Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide Assessing risks and building resilience for disasters in Aboriginal communities
Office of Applied Research Justice Institute of British Columbia 715 McBride Boulevard New Westminster, BC V3L 5T4 Tel: 604-‐528-‐5590 Fax: 604-‐528-‐5715 www.jibc.ca Published 2015. Printed in Canada. This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Acknowledgements The development of this guide has been a collaborative effort, involving members of the Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Team. We would like to acknowledge the great debt we owe. The project was funded, coordinated and managed by Justice Institute of British Columbia (JIBC), Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU), Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC), Public Health Organization of Canada (PHAC), Defence Research and Development Canada’s Centre for Security Science
Aboriginal Consultants: Terrina Bellegarde, Christine Brown, Michelle Buchholz, Annette Chretien, David Diabo, Wendall Nicholas, Lorraine Tordiff Research Team: Marc D’Aquino, Toni Baggos, Eric Bussey, Debby Danard, Ryan Huron, Heather Stager Marit Heideman, Michelle Marteleira, Eddie Oldfield
Research co-leaders on the project: Laurie Pearce and Brenda Murphy Project management and administration: Bryce Gunson, Dawn Ursuliak and Ron Bowles
Design and development of the online and print guide book: Melanie Meyers, Tannis Morgan, Dennis Yip and Michael Fabri., Ricardo Rosado
Project Partners Since this project builds on the earlier RDRP work, our project partners include some of the original RDRP partners and the organizations that supported the ADRP
Our Partners include the following: Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada
http://www.aadncaandc.gc.ca
JIBC
http://www.jibc.ca/
Wilfrid Laurier University
http://www.wlu.ca/
Pearces 2 Consulting
PEARCES 2 CONSULTING CORPORATION
Defence Research and Development Canada’s Centre for Security Science
http://www.science.g c.ca/cssp
Public Heath Agency of Canada
http://www.phacaspc.gc.ca/indexeng.php
Royal Roads University
http://www.royalroad s.ca/
Acronyms ARI
Aboriginal Resilience Index
ARS
Aboriginal Resilience Strategies
HRA
Hazard Risk Assessment
HRI
Hazard Resilience Index
HRS
Hazard Resilience Strategies
Rural Disaster Resilience Planning Guide
Table of Contents Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... 4 Project Partners........................................................................................................................................ 5
Acronyms .......................................................................................................................... 5 Table of Contents.............................................................................................................. 7 Preface .............................................................................................................................. 8 Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning .................................................................................................. 8 Definition .................................................................................................................................................. 8
Background to the Project................................................................................................. 9 Project Support and Consultation .......................................................................................................... 11 Why is the Project Important? ................................................................................................................ 11
Four Steps to Planning ................................................................................................... 12 Structure of the Guide ..................................................................................................... 13 Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide at a Glance .................................................................. 14
Step One Introduction ..................................................................................................... 16 Activity 1: Set up the Community Planning Team .................................................................................. 17 Resources .............................................................................................................................................. 17 Activity 2: Review the Aboriginal Resilience Index (ARI), Hazard Resilience Index (HRI) and the Hazard Risk Assessment (HRA) tools ................................................................................................................ 18 Resources .............................................................................................................................................. 18 Activity 3: Define Community Borders .................................................................................................... 19 Resources .............................................................................................................................................. 20 Activity 4: Getting Community Buy-in ..................................................................................................... 20 Resources .............................................................................................................................................. 21
Step 2 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 23 Activity 1: Developing a Risk Profile ....................................................................................................... 23 Resources .............................................................................................................................................. 24 Activity 2: Gathering information ............................................................................................................ 25 Resources .............................................................................................................................................. 26 Activity 3: Recording Information ........................................................................................................... 26 Resources .............................................................................................................................................. 26 Activity 4: Assessing Resilience ............................................................................................................. 27 Resources .............................................................................................................................................. 27 Activity 5: Develop Disaster Resilience Profile ....................................................................................... 28 Resources .............................................................................................................................................. 29
Step 3 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 31 Activity 1: Setting a Vision ...................................................................................................................... 31 Resources .............................................................................................................................................. 32 Activity 2: Developing Goals .................................................................................................................. 32 Activity 3: Identifying Resilience Strategies ............................................................................................ 33 Resources .............................................................................................................................................. 34 Activity 4: Writing the Resilience Plan .................................................................................................... 35
Step 4 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 37 Activity 1: Implementing the Resilience Plan ......................................................................................... 37 Activity 2: Evaluating Progress ............................................................................................................... 38 Activity 3: Continue Planning ................................................................................................................. 38
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Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide
Preface Disasters can and do happen. First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities have been affected by hurricanes, wildfires, water contamination and an assortment of other hazards. Culture, language, livelihood options and Traditional Knowledge have flourished in some areas, while other communities have faced numerous challenges. What makes the difference? Why are some communities more resilient to disasters and change? How can you help your community survive and prosper? The Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning (ADRP) approach has been designed with Aboriginal communities in mind. The ADRP process includes a user-friendly guide to help you work through the various steps: how to get started; how to assess your community’s current state of resilience; how to assess what disasters are likely to take place; and how to develop an Action Plan to help your community increase its overall resilient and adopt strategies to help the community survive a disaster.
Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Definition Disaster resilience refers to a community’s ability to anticipate, and where possible prevent or at least minimize the potential damage a disaster might cause. It involves how well a community can cope with the effects of a disaster if it occurs, to maintain certain basic functions and structures during the disaster, and to recover and adapt to the changes that result. Disaster resilience includes knowing what hazards (such as forest fires, diseases, floods, chemical spills) the community might face, and being prepared for them. It also includes having an up to date and well-developed Emergency Plan, and an emergency planning process that reflects the knowledge, needs, and issues of the entire community. Disaster resilience is more than hazard preparedness, however. It also involves a wide range of a community’s strengths, including the type of people who live there and the resources a community has. Many Aboriginal communities have characteristics that make them more resistant to the effects of disaster, such as self-reliance, a wide variety of skills and Traditional Knowledge, and caring for one another. Characteristics like these can be strengthened. Resources can be built or acquired. This will make the community itself more resilient. Often, a truly resilient community is stronger after it recovers from a catastrophe. Building community disaster resilience is an ongoing, year-round process aimed at strengthening the community’s ability to respond to disaster. Here are the factors involved in disaster resilience: •
Hazard Risk Analysis: the knowledge of the types of hazards that the community may face, the likelihood of disaster happening, and the risks posed by these hazards. These are both natural hazards, such as fire, flood or disease, and human-made hazards such as toxic spills and terrorism.
•
Community Resources: the strengths of community members as individuals and as a whole, such as the degree of self-sufficiency and mutual support, the style and quality of local governance, and the availability of resources or assets that that can be mobilized to strengthen and protect the community and respond and adapt to threats when they occur.
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Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide
•
Disaster Management: how well prepared the community is able to prepare for, respond to, and recover from a disaster. Factors include community members involvement in disaster preparedness planning, the quality of existing emergency preparedness plans, and the capabilities of local fire-fighting, medical and community safety personnel.
•
Hazard Resilience: the specific measures that a community has taken to become resilient to local and regional hazards.
Background to the Project In 2010, JIBC in collaboration with Laurie Pearce, Brenda Murphy, Robin Cox and numerous others researchers from across Canada, developed the web-based Rural Disaster Resilience Planning (RDRP) Framework to assist the needs of small, rural and remote communities to identify their level of community resilience (e.g., community stability and sustainability, social support systems), disaster management resilience (e.g., volunteer fire department, emergency response plan) and resilience to specific hazards (e.g., fire, flooding). Given the scope of the RDRP it was well-suited to adaptation for First Nations and Aboriginal communities in Canada. While the existing framework served as an excellent platform, the overall design and content needed to be reviewed and adapted to meet the needs of First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities.
In the fall of 2014, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) supported a collaborative process with JIBC and Wilfrid Laurier University, along with extensive use of Aboriginal consultants to make the necessary modifications to the RDRP and to develop the Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Project (ADRP). The co-lead researchers on the project were Laurie Pearce (Justice Institute of British Columbia) and Brenda Murphy (Wilfrid Laurier University). All of the material on the ADRP was reviewed and signed off by the following Aboriginal Consultants:
Terrina Bellegarde, Nakota-Cree
Terrina Bellegarde is Nakota-Cree and resides in Treaty Four Territory area. She is a Researcher Analyst for special projects at the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations and has been involved in reviews of policy and programs under the scope of emergency management and preparedness within the region of Saskatchewan. This project aims to design tools to assist community level planning for disaster resiliency and will complement existing plans or provide exceptional foundations for preparing First Nations communities.
Christine Brown, Lytton First Nation
Christine Brown is the main emergency Coordinator for Lytton First Nation and responds to emergencies that threaten their band members and community by participating and interacting with other local, municipal, regional, provincial and federal governments and agencies. This project is important because emergencies do not recognize boundaries and everybody, irregardless of where they come from or live, can be subject to an emergency situation without any warning.
Michelle Buchholz, Wet’suwet’en First Nation
Michelle is a member of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation from Smithers, British Columbia and has a background in First Nations Studies, Anthropology, and Conflict Resolution. Michelle has worked with First Nations ADRP.JIBC.CA 9
Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide organizations and communities for over 10 years and is currently working with the First Nations' Emergency Services Society of BC. She is passionate about working in emergency services, which is rooted in a deep concern for the health and welfare of First Nations' communities. This project is important to me as it will build capacity in First Nation communities, addresses cultural values and will ultimately help save lives.
Annette Chretien, Sudbury Metis, Wilfrid Laurier University
Annette Chretien is a Metis woman from Sudbury, Ontario. She completed her Ph.D. at York University and has been working in and with Aboriginal communities since the early 1990s. Her research is focused on Metis identities and Indigenous Knowledge. She also participated in the initial research project that led to the ADRP. Given her experience with the project, she can attest to the importance of work with Aboriginal communities that can help build resilience.
David Diabo, Kahnawake
Tahawennon:tie David A. Diabo is Kanienkehaka (Mohawk) from Kahnawake, QC, and is on a work exchange from the Assembly of First Nations to the Emergency Management Directorate at Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. Mr. Diabo is completing a Bachelors of Technology in Emergency Management at Cape Breton University, and will be the first native in Canada to attain this degree. Being involved in the creation and development of this project has been a labor of love for me, because Mohawk culture tells me that whatever I do, I must plan for seven generations ahead. This project can accomplish this task. So not only is this project very important to myself, to the First Nations, the Inuit, and the Metis across the country, but it's important that these people have the tools and ability to protect themselves and their future generations as well.
Wendall Nicholas, Maliseet Nation
Wendall Nicholas is a member of the Maliseet Nation at Tobique and was born with a sight disability. His work with the Assembly of First Nations included policy roles in justice, health and social issues. This work included authoring public safety protocols between the AFN and the RCMP and Red Cross. He is CEO of Wasueg Resources that provides mediation, management and cultural safety services to public and private entities. My participation in this initiative is due to the fact that all people in our Aboriginal communities, including our elders and people with disabilities, are potentially the people most at risk from environmental disasters. So we want to make sure we include their perspectives and work to enhance the communities’ resilience to respond and cope with disasters. This is why this work is so important to me.
