Introduction
The inevitability of an earthquake or other natural disaster, and the lack of resources on a city, state, and federal level, suggest that neighborhoods need to possess the tools to both overcome challenges and leverage opportunities that will help them maintain and improve their quality of life. Â Without an understanding of all of the factors that constitute resilience on a local and national level, even the most organized communities will lack the means to build resiliency. The Community Resilience Index Project is a widely accessible tool that allows for the measurement and tracking of a communities resilience.
Project Description
Through the NENu partnership, San Francisco State University graduate students will work closely with the City Administrator’s Office and the Dept of Emergency Management to develop a set of indicators most relevant to San Francisco, which provide a measure of a community’s level of resilience. In order to compile a set of indicators that not only reflects current scholarship on resilience, but is specific to the needs of San Francisco, students conducted several levels of analysis and solicited feedback from community experts.
Background
Recently, The Community and Regional Resilience Institute (CARRI ) identified Four Critical Needs to Improve Community Resilience:
- An understanding of what community resilience means in a way that can be readily understood by non-experts;
- A way to measure where the community stands on a scale of resilience;
- Tools and processes that help the community reach a more resilient state, and
- Tangible rewards for their efforts.
The Community Resilience Indicator Project addresses the first three of these needs, creating a regionally specific widely accessible tool that can be used to measure relative resilience.
Goals
To develop an index of community resilience indicators that can be widely accessed and utilized. We are doing this for two main reasons:
(1) To provide those working on resilience building efforts throughout San Francisco information that can inform their planning.
(2) To measure the success or progress of resiliency-building efforts.
Outcomes
Under the instruction of Professor Jennifer Shea, Public Administration students conducted systematic research to identify indicators of resilience used by various groups in the United States and abroad, In order to compile a vast list of possible indicators. From these organizational
Searches, a list of over 300 indicators was collected, reflecting several dimensions of resilience. These included economic, educational, infrastructure, environmental, health, and cultural indicators.
This extensive list of resilience indicators was examined, and a systematic analysis was done in order to narrow and focus the list to one that would be most reflective of San Francisco. Students interviewed diverse community stakeholders to get feedback on what indicators they considered most important for the San Francisco Bay Area.
University Department
Public Administration
Agency Partner
Department of Emergency Management (DEM), General Services Agency (GSA)
Focus Area(s)
information access, resiliency, neighborhoods, and program assessment.
Geographic Focus
Citywide
Beneficiaries
Community Resiliency Indicators Index Project is a tool that can be used by community-based organizations, non-profits, city agencies, researchers, and neighborhood residents.
Funding Sources
Federal Work Study
