Notes on why building strong community is the key to survivability in the face of climate breakdown and a practical first step to building and strengthening relationships in your personal community.

1. The Preppers are Wrong!
Photo by adrian on Unsplash
Why remaining in society is key to disaster
survivability and a practical first step for
building your community networks

2. Bad news,
introverts!
Community and deep social networks may be the
key factor in survivability and resilience in the face
of climate breakdown and disaster

3. Good news,
introverts!
The skills of building relationships and strong
networks can be learned.
The first of these skills - relational conversations -
has the added bonus of helping to remove
small-talk from your life.
Links for this are at the end.

4. Contents
The importance of community in disasters
Viewpoints on what does/does not make a resilient community
Building/Strengthening your personal community

5. A study of 130 cities and towns following the 2011
Japan Tsunami.
Some lost 10% of their population, some lost zero.
They found that Higher Levels of Social Trust and
Connectivity made the difference on mortality
Community
and Social
Connectivity

6. Community Saves
Lives
In the minutes between the
earthquake and the tsunami,
in towns with higher social
connectivity, people ran door
to door to help others move to
higher ground, even carrying
elderly on their backs.

7. Upwards
Connections
for Recovery
Following the quake, some communities recovered
quickly, some were still struggling with basics more
than 2 years on.
The difference: connections to higher levels of
government
ie Those that bounced back had already engaged
with higher levels of government and had
relationships that helped them navigate
bureaucracy and get the things their town needed.

8. 3 Times
community
thwarted the
Nazi’s
1. Rosenstrasse Protests
2. Cross over Swastika
3. “Euthenasia”
What follows is a summary from the description in Dissent in Nazi
Germany, The Atlantic

9. Rosenstrasse
In the final round-up of Jews in Berlin, 2000 were married to Aryan Germans.
The (mostly) wives of the Jews hurried to where they were being held and
staged a protest day and night for a week shouting “Give us our husbands
back!”
Several times the guards threatened to shoot, but it did not end the protests
(and they never actually shot)
The gestapo ordered the release of the men, planning to recapture them at a
later time, but never did.
Popular support was so critical to the regime that they dared not risk protest

10. Reply from the
capital to German
police in occupied
France who asked
what was to be
done with Jews
married to
non-Jews
“The treatment of intermarriages
cannot be resolved for foreign
areas now, because it is not yet
solved in the Reich.”

11. Cross over Swastika
Frustrated that Catholics had not abandoned their Christian traditions in favour
of the Nazi faith, the Nazi’s tried to forcibly replace Catholic symbols with
Christian ones. They ordered all crosses to be taken down, and replaced with
Swastikas.
The move was so heavily resisted that even some members of the Hitler youth
did not cooperate.
Eventually the Nazi’s were forced to give-in and rescind the orders

12. The
resistance
was
massive
“Children went to school wearing crucifixes around
their necks;
church officials complained bitterly to the
government.
To the consternation of officials in Berlin, the “grave
unrest” caused by the crucifix decree spread even
into Nazi Party circles.
Nazi administrators put office resources at the
disposal of protest groups; the Nazi Women’s
Organization refused to carry out certain orders;

13. When the Nazi’s were quietly killing off people with congenital deformities or
mental illness, the church again protested.
The Nazi’s attempt to keep it secret fuelled rumours as no-one was sure who
would be safe: would husbands maimed in the war be killed to prevent them
being a drain on the state? What about the elderly?
Bishops condemned the actions from the pulpit, but the Nazi’s feared that
reprisals against them would backfire.
If they were disappeared everyone would know why, if they faced a public trial
then their views would be given a platform and their concerns legitimised.
Euthanasia

14. “If something against the bishop was
done, one could forget about receiving
support of the people of Münster for the
rest of the war, perhaps, even the
population of the entire region of
Westphalia.
Many soldiers at the front derived their will
to fight from their Catholic beliefs, and
others less devout would be demoralized if
their relatives at home lost their faith in
Germany’s cause”
Walter Tiessler, an
official in the party
chancellery

15. “If the Churches had opposed the
persecution of the Jews as they
opposed the killing of the
congenitally insane and sick, there
would have been no ‘Final
Solution.’”
J. P. Stern,
History
Scholar

16. What made
them
successful?
Collective & Open
Individuals were easily killed for treason on the
smallest of infractions, but the regime feared people
in numbers. The Rosenstrasse protests started as
only 150 to 200 people, though some reports say
they grew to thousands
Strong existing basis for community
All 3 actions were forged out of an existing
community, or family
Non-violent
The police feared taking action would make them
into martyrs

