I think it is very important to start evaluating the resilience of our communities, so we can understand how vulnerable we are towards all the upcoming changes. With this in mind, let me share a possible model for doing this, developed here in BC.
Starting in 1998, the Community Resilience Project was set by the Centre for Community Enterprise, out of Port Alberni, BC. The origins of the project lie in the concerns of BC’s small, resource-dependent communities. The main goal of the project was to develop a conceptual framework and process through which resource-dependent communities could work to strengthen their local resilience. In 2000 they delivered the Community Resilience Model to assist communities with assessing their resilience.
They define a resilient community as “one that takes intentional actions to enhance the personal and collective capacity of its citizens and institutions to respond to and influence the course of social and economic change.”
Their model has four interconnected dimensions: people, organizations, resources and community process. Each dimension has a set of resilience characteristics, for a grand total of 23 characteristics. They say these characteristics are not exhaustive, but they have proven to be strongly predictive in assessing resilience.
The following are the resilience characteristics for each one of the dimensions:
Resilient People
- Leadership is representative of the community
- Elected community leadership is visionary, shares power, and builds consensus
- Community members are involved in significant community decisions
- The community feels a sense of pride
- People feel optimistic about the future of the community
- There is a spirit of mutual assistance and co-operation in the community
- People feel a sense of attachment to their community
- The community is self-reliant and looks to itself and its own resources to address major issues
- There is a strong belief in and support for education at all levels
Resilient Resources
- Employment in the community is diversified beyond a single large employer
- Major employers in the community are locally owned
- The community has a strategy for increasing independent local ownership
- There is openness to alternative ways of earning a living and economic activity
- The community looks outside itself to seek and secure resources (skills, expertise, and finance) that will address identified areas of weakness
- The community is aware of its competitive position in the broader economy
Resilient Organizations
-There are a variety of community economic development (CED) organizations in the community such that the key CED functions are well-served
-Organizations in the community have developed partnerships and collaborative working relationships
Resilient Community Process
-The community has a community economic development plan that guides its development
- Citizens are involved in the creation and implementation of the community vision and goals
- There is on-going action towards achieving the goals in the CED Plan
- There is regular evaluation of progress towards the community’s strategic goals
- Organizations use the CED Plan to guide their actions
- The community adopts a development approach that encompasses all segments of the population
Using the above framework, they developed the Community Resilience Manual that describes a process to help communities with assessing their resilience level. The process has 3 major steps, first it drafts a portrait of community resilience, then establishes community priorities and lastly, it selects strategies and tools to decide actions to improve the community resilience.
The Community Resilience Manual is available, free of charge, in the Centre for Community Enterprise website at www.cedworks.com
