Building Resilient Communities Workshop report /

The groups were asked to have a short discussion about the theme in relationship to increasing community uptake of disaster resilience planning, and then to identify, on the flip charts, any key discussion points, implications of the theme and strategies for increasing community uptake. [...] The goal of the first activities in the workshop was to have participants analyze each other’s presentations and projects to identify common enablers and constraints of community-based initiatives. [...] This was compounded by the challenge of first engaging members of the community or from departments in larger municipalities, and then maintaining their interest and participation for the duration of the project. [...] However, drawing on the comments above on the complexity and comprehensiveness of the projects along with the challenge of engaging and maintaining community participation, almost all presenters (both developer and community) noted the importance of external facilitators and/or subject matter experts. [...] In particular, developers and project teams were encouraged to look to the communities to identify specific needs and considerations and to identify at-risk and vulnerable populations.