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The Road to Resilience: Insights on Training Community Coalitions in the Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience Project

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2016

Biblia S. Cha ,
Rachel I. Lawrence ,
Jesse C. Bliss ,
Kenneth B. Wells ,
Anita Chandra  and
David P. Eisenman
Biblia S. Cha*
Affiliation:
Center for Community Resilience, Office of Public Health Practice, Loma Linda University School of Public Health, Loma Linda, California
Rachel I. Lawrence
Affiliation:
Center for Community Resilience, Office of Public Health Practice, Loma Linda University School of Public Health, Loma Linda, California
Jesse C. Bliss
Affiliation:
Center for Community Resilience, Office of Public Health Practice, Loma Linda University School of Public Health, Loma Linda, California Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, Division of Public Health, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
Kenneth B. Wells
Affiliation:
Center for Health Services and Society, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California
Anita Chandra
Affiliation:
RAND Justice, Infrastructure, and Environment, RAND Corporation, Arlington, Virginia
David P. Eisenman
Affiliation:
Emergency Preparedness and Response Program, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Center for Public Health and Disasters, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, California.
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Biblia S. Cha, MPH, Center for Community Resilience, Office of Public Health Practice, Loma Linda University School of Public Health, 10970 Parkland St, Loma Linda, CA 92350 (e-mail: bskim@llu.edu).
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Abstract

Objective

Local health departments (LHDs) have little guidance for operationalizing community resilience (CR). We explored how community coalitions responded to 4 CR levers (education, engagement, partnerships, and community self-sufficiency) during the first planning year of the Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience (LACCDR) Project.

Methods

Sixteen communities were selected and randomly assigned to the experimental CR group or the control preparedness group. Eight CR coalitions met monthly to plan CR-building activities or to receive CR training from a public health nurse. Trained observers documented the coalitions’ understanding and application of CR at each meeting. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze structured observation reports around the 4 levers.

Results

Analysis of 41 reports suggested that coalitions underwent a process of learning about and applying CR concepts in the planning year. Groups resonated with ideas of education, community self-sufficiency, and engagement, but increasing partnerships was challenging.

Conclusions

LHDs can support coalitions by anticipating the time necessary to understand CR and by facilitating engagement. Understanding the issues that emerge in the early phases of planning and implementing CR-building activities is critical. LHDs can use the experience of the LACCDR Project’s planning year as a guide to navigate challenges and issues that emerge as they operationalize the CR model. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2016;10:812–821)

Keywords

disaster planningemergency preparednesspublic healthcommunity health planningpublic health practice
Type
Original Research
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 10 , Issue 6 , December 2016 , pp. 812 - 821
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2016 

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