Open AccessGetting Actionable About Community Resilience: The Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience Project
Author(s) -
Anita Chandra,
Malcolm Williams,
Alonzo L. Plough,
Alix Stayton,
Kenneth B. Wells,
Mariana Horta,
Joey Tang
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
american journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.284
H-Index - 264
eISSN - 1541-0048
pISSN - 0090-0036
DOI - 10.2105/ajph.2013.301270
Subject(s) - community resilience , preparedness , community organization , government (linguistics) , resilience (materials science) , emergency management , public relations , community health , political science , suicide prevention , poison control , public health , environmental health , medicine , nursing , engineering , linguistics , philosophy , physics , redundancy (engineering) , law , reliability engineering , thermodynamics
Community resilience (CR)--ability to withstand and recover from a disaster--is a national policy expectation that challenges health departments to merge disaster preparedness and community health promotion and to build stronger partnerships with organizations outside government, yet guidance is limited. A baseline survey documented community resilience-building barriers and facilitators for health department and community-based organization (CBO) staff. Questions focused on CBO engagement, government-CBO partnerships, and community education. Most health department staff and CBO members devoted minimal time to community disaster preparedness though many serve populations that would benefit. Respondents observed limited CR activities to activate in a disaster. The findings highlighted opportunities for engaging communities in disaster preparedness and informed the development of a community action plan and toolkit.