvent a wheel that is already rolling.  There are resources to help you do that.  

We just had a 4-county hazmat exercise that was a "dress rehearsal" of sorts for what we would all be doing in the event of an actual emergency.  This allowed us to work out bugs and roll out a new plan a few of us developed to fill the gap between the time a disaster happened and the time the Red Cross and other First Responders could get there.  Most don't realize that gap can be as long as 2 hours or more.  Our EMA director calls that YOYO time...You're On Your Own!  In the 4 counties in the exercise, we were the only county that has a COAD and it made a HUGE difference.  Out local head line front page above the fold was "Noble County COAD Shines at Disaster Training."  

If you want more information, I am happy to direct you.  This is truly the community taking care of one another and being prepared to act instead of REact.

[/quote]

Hi Angie,

Great to see you join the conversation. Thank you for sharing your experience.Can you tell us more about COAD? Are all COAD's community-led? I love the YOYO time description in Australia this time can be a lot longer that 2 hours sometimes as long as 2 or 3 days. Please feel free to share more information, stories, articles, videos etc that we can all learn from.

Cheers

Michelle

Michelle Dunscombe
Michelle Dunscombe
@michelle-dunscombe
5 years ago
30 posts

Hi Everyone,

I am organising a pre-Christmas Zoom (like Skype) catch up to share stories, collate tools and work towards clarifying Elements in an ABCD framework for emergency planning and community-led resilience. 

Several of us have been having conversations throughout the year and want to extend the invitation for others to join us. If you are interested in joining us let me know. Details will be emailed.

Cheers

Michelle

Magdalena Valderrama Hurwitz
Magdalena Valderrama Hurwitz
@magdalena-valderrama-hurwitz
4 years ago
29 posts

Michelle, in the US, all COADS include community groups and nonprofit organizations, and some will include county authorities, too. Our county used to have one, but it is work to keep it going and the COAD faded. Now, three years after a major wildfire, there's a group trying to get a COAD going again. There are many relationship challenges in play, one of which as ABCDers will recognize is the fact that the effort is being led by very well-meaning institutional representatives. The impulse is right but none of the reps have even been particularly trained in the principles of convening a gathering. That's important because otherwise conveners go through the motions of providing "ice breakers" and what were meant to be letters of encouragement, and end up offending many of the very people they thought they would impress.

The key thing about a COAD is to be able to keep the relationships among the groups and individuals up to date so that in the event of an actual emergency the scrambling over one another that tends to happen can be very quickly smoothed. Many here remain hopeful for this renewed effort as it's still very early days in the organizing. 

There is one institutionally supported effort many of us are hoping will lead somewhere. Called a CERT (community emergency response team), I got this training in another city and thought I would get a refresher when I moved to Lake County. It turns out not to be an easy thing, as initially the sheriff's department advised me I would be better off waiting for another training in the city I started in because no one had the money or insurance to host one here. After several more disasters in the area and around the state, the State Governor's office called for greater volunteer activity and provided grants for, among other things, CERT training. The first trainings have begun. The training has been updated to now also include mental health first aid and awareness of new mass casualty events (terrorist attacks, school shootings - we don't get called in for those, but we needed to know).  We were informed that it would take two years to get a full cadre and partnering system with first responders in place, and then all would depend on how strongly everyone held together and kept in practice through quiet times. These are cultural shifts I'm hoping we can keep reaching towards. 

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