Warren Edwards

A Resilient Building Certification Program

December 22nd, 2009 - Warren Edwards  

From the very beginning the Community and Regional Resilience Institute has been progressing toward a way for communities to be certified as resilient. That is one of the most significant reasons to establish a sound intellectual construct in the “Common Framework for Community Resilience” that will lay the foundations for an eventual certification program. Because of this, we are always interested in programs that will look at aspects of community resilience certification.

At a recent meeting in Atlanta, an expert panel consisting of representatives from government, academia, insurance, non-profit organizations, and designers, came together to address aspects of what a resilient building certification program should entail. The meeting was hosted by the Resilient Home Program, a partnership between Clemson University, North Carolina State University (NC State), Savannah River National Laboratory and the US Army Corp of Engineers – Construction Engineering Research Lab and funded by the Southeast Region Research Initiative (SERRI).

The meeting was part of the ongoing efforts of the Resilient Home Program, which was established to determine the way in which home owners prepare for, and recover from, natural disasters; to find ways to make new and existing homes more resilient; to educate the public on home resiliency; and to encourage homeowners to take steps to make their homes more resilient. read the entire article >

Warren Edwards

National Thinking About Community Resilience Must Evolve

December 18th, 2009 - Warren Edwards  

As we move from an almost completely protection centric view of homeland security to one acknowledging the requirement for a broader paradigm that includes protection, prevention, response and recovery, it is a significantly positive step that the concept of community resilience seems to have forced its way into the new doctrine. Community resilience is at least now a subject of conversation. Unfortunately, the national view of communities and where they fit in the homeland security enterprise remains quite shallow and does not recognize the full potential of community resilience to be the foundation of a resilient nation.

National leader speeches as well as federal web sites and publications now include words on resilient communities in almost every discussion of national needs. But the words always focus on individuals and families very occasionally going further to acknowledge organizations and the private business sector. Communities are certainly about families and individuals. But they are far more than that. Communities are the foundations of our civil society – where individuals live, work, play, raise families and derive their values. Communities are complexes of built and social infrastructure. Most of the built infrastructure is privately owned and operated. Much of the social infrastructure resides in organizations independent of governmental structures. Communities create the wealth of the nation in their small businesses, retail outlets, housing markets and individual investments. Communities educate the nation, care for the nation’s physical and mental health and provide opportunities for faith and spirituality. And communities are inherently resilient.

Nationally, we need to understand and capture that complexity in our thinking about, planning for and encouragement of community resilience. Resilient communities must be the foundation of a national disaster resilience culture. read the entire article >

Warren Edwards

Community Resilience: Ready for the Holidays

December 16th, 2009 - Warren Edwards  

Every blog needs a holiday edition. This is mine.

In a workshop last week, someone – I don’t really remember who – stated that the holiday season in general is a great time for families to prepare for disasters. That sounds a bit strange but actually makes good sense. DHS and FEMA through Ready.gov have been continuously pressing families to “get a kit, make a plan and be informed.” The idea expressed at the workshop was that families are together more in the holiday season than they are likely to be any other time in the year. Why not spend a little time this holiday season using this family time to do something really important. Everyone from over-excited children to bored teenagers to grumpy adults can benefit from this family bonding experience.

The FEMA web site even has a page that outlines holiday gifts that increase preparedness. OK, so maybe they are not as great a gift as a pony or a play station, but they could make great supplemental stocking fillers. The site, http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=50059, lists gift ideas from weather radios to fire extinguishers. Check it out.

Resilient communities engage all their citizens and prepare across the full spectrum from individuals and families to governments, organizations and businesses. Here is a small way we can all help our community become more resilient this holiday season.

Season’s Greetings!

Warren Edwards

Community Resilience: The Third Roundtable

December 8th, 2009 - Warren Edwards  

The Community and Regional Resilience Institute conducted its third invitational Community Resilience Roundtable in Washington on December 1. The purpose of these roundtables has been to assemble a diverse group of resilience stakeholders, let them know what CARRI is doing, obtain their feedback and solicit their advice. This year’s group, by far the most senior and diverse assemblage to date, provided excellent counsel and guidance as CARRI presented an early draft of its work, “Toward a Common Framework for Community Resilience.” CARRI intends that the common framework described in this document will be the starting point for a broader development process that includes practitioners, researchers and a wide variety of other stakeholders.

A “common framework” would provide the nation and its communities with a widely accepted, coherent, measurable way of understanding community resilience and applying that understanding to the community in a meaningful way. In this context, a “framework” is an intellectual construct that is coherent (its parts fit together) and complete (considers the entire subject). A framework for community resilience should assist the community by helping it to discover how the interdependencies within and outside the community impact its resilience in a systematic and consistent manner. The framework should also help the community identify external resources that will aid in recovery and redevelopment after a disaster and provide guidance for pre-crisis investments.

The early draft of CARRI’s “Toward a Common Framework for Community Resilience” has been through an initial review by CARRI’s national research advisor team and their recommendations as well as the outstanding comments from last week’s CARRI Roundtable are currently being incorporated. The resulting revision will be circulated to a wider audience of reviewers and then serve as the starting point for a national dialogue on community resilience.

Those wishing to participate in this second review should contact the Community and Regional Resilience Institute at info@resilientus.org.