Lorraine Tordiff, Metis, Northwest Territories
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A proud Metis, indigenous to the Northwest Territories, Lorraine has three children and nine grandchildren. She is passionate about lifelong learning and sees education as being essential to building strong, self-reliant and healthy communities. Lorraine takes special interest in cultural awareness and in mentoring the emerging generation of leaders in her community. She has advocated the need to achieve a representative workforce at the Territorial
Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide Government level, with increased numbers of aboriginal people in senior management positions. As well as identifying resilience factors, the ADRP also allows communities to identify the potential risk of disaster based on an all-hazards approach. Accompanying the tools to identify risk and resilience factors there are numerous planning tools and references (e.g., getting community buy-in, Provincial and Territorial Emergency Management Resource Lists). Depending on the findings, communities can then choose from a variety of resilience strategies to mitigate potential risks and increase community resilience. The report features allow for communities to produced customized Action Reports to help direct mitigation projects for the future. The three key tools in the ADRP are: • Aboriginal Resilience Index (ARI) • Hazard Resilience Index (HRI) • Hazard Risk Assessment (HRA) The tools were developed to enhance organizational all-hazards response planning. The training curricula, tools, and web-assisted networks will provide Aboriginal communities in Canada with fully operational protocols and resources to anticipate and mitigate risks.
Project Support and Consultation Drafts of key documents were submitted and circulated to the Aboriginal Resilience Sub-Working Group (ARSWG) which is a sub-committee under the Canadian Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction. There was also consultation with emergency management practitioners from Inuit and First Nations communities. The research team for the ADRP had Aboriginal backgrounds and/or have worked with indigenous people in Canada or internationally. Project Management and Administration • Bryce Gunson, Dawn Ursuliak and Ron Bowles Research Team • Laurie Pearce • Marit Heideman • Michelle Marteleira • Eddie Oldfield • Marc D’Aquino • Toni Baggos • Eric Bussey • Debby Danard • Ryan Huron • Heather Stager
Why is the Project Important? Disaster Resilience – the ability to survive and thrive in the face of uncertainty – is already a key dimension of Aboriginal communities. It is also the cornerstone of effective emergency management across all phases of a disaster from preparedness through response and recovery. There is much to learn about resilience from Aboriginal communities; their resilience is one of Canada’s biggest assets. At the same time, the emergency planning capacity of Aboriginal communities by encouraging them to enhance their community and disaster resilience.
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Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide
Four Steps to Planning The Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning guidebook outlines four key steps to follow in order to increase resilience in your community:
Step One: Getting Started The first step provides an overview of the process and outlines specific strategies for project setup including identifying and engaging stakeholders and establishing the community boundaries and planning scope. One of the outputs of this step is a community profile that helps communities identify and describe their local resources, capacities, and hazards. Step Two: Resilience Assessment Step Two outlines an integrated resilience assessment process that supports a qualitative analysis of a community’s resilience across dimensions associated with social, contextual, and disaster and emergency management factors and the specific hazard-risks a community faces. Step Three: Building the Resilience Plan This step develops a plan-development process that draws on a locally-defined vision, goals and the outputs of the integrated resilience assessment process to produce a place-based, locallydefined resilience plan to improve resilience as part of a continuous planning cycle. Step Four: Plan Implementation The final step focuses on the implementation and ongoing evaluation and refinement of the community resilience enhancement plan.
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Structure of the Guide There are three main document sections to the Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide: 1. The Guide itself contains the background and context to the project along with four steps and associated activities. 2. The Tools are used to assess your communities risk and resilience. 3. The Resource Guide consists of reference documents to support your planning process. Each step and associated activity outlined in the process diagram below will guide you through a process for planning and assessing your resilience, referencing the resource guide and tools.
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Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide
Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide at a Glance Document
Key Points
1. Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Guide
Background and objectives for disaster planning along with four steps and related activities for Disaster Resilience Planning.
2. Tools a. Aboriginal Resilience Tools Aboriginal Resilience Index (ARI)
A tool to help you assess your community’s disaster resilience in order to provide information on areas of resilience that can be enhanced.
Aboriginal Resilience Strategies (ARS)
Concrete action strategies for enhancing disaster resilience. These strategies are based on research of best practices in disaster management and resilience.
b. Hazard Tools Hazard Assessment Overview and Instructions
Overview of what hazards are. Includes a list of 17 categories and associated hazards along with instructions for assessing community hazards.
Hazard Risk Assessment Documents (HRA)
17 specific hazard documents including definitions of the hazards, discussion points and “it happened here”. It includes hazard specific factors to assess your risk.
Hazard Resilience Index (HRI)
17 specific hazard resilience documents to rate and assess your resilience to hazards.
3. Resilient Resource Guide Community Profile
Guidance and a helpful template for completing a Community Profile.
Skills and Knowledge Inventory
A template for collecting information regarding local skills and knowledge.
Mapping
Guidance for approaching community-based mapping.
Collecting Information
Guidance for collecting community-based information.
Working Together
Guidance for working collectively.
Hazard Risk Profile Template
A template to compile your information from the Hazard Risk Assessment.
Integrated Resilience Profile Template
A template to compile and analyse your Aboriginal Resilience Index and Hazard Resilience Index information.
Glossary
A list of terms related to disaster planning.
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Step One Getting Started
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Step 1 – Getting Started
Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide
Step One Introduction In order to get started, your community needs to determine who will work through the planning process, and what geographic area makes up the community for planning purposes. Here is a summary of the activities for this Step: Activity 1 – Set up a Community Planning Team: In this first activity, you will identify members for the Community Planning Team. The team will be responsible for gathering the information necessary to assess the community’s disaster resilience, and who will draft a plan for enhancing resilience. Activity 2 - Review the Aboriginal Resilience Index (ARI), the Hazard Resilience Index (HRI) and the Hazard Risk Assessment (HRA) Tools One of the first tasks for the planning team will be to review the risk and resilience assessment toolset for this guide: ARI, HRI and HRA. Activity 3: Define Community Borders Once you are familiar with the hazard categories and characteristics, your team will begin defining its boundaries through mapping exercises to get a clear picture of your community. Activity 4: Getting Community Buy-in A key component of Step One is to start communication in order to gain support from your community and to engage the various stakeholders.
