CREATE Resilience Through Science, Art, and Community Engagement

Abstract

Resilience, specifically community resilience, has a range of definitions but several core elements, including social cohesion and collaboration. Importantly, community-driven goals and approaches tend to be more effective. The CREATE Resilience project centered on co-creating a community vision of resilience, specifically as it relates to natural hazards and climate change by focusing on a positive narrative. By engaging youth, artists, municipal officials and community members in a variety of activities, including surveys, story-gathering and photovoice exhibits, forums, artist-created murals, and ripple effect mapping (REM), the project increased knowledge of weather and climate, risks from local hazards, and strategies for mitigation, while leading the community in thinking about what resilience means. This article describes the project, its use of science, art, and community to co-create a vision of resilience for three communities, the components of engagement and their intent, and the evaluation of impact for participants. As determined through surveys and REM, the CREATE project was effective due to the mixture of art, science and community engagement, which provided a range of opportunities for personal connection and learning related to the science and priorities around hazards and mitigation, helping participants with meaning-making about local hazards and assets, and allowing for a sense of familiarity and interconnectedness. Creating a shared vision of resilience is an effort that engages, connects, and motivates a community around common values and goals, and the approaches implemented through the CREATE project may offer ideas other communities can adopt in efforts to improve resilience.