Community resilience is the ability to plan for, prepare for, absorb, and recover from a disaster or crisis event such as a hurricane or even COVID 19. Communities with greater access to human, social, political, and economic capital are likely to be more resilient in the face of an emergency, and therefore, growing our resilience by investing in strengthening these systems is critical to our ability to bounce back better (aka bounce forward!) in the future.
Why is community resilience important?
In an increasingly complex and uncertain world, it is more important than ever before to focus on planning ahead and preparing for potential “gray skies” or emergency scenarios ahead. This is true regardless of whether these are the storms of climate change and sea-level rise or future unprecedented natural disasters such as hurricanes, rain bomb events or tsunamis. Human-caused and natural disasters are occurring more frequently and are more costly than ever before.
How are community resilience and disaster preparedness related?
Disaster preparedness training is now taught as part of community resilience strategies by city planners and FEMA alike. The key to weathering the hard times is careful preparation during non-emergency times as well as an integrated understanding of the role of all community systems in playing a part.
Basic emergency preparedness activities such as procuring disaster preparedness kits and emergency food and water resources are still critically important. However, a resilience framework also includes supporting activities such as taking an inventory of social connectedness and improving everyday wellness and community systems function.
Do you know where you will go when the next big emergency strikes your neighborhood?
Do you have enough food, water and energy to support your needs for up to two weeks? and beyond?
How will you connect with loved ones and support your neighbors? How will you coordinate recovery after the storm?
Is there a Resilience Plan for Oʻahu?
Yes! In 2016 Oʻahu was selected to participate in the 100 Resilient Cities Program connecting it to a global network of dedicated cities working to improve their resilience toward physical, social, and economic challenges of the 21st century. From there Oʻahu embarked on a journey of renewed resilience efforts through the creation of the Ola Oʻahu Resilience Strategy in 2019.
This process involved over 140 stakeholders from 19 different sectors including over 117 unique organizations. Over 2000 surveys were completed with 33 neighborhood board presentations and 100s of meetings with stakeholder groups across the island!
The island-wide strategy identified 4 main pillars (pictured left) to focus on for the future of the island including: 1. Remaining Rooted, 2. Bouncing Forward, 3. Climate Security and 4. Community Cohesion. Of these 4 pillars, the work we do with CERENE spans across all of them, though we place a special emphasis on Bouncing Forward in the planning for community resilience.
Is there a Resilience Plan for your neighborhood?
That is exactly what we hope to help you discover! and if there already is one, we hope to support sharing it with the people who need it most. If you are already part of neighborhood resilience efforts and want to connect with us, please write us at cerene15@hawaii.edu. You can read more here about our efforts to support the development of a network of Community Resilience Hubs across O’ahu.
Oʻahuʻs Resilience Context
As we continue to embark on this journey of resilience as a one-island ʻohana, it is important to reflect and remember that the context of resilience we are working in is based on a foundation of resilience already lived and experienced by the people of Hawaiʻi. The work of rebuilding our neighborhoods better than before will require honoring the culture and traditions that have sustained people here for thousands of years. Going forward is a continuous exploration of how to regenerate degraded lands and care for people who experienced disproportionate loss and challenges resulting from unsustainable systems of the past.
For this reason, CERENE is focusing efforts on understanding and supporting Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander perspectives on resilience. Native Hawaiian perspectives on wellbeing and resilience focus on relationships, interconnection, and balance.
We still have much to understand about how to apply this wisdom at the neighborhood scale across a range of cultural and social contexts, especially in the light of a natural disaster or pandemic such as COVID-19!
What can we learn about resilience from observing what has happened during the pandemic? These are some of the key questions we and many others are exploring right now.
In 2021, the ʻImi Pono Hawaiʻi Wellbeing Survey was published in partnership between Kamehameha Schools, Liliʻuokalani Trust, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and Papa Ola Lokahi and contracted with Marzano Research. You can find their work focusing specifically on community resilience in Hawaii HERE.
CERENE is committed to honoring Indigenous Knowledge Systems and is at the forefront of integrating Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Western science and community-based research to support a “weaving” or Two-eyed seeing approach to our resilience research. You can learn more about our unique community-based approach HERE.
Please write us with any questions at cerene15@hawaii.edu