Community Resilience Comes From Within
What is “resilience”? It is the property of an object that allows it to return to its original shape if it has been deformed. It represents a ‘memory’ of an original state of being. It is the ability to return to what is normal.
What is “community”? Community is a grouping together of similar objects. In a human sense, community can be represented as a geographic area, shared interest, or common experience, whether that be individually or organisationally. People are often members of multiple communities, but there is often no compulsion to be active within them.
One of the key issues facing us today is that many individuals demand the right to receive a service, but few accept the responsibility to provide such a service. In other words, most communities have a few ‘doers’ and a number of ‘hangers-on’.
Geographic area: The street you live in; Your
suburb.
Shared interest: Rugby club; Scouts or Guides; Freemasons
Common experience: Seniors; Parents; People with a disability
Bouncing Back From Adversity
We choose to define community resilience as the ability of that group of people to ‘bounce-back’ from an adverse experience.
Where Do You Find Resilience?
Resilience is an emergent property. In other words:
1. there are things that create it; and,
2. there are situations that call for it; and,
3. it is the outcome of an environment; but,
4. it cannot be isolated or measured before an adverse event.
Think of the human voice. We know that it is created by the lungs, vocal cords, mouth, and tongue… we certainly know there are situations that call for it… and the voice is an outcome of the environment we live in (we can’t effectively talk underwater, for example).
But you can’t operate on a human and remove the voice: it doesn’t ‘exist’… it is an emergent property.
Making Nothing Out Of Something
Creating resilience for communities is not something easily achieved. We must first create an environment where resilience can develop. To do this we must recognise the things that can contribute toward required beliefs, behaviours, and environment: called Attributes of Resilience.
What Are Attributes Of Resilience?
Look at the following suggestions and see if you can identify how they contribute to a resilient community. They are highlighted in green later in this document, so as you read on you can see where they might be achieved:
• strong and clear communication between many
groups
• a feeling of safety and security
• respect for one-another, and for one’s environment
• neighbours trusting neighbours
• no petty crime, and no tolerance of petty crime
• a large degree of self-awareness
• a willingness to develop and draw-on resources within the community
• confidence
• the ability to react rationally to adversity (orderly, no panic, no
hysterics)
• pride and a sense of place
• active participants in democracy
• a well-understood common vision
These attributes don’t define resilience: they contribute to its development.
Use What You Have
In the Greater Newlands Area (for example) there already exist a number of assets that, if utilised and guided well, will create Attributes of Resilience. These include:
- Schools
- Churches
- Volunteer fire brigade
- Businesses
- Service groups
- Community college
- Sub-communities (e.g. ethnic communities)
- Early childhood education centres
- Civil defence
- Youth groups
- Neighbourhood support
- Community patrol
- Residents’ groups
Agents Of Change?
Outside of the community there are agencies that have the potential to either help or harm the development of resilience. These agents – when working in a co-ordinated manner with the mandate of the community – can have a positive impact on developing Attributes of Resilience, because they can affect the community’s environment. Some of these External Agents include:
- Local Councils
- Regional Councils
- NZ Police
- Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management
- District Health Boards
- Other Government agencies
- Non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
Cure The Disease, Not The Symptom
It is important to remind the reader that resilience is a state of ‘being’ – such as good health is a state of ‘being’. And just like our health, if we do not continuously look after our communities they can become sick.
In many cases External Agencies enter into a community to ‘heal’ or ‘fix’ a problem. Once the problem is ‘fixed’ the funding, resources, promotion, etc., are withdrawn; often to be used to fix another problem for another community. This is akin to a doctor prescribing life-giving drugs to a patient that suppress the illness but don’t cure it: the patient is fine so long as they take the drug. As soon as they stop they develop serious problems again. In other words the solution must be one that is ongoing and sustainable.
To ensure that the solution is not removed or altered by an External Agency it is important that the community develops and controls the solution itself. Otherwise funding cuts, politics, or a change in staff will damage the attributes that contribute to resiliency.
Self-reliance and sustainability are conditions that a community requires to become – and remain – resilient.
You can click HERE to download a copy of Building Resilient Communities: Defining Resilience.
Contact the Trust | PO Box 24-520, Wellington 6142, Aotearoa New Zealand | info@nzrt.org.nz