On the Road Again: Come play with us!
We love the careful thinking and creative design work that goes into every game we build. But nothing compares to the smiles, laughter, and “Aha!” moments that happen when those games finally hit the ground.
Our team is hitting the road to share the fun. We’d love for you to join us!
Public Preparedness Fairs
Sonoma County Wildfire & Earthquake Expo
WHEN: Sunday, April 26 | 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
WHERE: Sonoma County Fairgrounds, Santa Rosa CA
WHAT: We’re bringing Ember Dodge: Household to help families build wildfire resilience in Sonoma County.
Solano County Wildfire Community Preparedness Day
WHEN: Saturday, May 2 | 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
WHERE: Vallejo Ferry Terminal Parking Lot, Vallejo CA
WHAT: We’re bringing Ember Dodge: Household to help families build wildfire resilience in Solano County.
Neighborhood Events
Aldercroft Heights Firewise BBQ
WHEN: Saturday, May 30 | Noon – 4:00 pm
WHERE: Aldercroft Heights CA
WHAT: A special session for Ember Dodge: Neighborhood. We’re helping Aldercroft Heights residents build community and wildfire resilience, one move at a time.
Conferences & Workshops
2026 Natural Hazards Workshop: Game Night
WHEN: Sunday, June 14 | 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
WHERE: Omni Interlocken, Broomfield CO
WHAT: We’ll be demonstrating the power of game-based learning to the disaster research community using Ember Dodge: Neighborhood.
2026 Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI) Conference: Workshop
WHEN: Wednesday, June 17 | 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
WHERE: Buffalo State University, Buffalo NY
WHAT: A high-energy Design Studio! We’re challenging the hyper-creative CPSI attendees to see how many Mini Games we can generate together in just 90 minutes.
Can’t make it to these events? Don’t worry! We’ll soon be scheduling our own dedicated sessions to test our latest builds, and make our games available to more communities.
Interested in playing with us? Get in touch — we’d love to hear from you.
Thank you for your ongoing support and for being part of our mission to make the world more resilient, one community and game at a time!
Moving from “Someone should do something” to “I can do something”
In tribute to my family in Minneapolis, we are sharing our “7 Tips for Being Effective in a Crisis.” These insights come from our study of individuals who stepped up during the COVID-19 pandemic to help their communities.
We hope they inspire others to help their neighbors with grace, caring, and dignity — turning “someone should do something” into compassionate action.
May we all embrace “Minnesota nice.”
— Susanne
Help wanted: Be part of the Wildfire Fun Team!
We are looking for a volunteer or two to help us run the Wildfire Board Game at some upcoming events:
- March 7: Steelhead Festival (Lake Sonoma Recreation Area)
- April 26: Sonoma County Wildfire & Earthquake Expo (Santa Rosa)
- May 2: Solano County Preparedness Fair (Location TBD — last time we attended it was at Lake Solano County Park)
We’ll make sure it’s a smooth (and free!) experience: We provide full training on the game, and can reimburse travel mileage, plus lodging and meals if the event is more than 50 miles from home.
If you are interested, or know someone who is, please get in touch. Anyone with a background in wildfire preparedness would be a natural. Having a Spanish speaker on the team would be a huge win for reaching the whole community.
Have fun while helping communities to become more wildfire resilient!
Wildfire Curious: Our Gift to You this Giving Tuesday
At Creative Crisis Leadership, our mission is to foster resilient communities and make disaster preparedness fun for everyone. In the spirit of year-end giving and community connection, we are thrilled to launch our 2025 Holiday Calendar:
Inspired by the Danish roots of our founder, Susanne Jul, this annual calendar lets us give something back to our supporters who don’t get to be part of our games and events (yet!). It is our way of expressing sincere appreciation for your support throughout the year.
What to Expect in December
Each of our 12 calendar entries will offer:
👉 Insights: Making complex wildfire-related science accessible so you can take action.
👉 Fun Facts: Engaging facts you can use for holiday small talk, and reduce the fear we might feel about situations that are part of our lives.
How to Play Along
Good News! If you already follow us on LinkedIn or are subscribed to our Mailing list, the fun will come directly to you! All you have to do is open the message!
Need to sign up? Don’t miss out! Follow us on LinkedIn or sign up for our Mailing list to ensure you receive the season’s special fun.
We hope you play along with us this December. And thank you for your support!
Stay Safe and Be Curious this Holiday Season!
Panel: Insights from Emerging Designers | Nov 14 2025
How do you turn wildfire preparedness into a game?
This summer, a team of early-career designers volunteered their time and creativity to help improve our Wildfire Café Game — a playful way to explore how communities can prepare for and respond to disaster. Working under real-world constraints of time, scope, and purpose, they discovered what it means to design a serious game for real people and real stakes.
Join us for our next Conceptorium, Serious Game Design: Insights from Emerging Designers. In this panel discussion, we’ll hear directly from these volunteers as they share their experiences — what surprised them, what challenged them, and what they learned about creativity, collaboration, and purpose in design.
🗓 Thu Nov 14 | 2:00–3:00 pm PT
📍 Free Zoom session
👉 Register here
This is an opportunity to peek behind the scenes of our work — where imagination meets impact, and play becomes a pathway to resilience.
Commemorating 9/13: Where it all started
It was two days after 9/11. Like many others, I needed to do something, but didn’t know what I could do.
I made a phone call. That led me to the local Red Cross office.
Eventually, it led me to a lifelong passion for disaster management, a profound faith in community, and a firm commitment to what I call “Five Ks of Being a Good Human Being”: Kindness, Caring, Compassion, Courtesy, and Consideration.
24 years later, the divisions exposed by 9/11 are on full display. Civil discourse is no longer civil. The violence and fear tactics we once condemned as tyrannical are increasingly normalized.
I still feel the need to do something. But, today, I know what I can do.
👉 I can lead by example, openly refusing to condone disrespect and violence.
👉 I can embody the Five Ks, and help everyone I encounter feel valued and treated with kindness.
👉 I can promote and support the dedication and efforts of my friends, partners, and colleagues around the world who dedicate their lives to bridging differences and strengthening communities.
👉 I can continue to build Creative Crisis Leadership, empowering people to stand with their neighbors — ALL of their neighbors — to prepare for and overcome crises.
Please join me in my quest to make the world a place where we laugh together rather than cry alone. Take your own actions: Embrace the Five Ks in your daily life, support your local community, and, if you can, consider making a donation to help us inspire action through fun, games, and imagination.
With heartfelt thanks for your support,
— Susanne
May 2025 Newsletter: From Nest to Fledgling
Read the latest update on our journey: From Nest to Fledgling.
And, thank you for being part of our journey and our family.
Free filing tracker for nonprofits!
We recently created a spreadsheet to ensure that we stay on top of our legal filing obligations. Then we learned that nearly one-third of California nonprofits are at risk of losing their business license or tax-exempt status because they’ve missed deadlines (according CalNonprofits)!
Here is a simple, customizable version of our spreadsheet to help others track their filing and key organizational dates, so they can focus on their mission with confidence.
Feel free to copy and adapt it for your organization’s needs. And share with others!
Disclaimer: We built this for our own use, it’s up to you to verify its accuracy for your organization and state requirements. 😇
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.