17. The limits of Us-ism
The acts of dissent protected a specific “in-group” and ended once
that group was protected.
The importance of building far
reaching & strong networks
Communities with an outsider group is unable to work with that
group to build resilience. Therefore the community must be
extended to include everyone.
How do you build networks as strong as family & church, but not
limited to family & church?
Lessons
Learned

18. Building Community

19. Factors that erode community resilience
Protracted incidents * Child-related
Domestic dislocation Poor communications
Mistrust of leadership Misleading communications *
Lack of predictability * Preventability of the event *
Inadequate recovery resources A large number of fatalities *
Human-caused *
* Likely to be characteristic of climate collapse

20. Some views on
Community and
Resilience

21. Common
Elements of
Successful
Community
In my own experience
Friendship
Inclusive decision making
Common Purpose
(What are we doing now?)
Shared Vision
(What kind of community are we trying to create?)
Trust
Agency
When communities encounter significant difficulties it is often a
disagreement/lack of common shared vision

22. Six
Foundations
of
Community
Post Carbon Institute
1. People. The power to envision the future of the community and build its resilience
resides with community members
2. Systems thinking. Systems thinking is essential for understanding the complex,
interrelated crises now unfolding and what they mean for our similarly complex
communities.
3. Adaptability. A community that adapts to change is resilient. But because communities
and the challenges we face are dynamic, adaptation is an ongoing process.
4. Transformability. Some challenges are so big that it’s not possible for the community to
simply adapt; fundamental, transformative changes may be necessary.
5. Sustainability. Community resilience is not sustainable if it serves only us, and only
now; it needs to work for other communities, future generations, and the ecosystems on
which we all depend.
6. Courage. As individuals and as a community, we need courage to confront challenging
issues and take responsibility for our collective future.
http://www.postcarbon.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Six-Foundations-for-Building-Communi
ty-Resilience.pdf

23. Wellness Ensure pre–health incident access to health services and post–health incident continuity of care.
Access Provide "psychological first aid" or other early psychological or behavioral health interventions after
disaster.
Education Bolster coping skills and psychological wellness by developing public health campaigns focused on
these messages.
Engagement Build the capacity of social and volunteer organizations (i.e., nongovernmental organizations) to
engage citizens in collective action to address an issue or problem (e.g., a community development
or service project).
Self-Sufficiency Develop programs that recognize the vital role citizens can and must play as "first responders" to
help their own families and neighbors in the first hours and days of a major disaster.
Partnership Engage established and local organizations (e.g., cultural, civic, and faith-based group; schools; and
businesses) and social networks to develop and disseminate preparedness information and supplies.
Quality Ensure that all disaster plans have identified common data elements (e.g., benchmarks for disaster
operations) to facilitate seamless monitoring and evaluation of health, behavioral health, and social
services pre-incident, during, and post-incident.
Efficiency Develop policies for effective donation management and provide the public with clear guidance on
donations.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9574.html
Building Community Resilience

24. Resilience.o
rg Example
from KEVA
Building blocks of a resilient neighbourhood are:
● Relationships
● Resources
● Re-imagination.
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2018-12-19/building-resilient-communities-rel
ationships-resources-and-re-imagination/

25. “Resiliency isn’t about protection from
calamity; it is about creating the kind of
neighbourhoods we all want to live in. These
are places where people belong, have a
shared purpose, and serve the basic needs of
the community including food, energy, and
even jobs. When thinking about how to
replicate this in other communities it is
important to consider that resiliency was not
the main goal of KEVA’s work.”
Resilience
is not the
end, it’s a
side-effect

26. A study of communities dealing with climate impacts as their land
and farms are flooded by salt water from rising seas. Interviewed
community members to determine the keys to resilience
Family Integrity - Those families that had to split up to
look for seasonal work had reduced resilience
Shared Value System - Being able to quickly agree on
right and wrong
Trust in Each Other
Friendship
Government Aid
Information Services
On the
Ground
Study in
Bangladesh
https://practicalaction.org/blog/news/what-is-the-key-to-building-a-resilient-community/

27. What can
you
personally
do, now?
You can start building and strengthening your own
personal community today by having relational
conversations with those you meet.
A relational conversation (also known as relational
meeting) removes “small talk” from the conversation
and replaces it with conversations about things that
matter to us.
Try practicing these next time you meet someone
new
Guides on relational meetings from:
The Federation for Community Schools
The Episcopal Church