Blog
What’s on our minds
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!
Wow! Spontaneous leaders in the flesh!
Nonetheless, we thank everyone who stepped up when it was needed, including
Zachary Dearing in Rockport Texas:
Read the full article
Amanda Labove in Orange Texas:
Read the full article
Block party organizer FAQ
How long does the event last?
Half a day: 3 hours for the simulation, and then however long the party afterwards goes. Usually, we do the simulation from 2-5, and then hang out for a BBQ or potluck dinner.
Who should I invite?
Everyone on your block, in your building, or in your complex. The goal is for everyone around you to get to know each other. So you don’t want to limit it to people who already know one another.
Can kids take part? What about visitors?
Yes, kids, visitors, pets, everyone can take part. In a disaster, you will have to look after everyone and everything who happens to be nearby. This is a chance to think about what that would really be like.
Can you tell me more about the effort involved in organizing?
There are three areas of work for you: promoting the event, coordinating food, and setting up on the day:
Promoting the event involves going around to invite everyone personally. This usually takes two rounds of 30 minutes or so.
- Coordinating food can be as simple as asking everyone to bring something for a potluck. Or you could recruit someone to help cook up a BBQ.
- Setting up on the day is pretty easy. It involves setting out barricades (if you are closing the street), and a table for sign in (later used for food). We usually ask people to bring their own chairs. There’s always people willing to help with cleanup.
There are a few other planning and coordination tasks, but we make them as simple for you as we can.
One household can manage it all. But we strongly recommend that you recruit one or two neighbors to help. That not only makes it easier and more fun, it gets neighbors working together from the outset.
What do you provide?
- Everything need for the simulation, including the people to run it.
- Examples of and help, as needed, with
- A checklist and timeline for what you need to do.
- Design for flyers and other promotional materials, and talking points for introducing them.
- Help with applying for street closure permit, and a Know Your Neighbors grant.
- A link where people can sign up for the event. This will include questions about food as needed.
- Draft text and email addresses of participants for any messages you might need to send out.
What do you need from me?
- A place where we can set up headquarters for the simulation. You’ll need to provide us with a table big enough for two laptops, an internet connection, and access to a toilet.
- Water and snacks for participants during the break in the simulation.
What about money?
Your expenses are for food and copying flyers. Our expenses are for simulation materials and event insurance. We’ll work with you to set a budget. We’ll also work with you to apply for a Know Your Neighbors grant from the City of Palo Alto, if there are funds available.
What’s the simulation like?
The simulation is a combined disaster simulation and interactive game. We ask participants to imagine that a catastrophic earthquake has occurred, then go through the motions of dealing with concerns that have come up in their own homes, and around the neighborhood. The goals are to practice using the materials and people at hand, and to learn from each other.
What’s the timeframe for this?
We’d like to have all events completed by Thanksgiving. If you want to be outdoors, you’ll want to hold your event by mid-October.
You’ll need to start promoting your event at least 4 weeks in advance to get on people’s calendars.
Why are you doing this?
We believe that events such as this build community, and increase local resilience to disaster. So we are working to develop a package that makes it easy to organize an event, and simple to run the simulation. By organizing an event now, you’ll be helping to create something that many others can use in the future.
Have a block party with a twist!
We’re looking for a few Palo Alto residents to help organize a block party with a twist.
What’s the twist? It’s a live-action simulation designed to help families and neighbors practice their response to a catastrophic earthquake. Participants face the prospect of being without everyday services such as water, electricity, cell phones, and internet. With stores closed and emergency services busy elsewhere, they quickly discover what resources they can rely on. Most importantly, the people around them.
We’re Creative Crisis Leadership. Our goal is to increase community resilience to disaster. We provide the learning experience. You provide the neighbors and the party. Together we make it happen. In the words of a participant, “It is a great way to meet neighbors and gain comfort in working together.”
Lead the way in helping your neighbors get to know one another, have fun, and be ready to depend on each other in a major disaster. Check our organizer FAQ, and get in touch with our local team lead, Susanne Jul, for more information.
Susanne Jul
sjul at creativecrisisleadership.org
Pictures from our May 20 pilot event:
Practicing “duck, cover, and hold.”
Getting to someone trapped in a room.
Helping each other.
Baby steps: Event-in-a-box
It’s all about clarity of vision, minimum goals, and baby steps!
Now that we have successfully completed our pilot event, our next project is to conduct a series of pilot events to refine the event model and materials, and create a package for use by others.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Conduct a series of four Neighborhood Disaster Popup events in the Palo Alto area by the end of 2018. Members of target neighborhoods will market the event to their neighbors, and organize the social component (with our support). We will manage the learning simulation, including providing materials and recruiting volunteers.
OBJECTIVES
Refine the Neighborhood Disaster Popup event model and catastrophic earthquake learning simulation materials into something that is proven to further certain critical crisis preparedness goals, and which can readily be implemented by others with minimal guidance from us.
OUTPUTS
- Event-in-a-box containing
- A guide for organizing a neighborhood event
- Instructions and materials for the catastrophic earthquake learning simulation
- Event evaluation instructions and materials
- A tested strategy for training people to run the learning experience
- Data validating effectiveness/disproving ineffectiveness of the learning experience
OUTCOMES
- We have a reproducible event package
- We data to prove the effectiveness of the learning experience to take to potential funders and event organizers in early 2018
- We have one or more people, local to the Bay Area, who are able to run learning simulations in 2018
- We have two or more community-based partners who are potentially interested in and willing to work with us to sponsor events and support grant applications in 2018
AREA GOALS
Learning
- Refine the catastrophic earthquake simulation to be tighter, improve learning outcomes, and minimize the number of people needed to run.
- Develop a strategy for training people to run the learning simulation independently in the course of 1-2 events
Research
- Develop reliable instruments to measure event success and learning simulation outcomes
- Explore strategies for using events for theory refinement, focusing on methodological concerns, operationalization and instrumentation.
Engagement
- Train one or more individuals to run the catastrophic earthquake learning simulation
- Develop a relationship with two or more potential community partners to sponsor events and support grant applications in 2018
- Gather insights on adaptations needed to adapt the catastrophic earthquake learning simulation for use in the communities served by the potential community partners
“U” and “I” make a micro-community
The word “community” keeps coming up as we talk about our plans and thoughts. It struck me this morning that “micro-community” is much more appropriate.
We are all part of many communities at different levels. At the highest level, we are mere motes in some cosmic community. At a simpler level, we are giants in a micro-community. A micro-community that consists of whatever little corner of the world we happen to be in. As we move through the world, and the world moves around us, this micro-community changes. But we are constant. We are each always at the center of our micro-community.
Creative Crisis Leadership is about recognizing and engaging micro-communities. Helping people learn to anchor their own micro-community, whenever or wherever they need it (or it needs them). In other words, to be micro-community leaders.
“U” may be at the center of community, but “U” and “I” make a micro-community.