Community Resilience

Introduction

Resilience is a pillar of disaster planning, response and recovery. While definitions, perceptions and implementation of it as a concept, and its practical role vary based on context, it remains a common theme and a critical component of emergency management and disaster response. In depth research has identified a multitude of definitions of resilience each with unique attributes. Common characteristics have emerged, that have led to resilience being divided into two overarching categories, namely that of being versus becoming. Additionally, the identification of field and background provide critical, situational awareness and context which result in a better understanding of each definition.

Definition Components

How a definition

However, practical application and implementation of this concept has its challenges. Uscher-Pines, Chandra and Acosta authored Commentary - The Promise and Pitfalls of Resilience that reiterates the common theme that resilience has the power to dramatically change disaster management in positive ways, but challenges of community engagement, transitioning thoughts of personal preparedness to community resilience, and widespread implementation exist (Uscher-Pines, Cahandra, & Acosta, 2013). Resilience is found to promote action through everyday use and invokes less stress than preparedness. As Uscher-Pines, Chandra, and Acosta identified “…resilience strategies focus less on acquiring supplies than leveraging existing assets such as the vast social networks of minority communities (Uscher-Pines, Cahandra, & Acosta, 2013).” This serves to take the focus away from traditional preparedness goals of stockpiling supplies including food, water and medication, which may not be an option for many, and shifts the focus to building stronger social and community networks. This offers critical insight to individual preparedness as research shows that the stronger the social network and built environment is around a person, the better they will respond to and recover from a stressful event, such as a hurricane. According to Abramson et. al. once a significant disturbance that causes disruption or destruction of a system such as: an individual, family, neighborhood, or community, the system’s capability for resilience is then revealed by “… how well t is able to withstand, adapt, or recover quickly from the potential traumatic events (Abramson, et al., 2015).” The more enabled systems are prior to the significant disturbance, the more likely all system levels will be to recover faster and more