16 ADRP.JIBC.CA Step 1 – Getting Started
Activity 1: Set up the Community Planning Team The Community Planning Team is the group who will gather the information necessary to assess the community’s disaster resilience and who will draft a plan for enhancing resilience. The very first step in the planning process is to identify who will be involved in the process. This first activity focuses on creating a team based on some of the recommendations outlined below and in the resources. The best size and makeup of the community planning team is 3-4 individuals who are committed to the process. They should have a variety of skills among them, such as interviewing skills, writing and basic research skills. It is an advantage to include different types of people on the team, such as: • a member of the fire department or local first responder • a long-term community member or Elder with extensive knowledge of the community and its people • a small business owner • a relative newcomer who brings a unique perspective Because team members will be asking community members for information and opinions, it is important that they are well-respected in the community. Ideally, there will be a “champion” for the planning process. This may be the mayor or council member, or a well-respected community leader or Elder. This person’s role is to support and advise the planning team and gain community member’s trust and willingness to participate.
Resources For more information about creating a team and working together, refer to the following resource included in the Resilience Resource Guide: •
Working Together - Building A Community Team
Activity Summary: Team set up and roles defined. Complete Notes:
ADRP.JIBC.CA 17 Step 1 – Getting Started
Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide
Activity 2: Review the Aboriginal Resilience Index (ARI), Hazard Resilience Index (HRI) and the Hazard Risk Assessment (HRA) tools The Aboriginal Resilience Index (ARI), Hazard Resilience Index (HRI) and the Hazard Risk Assessment (HRA) are the major tools that will be used to assess your community’s disaster resilience and will provide key information for creating a Resilience Plan. Reviewing the ARI, the HRA and the relevant parts of the HRI (those hazards that are relevant in the local context) will give the team a detailed understanding of what disaster resilience means and help the team answer community members’ questions as information is collected. In this process you will encounter resilience factors that are very clearly related to disaster preparedness, such as knowing what the threats to a community’s safety are (hazards) and what plans are in place to respond to those threats (disaster management plans). In addition, the ARI includes many characteristics related to the well-being of the community. These include such things as the employment and economic health of the community and region, how the community functions (governance) and the skills and knowledge available in the community. These characteristics are directly related to disaster resilience. They help describe how the community practically prepares for possible disasters, and if a disaster occurs, how effective the community is in responding to and recovering from that event. Aboriginal Resilience Index (ARI) Very early in the process, the team should become familiar with the ARI which includes two major parts: 1. Community Resource section 2. Disaster Management section Hazard Resilience Index (HRI) At first glance, the HRI may seem overwhelming. The HRI lists most types of disaster hazards – natural, human caused, technological, terrorist or disease related. Your team will only be working with a small number of these. Later in the process you will select those hazards that pose the greatest threat for your community. These will become the focus of your hazard resilience assessment. Hazard Risk Assessment (HRA) The team should also review the Hazard Risk Assessment (HRA) tool which details all possible hazard types a community is likely to face.
Resources • • •
Aboriginal Resilience Index Hazard Resilience Index Hazard Risk Assessment
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Activity Summary: Review the ARI, HRI and HRA to gain an understanding of hazard risks and resilience. Complete Notes:
Activity 3: Define Community Borders As you begin your journey to become a more disaster resilient community, you need to know where to focus your attention, who should be involved in this process, and what and who belongs to your community. Defining its boundaries is the first step in getting a clear picture of your community. This activity can be as simple as drawing or acquiring a regional map and outlining the boundaries your team agrees on as your area of focus. Considerations might be: • fire district coverage • neighbourhoods or residences beyond community borders • hunting and fishing grounds • boundaries of reserve land or traditional territories • possibly, nearby communities
Your team may choose to develop a more elaborate map. This may include identifying specific areas or zones in your community that may be more vulnerable to different hazards. Or, it may include adding drawings, photos or words that indicate specific aspects of your community, such as assets, vulnerabilities and key features (such as buildings, organizations, rivers, bridges, roads) identified through the information collection process. This type of map provides a rich way to keep community members informed about your findings. ADRP.JIBC.CA 19 Step 1 – Getting Started
Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide
Resources For more information about defining community boundaries and using maps, refer to the following resource in the Resilience Resource Guide: • Mapping
Activity Summary: Community boundaries defined and/or mapped. Complete Notes:
Activity 4: Getting Community Buy-in The more people who are informed about and involved in the resilience planning process, the more likely it is that the resulting plan will be meaningful and practical for the whole community. Most important, the community will be more likely to participate in the actions you take to improve resilience. As soon as possible, begin to talk about the resilience planning process and get support from your community. Your team might consider the following ways of informing your community about the process: • • • • •
a social media site posters or notices on local bulletin boards a story in the local newspaper or newsletter word of mouth announcements at community social functions and events, council meetings, or at another organizations’ meetings
It is also a good idea to identify stakeholders, such as: • • • • • •
formal and informal leaders and Elders members of the fire department, community safety personnel business owners club and society members long-term residents and newcomers who make up your community
Initially, you may only think about those people you want to get information from, or people you want to participate in the planning process. However, later you may expand your list to include those individuals or organizations with whom you want to share the results of your planning. You may also decide to take the information to policy decision-makers and other stakeholders mentioned above. As your team is preparing a list of community stakeholders, it is important to include a good cross-section of community members so you will learn from them about the range of needs and 20 ADRP.JIBC.CA Step 1 – Getting Started
resources as you develop a Disaster Resilience Action Plan.
