Measuring community resilience: developing and applying a ‘hybrid evaluation’ approach

Abstract

Communities are increasingly encouraged to become more resilient, be more active and proactive, adapt to economic and social transformation, and possess the ability to change. Many initiatives aim to enhance community resilience, however there are few effective measurement tools which identify the influence of these initiatives on the resilience of participating communities. Our paper proposes a model for measuring community resilience combining both quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches. We utilize a hybrid evaluation approach which links existing international research with findings from an empirical study. We test our Capacity for Change community resilience model using findings from a longitudinal study including 292 face-to-face, semi-structured interviews. Our research contributes new learning on resilience measurement, and draws conclusions for practitioners, policymakers and researchers.