Photo from Wikimedia Foundation.

To celebrate the giving of Thanksgiving and Giving Tuesday, we give to you … twelve days of disaster! Well, maybe just some insights into disaster and community response.

Disaster has gone mainstream. From fire to flood, pandemic to power outage, community crises increasingly affect larger numbers of people. Summer hail storms in Mexico City, massive flash floods in Germany, mass shootings in Oslo, torrential monsoons in Pakistan, megafires in California, Australia, … The list of communities that “never thought it would happen here” grows every day.

That means that you should take disaster seriously. That means that you need to prepare to be unprepared. Because, together, you and your community are essential to overcoming disaster.

We believe that being ready starts with social resilience: having the skills and mindsets needed to improvise with the people and resources at hand when a crisis happens. Because individuals and communities who help themselves recover from crisis faster and better.

Our 2021 Advent Calendar focused on wildfire, the disaster most affecting our home, California.

In our 2022 Year’s End Calendar, Twelve Days of Thanks and Giving, we offer a broader view. We share 12 short posts about how disaster management works and a fresh perspective on disaster response – a perspective in which social resilience, community, and improvisation are central.

Please join us!

To celebrate the thanks of Thanksgiving and Giving Tuesday, today, we give special thanks to our advisors, Leland Franklin, Zeno Franco, Thomas Lahnthaler, Claus Raasted, and Luke Beckman: Thank you for giving so generously of your time and expertise.

If you take disaster seriously, please
support our work.

We thank you for all that you give.