Resources For more information about identifying stakeholders and getting community buy-in, refer to the following resource in the Resilience Resource Guide: Working Together - Community Buy-In
•
Activity Summary: Communication of resilience planning process with community and stakeholders. Complete Notes:
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Step Two Resilience Assessment
Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide
Step 2 Introduction The resilience assessment step involves a series of activities to evaluate the risks a community faces and strengths a community can draw on to decrease risk and build greater resilience. Here is a summary of the activities for this Step: Activity One – Developing a Risk Profile The first activity is to identify what hazards pose the greatest threat or threats to your community. The Risk Profile that you develop will help focus some of the resilience assessment. Activity Two – Gathering Information Once you have completed a Risk Profile you will gather the information you will need to assess your community’s resilience. Activity Three – Recording Information The third activity is to summarize this information about the community using maps and templates. Activity Four – Assessing Resilience The fourth activity is to use this information to assess resilience using the two parts of the Aboriginal Resilience Index (ARI) and the relevant sections of the Hazard Resilience Index (HRI). The ARI includes the categories Community Resources and Disaster Management. The Hazard Resilience Index includes all of the hazard types your community might face. Activity 5 – Develop a Integrated Resilience Profile Your assessment will result in the fifth and final activity of this step – the development of a Resilience Profile. The resilience profile is like a picture of the community as it currently is in terms of resilience – the areas of strength and the areas that need some improvement. This profile will be used to develop a plan for expanding the community’s resilience by building on strengths and reducing risks.
Activity 1: Developing a Risk Profile To develop a risk profile you should work with the Hazard Risk Assessment (HRA) tool and identify which hazards pose the greatest threat for your community. From the results of this assessment you will produce a Hazard Risk Assessment Report that rates each hazard from “High Risk” to be a major threat, to those that just couldn’t happen at all in your community. Some hazards will be obvious. For example, a town surrounded by forest lands would probably select “forest fire”, while a coastal community might select “tsunami”. However, the community may never have considered other risks, such as serious disease outbreaks either amongst humans or animals and how these might affect the community. For example, a serious and widespread disease outbreak (such as a pandemic flu) could have serious economic consequences because of the potential for preventing people from working and therefore disrupting workplaces, causing fear and stress, crippling critical services such hydro or food transportation. Other kinds of disasters in distant regions or centers could shut down major transportation and supply routes, or disrupt health care provision, or cause a mass exodus into rural areas. Considering not only local risks but risks that may have a local impact is, therefore, an important part of a risk assessment. You may also want to identify which parts or zones of your community are most at risk for a specific hazard. For example, homes on a flood plain are more likely to be affected by flooding than those built further away or at a higher elevation. You may want to refer to your community ADRP.JIBC.CA 23 Step 2 – Resilience Assessment
Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide map and when you have identified which areas are most at risk, add that information into your map. The hazards the team selects through this analysis that are recorded on their Risk Profile will be the ones they will focus on throughout the remainder of the planning process. For a more detailed analysis and to complete ratings by zones, download the Hazard Risk Profile Template (available on the ‘Resources’ page).
Resources To complete the Risk Profile Template, refer to the following tool and resources: Hazard Risk Assessment Tool instructions Hazard Risk Assessment Tool Disaster Risk Profile Template
• • •
Activity Summary: Disaster Risk Profile Template and HRA completed. Complete Notes:
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Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide
Activity 2: Gathering information In the first activity for Step 2, your planning team selected the hazards you feel are most important to focus on using the Hazard Risk Assessment (HRA) tool. In Activity 2 you will identify and collect whatever information about your community that you will need in order to fully complete the Aboriginal Resilience Index (ARI) and the Hazard Resilience Index (HRI). Some items in the ARI may be easy for your team to answer, and others will require expert knowledge. For example, people involved in the fire department, first response or search and rescue may have knowledge about disaster and emergency plans and equipment in the community. Local and regional government representatives may provide important information, such as the community’s demographics, and land use and economic plans. Others may know what hazards pose risks for the community and how prepared the community is to face them. It is also true however, that as you collect information it is likely you’ll come across some surprises. Others in your community may know about “hidden” strengths, such as knowledge of medicinal plants or past disasters, grant writing skills, or the knowledge a local business might offer. Remember that the more community members you involve in the process, the more you build awareness of disaster preparedness and resilience. The more you build awareness the more resilient your community becomes. Once you have a good handle on the information you will need to decide what method or methods you’ll use to gather it. Some of these are quick and easy, others are more time consuming, but are likely to gain richer, more accurate information.
•
Consult Subject Matter Experts Some members of your community, such as the fire chief, local governance representatives, (such as the Chief/Mayor and Council or other community leaders), first responders, or those responsible for emergency management will have specific information for the Disaster Management section and parts of the Community Resources section of the ARI.
•
Conduct Interviews and/or Focus Groups One-on-one interviews or small group interviews (focus groups) are a good way to get community members’ opinions about the community and its resilience.
•
Hold Community Meetings Community meetings are a way to reach a number of people at once, and the discussion is especially valuable in getting a deeper and shared view of resilience factors.
•
Distribute Surveys A short survey with specific questions is an inexpensive method of getting community input on resilience factors. These can be distributed at high-traffic areas such as the post office or library, along with a collection box at the distribution site. They can also be used like questionnaires to guide the interviews and focus groups.
•
Transect Walk or Drive-about Sometimes called a “walk about”, in this method you travel through the community to visually inventory resources, assets, vulnerabilities and other important community features including where key buildings are, where rivers and other natural features are that may present risks, where groups of potentially ‘at risk’ people might live or gather (such as a care facility, school).
