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Trauma-Informed Storytelling Activities for Community Engagement

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Sharing stories creates connections and shared understanding that are foundational for increasing community resilience. In this interactive training session, participants will learn how to develop and facilitate a structured storytelling activity that can be used in a variety of resilience planning and community engagement efforts. Storytelling is used to identify community concerns and actions to increase resilience and equity. Participants will receive templates and materials that can be customized for specific contexts and that can be used during in-person or virtual meetings and workshops as part of climate vulnerability assessment, hazard mitigation planning, emergency preparedness or similar contexts. The storytelling activity and materials are part of the Equitable Resilience Builder (ERB), an interactive application developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that guides users with resources and materials for participatory and equitable engagement in assessing hazards, vulnerability, and resilience.

Impact/Purpose

Increasing and inequitable impacts from climate change and other hazards are a growing concern for communities and a focus of planning efforts. This research, conducted through case studies with several U.S. communities, explores and develops ways to center equity in resilience planning through participatory processes. The findings support resilience planning efforts at local scales through the development of the Equitable Resilience Builder tool which offers guidance and activities for engaging community members in planning. The research may be of interest to planning practitioners, community based organizations and state and federal agency staff who support community resilience efforts.

Citation

Eisenhauer, E., A. Hertzberg, M. Martin, R. Nee, K. Maxwell, M. Fry, S. Henson, S. Julius, B. Kiessling, Annie Matsler, L. Oliver, I. Reilly, AND M. Shacklette. Trauma-Informed Storytelling Activities for Community Engagement. Natural Hazards Workshop, Washington, DC, July 14 - 17, 2024.

Download(s)

  • TRAUMA-INFORMED STORYTELLING ACTIVITIES FOR COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT.PDF (PDF)  (NA  pp, 1.5 MB, about PDF)
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Last updated on August 08, 2024
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