Can Community Resilience to Disaster Be Taught?

Abstract

The field of resilience is multifaceted and diverse. The foundations of resilience research are embedded in psychology; however, in recent years, the concept has been adopted in many other areas. Moreover, resilience has become more prevalent in disaster response literature but is somewhat confusing in the different ways it is defined and applied. This paper attempts to clarify resilience and interest in developing dialogue about better ways to assist those who deal with tragedy and disaster. If we as a society want to survive, recover, and thrive in the aftermath of disaster and/or traumatic events, we need to start with assisting individuals and organizations in understanding resilience. We need to assist them in tapping into past experiences while enhancing their traits and characteristics for better future resilience. Hence, this paper seeks to address how community resiliency to disasters be taught.