Building Disaster Resilient Organizations in the Non-Government (NGO) Sector

Abstract

In 2006 Fritz Institute initiated the development and implemention of a process to create “disaster resilience” in faith and community based organizations that provide services to vulnerable populations in California. The process included undertaking background research on the attributes of disaster resilient organizations; development of intervention strategies to promote organizational resilience, developing a definition of “soft” and “hard” resilience applicable to the non-government sector; and the development and implementation of A Disaster Resilience Standard for Community- and Faith-Based Service Providers . This process necessitated the creation of a constituency for a standard, convening of peer networks to support organizational change, and the formulation of a strategy to sustain application of the standard.