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We share what we learn and what we’re doing so that others can learn from us and we can learn from others. Comments welcome!
Burning Truth #9: You may be away from home for 4 weeks. Or more.
Imagine that you’ve just learned that a wildfire is approaching your home. You are under an Evacuation Warning, meaning that you need to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.
Then, tomorrow, you receive an Evacuation Order, meaning that you need to leave immediately. As you leave, you wave to your home, not knowing when or whether you will see it again. You end up being away from home until four weeks from today.
You read that right: Four weeks!
That’s not an uncommon scenario. According to data collected by the US Census Bureau, more than half of the people who reported having been displaced because of a wildfire in 2023-2024 were away from home for more than a month. Nearly one-third were away for more than six months or never returned to their home.
Here’s what the numbers say:
If you had to leave home tomorrow and couldn’t return for four weeks, where would you go at first? Where can you stay for a month? What would you need to have with you?
Think about it.
If this post started you thinking, please think about
making a small donation
to make preparing for disaster fun and empowering.
For insights about evacuating and returning home, enjoy these posts:
Check out our other Burning Truths.
Welcome to the 2024 Holiday Calendar!
In keeping with our tradition of giving back during the holiday season, we are delighted to kick off our
2024 Holiday Calendar: 9 Burning Truths for Wildfire Safety
In this year’s series, we bring you the nine insights our research has identified as most important for people to truly grasp in order to be able to make good decisions when facing a wildfire.
Enjoy!
Meet the Team: Lindsay Burr!
It’s been a week!
Big shoutout to our contributors! 👉🏿 Claim your place on the map. Donate now!
Our first week as an independent nonprofit passed by in a whirlwind! Here’s what we were up to:
- Updating our CRM (Contact and Relationship Manager), Salesforce, and starting up the learning curve of how to use it so that we can be mindful in our communications and effective in our collaborations – great for quickly finding who our contacts are in your area.
- Talking to our partners at UC Santa Cruz. Grant applications coming soon! We will use these grants for research to take our game-based learning experiences to the next level! We know we engage communities and effect behavioral change – let’s get more data!
- Students from San Jose State University are setting up our DAM (Digital Asset Manager), Box, so we can find what YOU want to see in the THOUSANDS of pictures and videos from our community events.
- Preparing our intriguing 2024 Holiday Calendar — Coming soon!
- Revisiting the Café Game to ensure that what we deliver what really matters, and keeps getting people excited and prepared for wildfire.
Most gratifyingly, you’ve kept us busy with your outpouring of support and congratulations.
You’ve helped us raise $1200, so far!
If you haven’t had a chance to claim your place on the map and fuel the vision of empowered communities, there’s still time!
👉🏿 Claim your place on the map. Donate now!
With sincere thanks and appreciation for all the support and cheerleading you give us! 🤗
— Susanne
Susanne Jul, PhD
Founder & Executive Director
Creative Crisis Leadership
A California nonprofit 501(c)3 corporation!
👉🏿 Donate now!
Special thanks to Zach Pipkin and his Salesforce magic for the map. More visualizations coming soon of where we are and where we’re having an impact.
A Thrilling Announcement!!!
From the keyboard of Lindsay Burr, Board Chair
Nov 12 2024
We live in a time of change and huge divides in our nation. But, one thing we can all agree on is that, when disaster strikes – we want everyone to be safe. That is why I am proud to be Chair of the Board of Directors for Creative Crisis Leadership: Through imagination, games and play, we create fun spaces where individuals and communities can come together and discover what they need to set themselves up to come through disaster safely and well.
Today, I am very excited to announce that we are embarking on a new phase in our journey. We have left our fiscal sponsorship and are standing on our own nonprofit legs:
Creative Crisis Leadership is officially an independent 501(c)3!
[Fireworks going off. Trumpet fanfares. 👉🏿 Donate here]
Being an independent nonprofit means that we are now eligible to apply for State and Federal funds for work that is desperately needed. It also means taking on more responsibilities and duties. So, while we are eligible for more project and funding opportunities, we still need your financial support in order to be able to empower individuals and communities to prepare for disaster. 👉🏿 Donate here
For those of you who’ve traveled with us for years, we are so grateful for your support! Without you, we would not have gotten this far.
For those of you who are new to our journey, welcome! We know we will be able to do more because you are here with us.
We have proven our approach works! Instead of ignoring boring binders, our games land in people’s hearts and minds. After playing, people follow through to prepare their families and talk to neighbors about steps needed before, during and after a disaster to help each other.
In this time of change and divides in our nation, let’s work together to foster the strong communities needed to face disaster.
Join our journey. Your contributions will make sure our legs are strong for the next phase, and are 100% tax deductible! 👉🏿 Donate here
Sincerely,
Lindsay
Lindsay Burr
Board Chair
Creative Crisis Leadership
A California nonprofit 501(c)3 corporation!
👉🏿 Donate here
PS Over the next few months, we will be introducing ourselves by sharing who we are, what we have built, what we are building, and our vision for where we are headed next. At the same time, we’d like to learn more about you. Please be in touch!
We look forward to hearing from you.
*Featured image of Cecil the Mascot replicated from an early sketch by Katherine Yamasaki.