•
Photo Voice Take photographs of community features such as key infrastructure (fire hall, community hall, school, bridges, communication towers, etc.), areas of vulnerability (flood plain or landslide ADRP.JIBC.CA 25 Step 2 – Resilience Assessment
Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide areas, public facilities in disrepair, etc.) and other interesting features that you feel help “define” your community. Create a collage of these photographs in a high-visibility location such as the community hall. (Note: you can combine this with your map from Step 1.) •
Research Documents Some information might be available from Stats Canada, a higher-level organization (e.g., Assembly of First Nations), your community’s local government or band office (if you have one) or the local library or historic archives.
Resources For more information about the various ways of gathering information in your community, refer to the following resources in the Resilience Resource Guide: Working Together - Holding a Community Meeting Collecting Information – Transect Walk or Drive Collecting Information – Photo Voice
• • •
Activity Summary: Information gathered to complete the ARI and HRI. Complete Notes:
Activity 3: Recording Information In order to complete the Aboriginal Resilience Index (ARI) and the Hazard Resilience Index (HRI), the relevant information should be recorded in some way. This can be as simple as a set of notes, pictures taken during information collection, or adding this information on the map you began working with in Step 1-Activity 3: Define Community Borders, by marking where your community’s assets/strengths and vulnerabilities or potentially vulnerable people are located. If you have identified specific hazard zones, you could also add this information to your map. Alternatively, you may choose a more formal approach by developing a Community Profile - a comprehensive inventory of important details about your community to accompany your maps. One advantage of recording your findings is that the information is more easily shared, and can be used for additional purposes, such as grant applications or community decision making.
Resources For more information about community profiles and a community profile template, refer to the following resources in of the Resilience Resource Guide – Community Profile Section: • Introducing the Community Profile • Building a Community Profile 26 ADRP.JIBC.CA Step 2 – Resilience Assessment
Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide For more information about how to conduct a Skills-Knowledge Inventory refer to the Resilience Resource Guide – Skills and Knowledge Inventory. Activity Summary: Information for ARI and HRI assessments recorded. Complete Notes:
Activity 4: Assessing Resilience Assessing your community’s disaster resilience is done by completing the Aboriginal Resilience Index (ARI) and the Hazard Resilience Index (HRI). These tools were reviewed specifically for use in Aboriginal settings. You will need to complete both categories in the ARI (Community Resources and Disaster Management), and those hazard categories in the HRI that you have identified as “High Risk” in your Risk Profile. For some of this activity you may choose for your team to fill out the assessments, based on the information you gathered earlier in Step Two. For other parts of the ARI you might ask large or small groups of community members to fill them out. Pay particular attention to the discussions about different dimensions and characteristics (the checked/unchecked items). These discussions can increase awareness and result in a more complete assessment process.
Resources To complete the resilience assessment, refer to the following instructions, tools and template: • • • •
Hazard Resilience Index (HRI) instructions Aboriginal Resilience Index (ARI) Hazard Resilience Index (HRI) Integrated Resilience Profile Template
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Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide
Activity Summary: HRI and ARI tools filled out. Complete Notes:
Activity 5: Develop Disaster Resilience Profile In Step 2-Activity 1: Developing a Risk Profile, you worked with the Hazard Risk Assessment (HRA) tool and report to develop a Risk Profile for your community. Now you will develop an Integrated Disaster Resilience Profile to form a clear picture of your community’s disaster resilience. This profile will consider all the categories you have worked with – community resources, disaster management and the specific hazards you assessed in the Aboriginal Resilience Index (ARI) and the Hazard Resilience Index (HRI). Developing the Integrated Disaster Resilience Profile will allow you to think through some of these more complex relationships between risk and resilience. Your profile will provide a portrait of resilience. It shows where your community is doing well, and where it could benefit from improvement. The result may help you decide on priorities and goals when it comes to developing your community’s Disaster Resilience Plan (see Step Four). There are four key steps in developing your Integrated Disaster Resilience Profile: 1. The first step in this process is to transfer the results of your ARI and HRI assessments to the Integrated Disaster Resilience Profile Template. 2. The next step is to consider the positive and negative implications of the different characteristics of resilience and how these might interact with one another. This can be done on a number of levels. a. For the ARI categories you can analyse your results by category (Community Resources and Disaster Management), by dimensions of resilience (such as “Our community is stable and sustainable” and “Our community is disaster aware”) and by specific characteristics of disaster resilience (the check boxed items under each dimension of resilience). b. For the hazards you have assessed using the HRI, you can analyze your results by considering the hazard generally, and at the factor (or check box) level. 3. You should review your findings and consider how different resilience characteristics might influence each other, either increasing risk or reducing resilience. For example, having the first response facilities located in an area of high fire or flooding risk might decrease a resilient first response ability. Or a low number of Elders participating in community events might combine with low hazard awareness, putting those seniors at even greater risk during a disaster.
28 ADRP.JIBC.CA Step 2 – Resilience Assessment
Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide 4. Once the Disaster Resilience Profile is complete, you can organize and display your findings in a variety of formats that help make this information understandable to others in your community (such as graphs, written report, lists, etc.). At this point in the process it is a good idea to get the word out. Make your Disaster Resilience Profile available to community members – on paper or electronically - and let them know where to find it. By getting feedback and input from your community on the Profile, you can refine it.
