Leveraging Social Capital for Resilience through Community Teams

Abstract

Residents of the Caribbean islands are vulnerable to many natural hazards, which are becoming more frequent and are engendering more devastating effects. Since prevention ofthese events is nearly impossible, it is important to examine which factors can reduce the loss of life, enable successful recovery and generate resilience - including the impact of social capital such as social networks and interactions. Sarah T Lionel assesses the effect of Community Emergency Response Team(s), currently being established across several Caribbean island communities, and the impact of social capital in this under-studied region.