Building Community Resilience Sudden shocks, such as storms, floods, or disease outbreaks, are devastating occurrences that get conversations about resilience started. Like illnesses, there are also chronic stresses−high unemployment, poor public health, old or overtaxed infrastructure, water shortages−that weaken communities over time. The impacts from shocks like floods are often compounded by the daily stresses on a community’s social, environmental, and economic systems. In particular, social stresses often coincide with a greater vulnerability to physical shocks: low-income households are more likely to be located in areas at greater risk, and are less likely to be able to recover quickly when a sudden shock occurs. This not only poses additional risks to individuals, it also weakens resilience at the community level. Building community resilience is about understanding risk−both chronic and acute−and investing in social, economic, and environmental systems that help the community thrive. While there are resilience building frameworks out there, every community is different, so no single approach will work for everyone. However, the foundations for building community resilience are: people, systems thinking, adaptability, transformability, sustainability, and leadership.
community resilience Community resilience is the capacity of individuals, institutions, businesses & systems to prevent, withstand, recover and maintain their identity no matter what kinds of sudden or chronic stressors they experience. -Baker United Strategic Recovery Plan, 2018
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Resilient & Healthy Baker