Resources To develop a resilience profile, refer to the following resource: Integrated Disaster Resilience Profile Template
•
Activity Summary: Integrated Disaster Resilience Profile Template filled in. Complete Notes:
ADRP.JIBC.CA 29 Step 2 – Resilience Assessment
Step Three Building a Resilience Plan
Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide
Step 3 Introduction Your Disaster Resilience Plan is a road map that describes where you want to go and how you intend to get there, based on your resilience assessment (Step 2) and the areas you have targeted for improvement in the Disaster Resilience Profile. Creating the Plan involves setting goals, comparing where you are now, identifying ways of reaching those goals and achieving your community’s vision of future resilience. Like most kinds of planning, disaster resilience planning involves a set of activities. These activities may include some or all of the following: • • • •
identification of a vision (the ideal future) identification of goal(s) identification of actions or strategies to reach goals development of a work plan
The planning process continues as you implement the Plan, regularly check the progress you’ve made, adjust goals and actions when necessary, and continue to take action until the desired changes have been made. Here is a summary of the activities for this Step: Activity 1 – Setting a Vision In this activity you will take steps to create a vision of your community’s disaster resilience which will lead directly to considering the shorter term steps - the goals - that will help you reach your community’s vision. Activity 2 – Developing Goals Once your vision is set, you will identify develop goals for your community’s resilience. Your goal or goals will be based on the results of the assessment of your community’s risk and resilience. Activity 3 – Identifying Resilience Strategies In this Activity, you will identify strategies that will help your community to reach its goals. These strategies will lead to actions to determine ways of reaching your goals. Activity 4 – Writing the Resilience Plan At this point in the planning process, your team will already have much of the information you need to put together a Disaster Resilience Plan. Your plan should clearly define the tasks to be accomplished, along with who will be doing the work, and a schedule for completing the tasks.
Activity 1: Setting a Vision In terms of planning, a vision defines a future state you would like to reach. A vision is a longterm view that describes how your community would like to be. Features of an effective vision statement are: • • •
vivid and clear picture realistic in tune with community values and culture
Creating a vision of your community’s disaster resilience leads directly to considering the shorter term steps - the goals - that will help you reach your community’s vision. There are various methods for creating your community’s resilience vision. Your team may choose to write a short statement that describes your community as highly resilient. You can also ADRP.JIBC.CA 31 Step 3 – Building a Resilience Plan
Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide engage in a “visioning exercise” with others in the community to develop a broader, more wideranging vision. An approach called “Appreciative Inquiry” gathers positive stories and images, seeking out the best of what exists today.
Resources For information on creating a community disaster resilience vision, refer to the following resources in the Resilience Resource Guide: • Working Together – Creating a Community Vision
Activity Summary: Disaster Resilience vision set. Complete Notes:
Activity 2: Developing Goals Goals are statements of what you want to accomplish. Your goal or goals will be based on the results of the assessment of your community’s risk and resilience. One way of establishing goals is to work backwards from the vision. If your vision of a resilient community looks towards the future in 10 years, what major milestones or goals would you need to achieve in five years? Two years? One year? It is important that goals be concrete and specific enough so that progress towards them can be measured. The more specific the goals are, the clearer they are to everyone, and the more measurable they are. Goals should be worded in such a way that everyone can tell when they are reached. They don’t have to include numbers, but should always include target dates for completion. Your Hazard Report and Disaster Resilience Report should help guide the development of your goals, as it is a snapshot of where you are today. Your vision is a statement of where you want to be in the future. What are the gaps between the two? Which of those gaps are the most important for your community to close? Set goals that will help close them. Activity Summary: Goals for disaster resilience developed based on vision. Complete Notes: 32 ADRP.JIBC.CA Step 3 – Building a Resilience Plan
Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide
Activity 3: Identifying Resilience Strategies Strategies determine ways of reaching your goals. They are actions that get you to your goals. The first step is to prioritize which areas of resilience you want to address. Some areas of resilience will be related to reducing disaster risk, such as those suggested by the Hazard Resilience Index (HRI) and some dimensions in the Disaster Management category of the Aboriginal Resilience Index (ARI). Other areas of resilience, such as those suggested by the Resource section of the website, will be related in more subtle but equally important ways. For example, increasing community member’s participation in community events can be critical in recovering from disaster. Increasing their trust of local government can help with their willingness and ability to follow directions during a disaster. The Aboriginal Resilience Strategies (ARS) report and the Hazard Resilience Strategies (HRS) report will provide you with a list of strategies to address each of the dimensions or hazards you have rated or entered to date. Once you have created the report, you will have the option to create an ‘Action Plan’ by targeting specific strategies that will enhance disaster resilience in your community. Important considerations as you review your resilience profile are: 1. Implementing strategies to address this area of resilience would improve our day to day lives and our disaster preparedness. 2. Implementing strategies to address this area of resilience is under the community’s control 3. Failure to implement strategies to address this area of resilience would result in: • Increased deaths and/or injuries to residents and/or visitors • Significant economic and/or property loss • Significant ecological destruction • Significant threat to community survival (economic, cultural, physical) • Significant health threats to the community • Loss of critical community resources and/or infrastructure 4. Resources (time, money, people) are available to address this area of resilience 5. Addressing this area of resilience is in keeping with our community vision and goals There is an opportunity to get creative in thinking about resilience strategies. One approach is to simply look at your resilience profile to see what should be priority areas to work on. However, sometimes you can see links between two or more characteristics of resilience. For example, an action for increasing community engagement might be to initiate monthly community potluck dinners. A strategy to reduce fire risks might focus on removing underbrush from around key community buildings. A strategy that addresses both of these may have a greater impact. A combined resilience strategy might involve developing a community event that encourages volunteers to help remove undergrowth around the Community Hall and their own homes that concludes with a community dinner. This would promote community engagement and awareness in resilience activities, while reducing immediate fire risks. To identify effective strategies it is important to assess them for their practicality. There are many things that could be done to reach your goals, but you must evaluate them in terms of their cost, ADRP.JIBC.CA 33 Step 3 – Building a Resilience Plan
Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide the need for volunteers, or other resource issues. You should make sure that your strategies can be accomplished with the resources available to you. Finally, the strategies should address both short and longer term goals. To start, review your Integrated Resilience Profile Template and those resilience characteristics you have marked as important (e.g., starred) in the ARI and the HRI. Simply considering how you would make these characteristics present in the community may suggest an immediate strategy for improvement, particularly when considering the Disaster Management and Hazard Resilience sections. You can also review the Aboriginal Resilience Strategies resources on the resources page. It provides many further suggestions for characteristics of resilience related to the Community Resource and Disaster Management sections in the ARI.
