Project Details
This project builds on the Community Assessment of Resilience Tool developed previously. The researchers developed instruments to assess community resilience including instruments for: (1) collecting demographic data; (2) creating community capacity inventories; (3) generating community ecological maps; (4) conducting neighborhood tours; (5) developing asset maps; (6) undertaking vulnerability assessment; and (7) identifying barriers to disaster prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. The development of this tool was conducted in conjunction with the City of Phoenix Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program, to ensure that the tool has utility and is accessible to community leaders in general.
The project resulted in the enhanced Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit (CART-E), a community intervention designed to foster community resilience through assessment, group processes, planning, and action. CART engages community organizations in collecting and using assessment data to develop and implement strategies for building community resilience.
The original CART survey, focus group scripts, and process were revised and expanded to include the following instruments: CART Assessment Survey, Key Informant Interviews, Data Collection Framework, Community Conversations, Neighborhood Infrastructure Maps, Community Ecological Maps, Stakeholder Analysis, SWOT Analysis, and Capacity and Vulnerability Assessment. Templates and forms are provided, as appropriate, to guide the implementation of tools and analysis of findings. Sample questions are provided for key informant interviews and community conversations; questions address community resilience in general, each of the four CART domains (Connection and Caring, Resources, Transformative Potential, and Disaster Management), terrorism preparedness and public engagement.
Researchers identified and reviewed existing tools used in community assessment, organizational development, program evaluation, neighborhood preparedness, and strategic planning prior to drafting the new CART instruments. Some of the new CART instruments were adapted from existing tools used in other fields; some instruments were created de novo. Alternative funding (to the Terrorism and Disaster Center, TDC, of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, SAMHSA) supported a review of instruments by the TDC Affiliated Volunteer Advisory Council (2010) and the TDC Community Advisory Council (2010-2011) to improve clarity and appropriateness of tools for organized volunteer disaster responders.