The Connected Communities Resilience Program is aimed towards local governments, non-profits, faith-based organizations, and community organizations (CBOs) based or working in Southern California to serve their community. This seven-session cooperative program is led by the Dr. Lucy Jones Center (the Center) and will cover key aspects to building a community resilience action plan while supporting organizational and individual resilience in your community.
When facing a disaster, we are all in it together. This program emphasizes the importance of the connections and coordination that creates the ability to act as a community rather than as independent individuals. And while this program specifically responds to earthquakes, the model for community-building to gain resilience can be applied to various disasters.
For more information and to request the Connected Communities Facilitator’s Guide to host the program in your community, email thecenter@drlucyjonescenter.org.
Program Outcomes
By the end of this program, your community will have created:
- A customized, local Community Resilience Framework
- A refined communication strategy for your members and community
- A basic operational strategy for each organization in relationship to the Community Resilience Framework
- Stronger connections with other leaders
- Stronger connections between organizations and community leaders
- Stronger connections within their respective organizations
- And a deeper understanding of the risks your community faces.
Program Requirements
To effectively implement this program, a lead organization (the applicant) will partner with the Center to engage, lead, and support their peer leaders within their community. The Center will facilitate this project, lead each of the sessions, provide materials, coordinate technical assistance on the topics presented, and provide a coordination stipend to support the local lead organization. If selected, the lead organization will be expected to:
- Recruit 10 – 15 local organizations to each send two participants to the sessions
- Coordinate with the cohort to remind them of the meetings and make sure they are doing the out-of-session work
- Be a local advocate to encourage participants with the process
- Provide local insights to make sure the program is informed by local circumstances
- Assist in securing space for seven sessions, if needed
- Provide food and refreshments for the sessions
- Host at least a one-year reunion for cohort participants to review status and provide support after the program’s conclusion
Additional Expectations
We do not expect your community to have all the resources we are asking for. This program is aimed to help your community build those resources. We are asking you to show that you are prepared to take advantage of this program. For example, we can assist in the process of connecting you to CBOs in your area that will participate. Regardless of your service area, this program recommends a project area in a size range of ideally 3-10 sqmi, but we will consider larger or smaller communities depending on your application. There is no cost to participate. Based on your responses, we may seek clarification or ask for more information.
We expect each of the seven sessions to last about 2.5 hours and your activities and implementation of what you have learned to take about the same amount of time. This is an estimated 25 hour (minimum) commitment over the course of five months.
Our current programs are supported by Southern California Edison and SoCalGas.
Huntington Park Pilot Program 2019-2020
“Just want to extend my gratitude to you and your team for all that you have done and taught us during our meetings. We have incorporated A LOT of what we have learned in our response to everything that is going on [with COVID-19] and our community is stronger because of it.”
— María Guzman, Participant of the Huntington Park Community Resilience Pilot Program
In partnership with the Mexican Consulate and the City of Huntington Park and funding from Southern California Edison, the Jones Center developed and implemented the Community Resilience pilot program aimed at community organizations, including nonprofits and faith-based organizations. Most resilience efforts are targeted at individuals, but research has shown that one of the most important factors of a community’s resilience is its social capital— the degree to which its members are connected with each other. People and communities with more connections between people have more resources to rebuild their lives and more reasons to stay in the damaged community. The organizations themselves can be the nuclei of recovery, that will encourage people to stay in the community.
The Jones Center worked with a cohort of community and faith-based organizations in Huntington Park to help them be better prepared for future natural disasters so that they can be nuclei for recovery in the broader community. The kickoff meeting was held in November 2019 at the Huntington Park City Hall, and the first meeting of the nonprofit cohort was January 9, 2020 and was anticipated to finish on March 19, 2020, comprising of six, two-hour sessions and a seventh, final celebration session. However, due to the pandemic, the sixth session and seventh celebration session were postponed.
Using the feedback from the participants from the five completed sessions, the Jones Center, with funding from the Annenberg Foundation, finalized the Community Resilience Program. The finalized program materials include a Facilitator’s Guide detailing seven sessions, accompanying handouts, and six videos featuring Dr. Jones focused on varying earthquake topics.