Resources For more information on resilience enhancement strategies, refer to the following resource included in the Resilience Resource Guide: • HRI- Hazard Resilience Strategies • ARI - Aboriginal Resilience Strategies
Activity Summary: Resilience Strategies identified. Complete Notes:
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Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide
Activity 4: Writing the Resilience Plan At this point in the planning process, your team will already have much of the information you need to put together a Disaster Resilience Plan. You have a clear picture of your community and its features, you have considered and recorded the hazards your community faces, and you have assessed your community’s disaster resilience. Based on all of this information, you have identified a goal or goals and strategies (or actions) for reaching your goals. From these building blocks, you can develop a work plan that clearly defines the tasks to be accomplished, along with who will be doing the work, and a schedule for completing the tasks. There is no particular format you should use, but the plan should include the following: a brief summary of the information you gathered throughout the process an explanation of how resilience factors were prioritized the action plan itself, including timelines, responsibilities, necessary resources, and milestones
• • •
The main purpose of the plan is to convince your community of the need for increasing resilience, and to gain their commitment to its implementation. Once you have completed your plan, you will need to take it out into your community to get commitment to the plan’s implementation. At the same time, you may also wish to share your plan with other stakeholders and seek their support for some or all of your strategies to improve disaster resilience. These stakeholders could include representatives in local and/or regional governments, community leaders, Elders, or business owners who are not already involved, or even neighbouring communities in the region. The information you have collected and the plan you have made will be a valuable resource and can be used to set local, regional, or provincial/territorial policy on building community disaster resilience. Activity Summary: Disaster Resilience Plan developed. Complete Notes:
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Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide
Step Four Plan Implementation
Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide
Step 4 Introduction Now it is time to put the plan into action. This involves implementing the plan’s strategies, checking progress on a regular basis, and setting up a planning cycle for plan revisions and updates. Here is a summary of the activities for this Step: Activity 1: Implementing the Resilience Plan In this activity implementation your community’s plan will begin through work on the actions or strategies you identified to increase disaster resilience. Activity 2: Evaluating Progress It is important to continually evaluate progress on a community-managed implementation process. In this activity, you should evaluate the progress on activities, time frames, budget, and the impact of your resilience strategies. Activity 3: Continue Planning Remember that resilience is process. There is no end state. Resilience evolves as your community evolves and changes over time. This process of re-evaluating starts the planning cycle again. This activity involves making changes to your plan that are based on your community’s progress.
Activity 1: Implementing the Resilience Plan The next major step in the planning cycle is to implement your community’s plan - to work on the actions or strategies that you believe will increase disaster resilience. Work in this area will be based on the strategies you identified in your Disaster Resilience Plan, the people who are responsible for implementing the plan, and the time frames set in the plan. At this point, the original Planning Team might pass responsibility on to a new working group to oversee plan implementation, as well as to check progress, communicate with the community, and make revisions to the plan as necessary.
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Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide
Activity Summary: Action being taken on strategies identified to increase disaster resilience. Complete Notes:
Activity 2: Evaluating Progress After implementation has begun, it is important to check progress to see how you are doing. This should evaluate the progress on activities, time frames, budget, and the impact of your resilience strategies. Evaluation should also include considering who might be negatively affected and whether anyone has dropped out and, if so, why. Regular review of the progress being made is an important part of a community-managed implementation process. The working team might organize regular meetings with stakeholders to review the progress. It is a good idea to have a progress report at least every 3 months. The progress report should: • • • • •
record any accomplishments to date recognize every individual or organization that contributed highlight the success stories describe any difficulties outline the activities that will take place over the next three months
This report could be made available to all community members, to keep them up to date with progress, and to keep the idea of resilience alive. Activity Summary: Regular review of the progress being made on the Resilience Plan being made. Complete Notes:
Activity 3: Continue Planning 38 ADRP.JIBC.CA Step 4 – Plan Implementation
Aboriginal Disaster Resilience Planning Guide Resilience is a process and planning is a cycle. That means that once you have reached the end of the planning steps, you assess your progress and continue to plan and implement strategies in a continuing effort to increase community disaster resilience. Once your planning cycle is completed and the implementation period is over, it’s time to evaluate what worked and what didn’t. This is also a time to evaluate whether your community profile and your risk and resilience assessment may need to be revised. Consider whether there have been any changes in your community (e.g., new community members, the loss of some residents, changes in employment or economic profile, changes in governance) that might influence your assessment of strengths and vulnerabilities. Consider whether any of your risks have changed (e.g., environmental or development changes that increase or decrease risk). Finally, consider whether your community’s resilience profile has changed either as a result of your resilience enhancement actions or because of any of these other changes in your community, region or province/territory. Remember that resilience is a process. There is no end state. Resilience evolves as your community evolves and changes over time. This process of re-evaluating starts the planning cycle again. Make changes to your plan that are based on your progress, and revise your approach and strategies as necessary. During the implementation of your plan, you may find that some strategies were not as effective as you originally thought. Or some actions you took might be having an unanticipated negative impact. The planning team should make necessary adjustments in goals, activities, and time frames in the effort to reach your community vision and resilience goals. You may also need to identify other resources to implement new activities and targets. Planning becomes easier over time. All the information you have gathered, for example, will feed into the next cycle. The community vision should stay the same, as well as most of the long-term goals. You may choose to collect additional information that you didn’t have time for the first time around. You may decide to include an assessment of other hazards or to concentrate on the same priority areas. By committing to ongoing planning and implementation, your community will experience a growing awareness of its resilience and be better prepared for disaster. Activity Summary: Process of re-evaluating is underway. Complete Notes:
ADRP.JIBC.CA 39 Step 4 – Plan Implementation
