Community Resilience & Disaster Preparedness Projects
These resources add insight on what others are doing to advance resilience in communities.
Association of Bay Area Governments – Resilience Program assists Bay Area local governments and residents in planning for earthquakes, the effects of climate change, and other hazards.
City of Boston – Resilience and Racial Equity leads efforts to help Boston plan for and deal with catastrophes and slow-moving disasters — like persistent racial and economic inequality.
The goal of the Community and Regional Resilience Institute (CARRI) is to strengthen any community or region’s ability to prepare for, respond to, and rapidly recover from significant human caused or natural disaster with minimal downtime for the community.
Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience Project — A 5-year collaboration led by the Los Angeles County Department of Public health to improve resilience at the community level.
Neighborhood Empowerment Network San Francisco — An alliance of residents, neighborhood associations, faith–based organizations, and others with a mission to empower the neighborhoods of San Francisco with the capacity to steward themselves to a resilient condition.
The Resilient America Roundtable and its programs aim to help communities and the nation build resilience to extreme events, save lives, and reduce the physical and economic costs of disasters.
University of Minnesota Center for Urban and Regional Affairs – Resilient Communities Project — A program to connect University resources with communities, regional entities, and organizations interested in sustainability in the metropolitan areas in Minnesota.
University of Oregon – Oregon Partnership for Disaster Resilience — An applied research program of the University of Oregon with a mission of creating a disaster resilient state.
US Department of Homeland Security – Community Health Resilience Initiative — “provides practitioners and experts from all sectors, disciplines, and functional areas who have roles, responsibilities, or interests in CHR access to guidance and resources to make their community (or organization) more resilient.
Resilient LA— A project of the U.S. Green Building Council, Los Angeles Chapter, is creating a system for property owners and organizations ready to incorporate resilience into management, operations and maintenance.
Washington State Emergency Management Division – Resilient Washington — Convened to help the state better prepare for natural disasters, including earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires, drought, storms and flooding.
Datasets & Mapping Tools
These resources connect you with data and tools to describe populations and public services at the state, county, city and neighborhood level.
For California health data and health data mapping tools, UCLA Center for Health Policy Research AskCHIS© and AskCHIS© Neighborhood Edition.
NIH Disaster Research Response (DR2) Data Collection Tools and Resources — A database compiled by the NIH to inform research projects related to disasters and public health emergencies that may need to be quickly organized and approved.
United Census Bureau, American Fact Finder — Find popular facts (population, income, etc.) and frequently requested data about your community.
City-Data creates profiles for every city in the United States down to the neighborhood level.
Vulnerable & At-Risk Populations Resource Guide assists state and local public health agencies, emergency management, hospitals, and other agencies with improved, local mapping options.
HHS Empower is an interactive tool to highlight at-risk individuals using electricity dependent life-maintaining and assistive durable medical equipment in an area down to the zip code level.
Healthy City is an online platform for accessing data, creating maps, and working collaboratively.
HealthData.gov “makes health data accessible to entrepreneurs, researchers, and policy makers in the hopes of better health outcomes for all.”
Guides & Education
These resources offer approaches and methods used in the field of community resilience.
The Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit (CART) — A community intervention designed to enhance community resilience through assessment, group processes, planning, and action.
The CDC Community Health Assessment and Group Evaluation (CHANGE) Tool helps community teams (such as coalitions) develop their community action plan.
Community Partners in Care makes available a comprehensive and useful guide to assist project facilitators: Facilitator’s/Co-Leader’s Guide to Running Work Plan Development authored by their Community Engagement Intervention Workgroup.
Federal Emergency Management Agency – Community Resilience Indicators — A draft concept with potential indicators and measures of community resilience that may be considered by a variety of users when evaluating how to improve communities’ ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters.
Global Facility for Disaster Resilience and Recovery (GFDRR) provides analytical work, technical assistance, and capacity building to help vulnerable nations improve resilience and reduce risk.
Harvard University Center on the Developing Child – Tipping the Scales: The Resilience Game — An interactive program to help children and the community as a whole become more resilient in the face of serious challenges.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies describes its framework for community resilience.
Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience Project offers a Resilience Builder toolkit that builds upon existing community resources to strengthen resilience.
NIST Community Resilience Planning Guide provides an approach to help communities improve their resilience by setting priorities and allocating resources to manage risks for their prevailing hazards.
Notably relevant: Guide Book 1 – Characterize the Population and Guide Book 2 – Identify Social Institutions
PARTNER Tool is a is a social network analysis tool designed to measure and monitor collaboration among people/organizations.
RAND offers a variety of tools and resources related to community resilience and disaster recovery, including toolkits and online training.
The UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters promotes efforts to improve community resilience and to reduce the health impacts of disasters and global climate change.
The University of Oregon – Oregon Partnership for Disaster Resilience is an applied research program working toward the mission of creating a disaster resilient state.
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs offers a toolkit: Disaster Preparedness to Promote Community Resilience: Information and Tools for Homeless Service Providers and Disaster Professionals.
US Department of Health and Human Services – Community Resilience summarizes the importance of community resilience and strategies to build resilient in communities.
US Department of Health and Human Services – Preparedness and Response — A comprehensive website offering guidance, technical assistance, and tools related to disaster community resilience and disaster preparedness and emergency response.