Community Resilience Districts

A Community Resilience District brings in a whole community, not just NET volunteers. Illustration by Hugh Newell.

The idea of the Community Resilience District ("CRD") came from volunteers who wanted to provide different ways to organize a NET that were not dictated by the boundaries of neighborhood associations. The CRD concept not only offers this alternative but also encourages the formation of operational teams at a block scale, centralizes the administrative functions of a NET, and promotes the recruitment of Affiliated Team Volunteers (ATVs). This article focuses on explaining the roles and responsibilities of CRDs and NETs. The tone may sound directive, but the intention is for communities to adopt the elements that make sense to them and discard those that don't. Nothing in this article should be treated as prescriptive.

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Background

Concept development began in early 2018 in response to the following ideas and concerns voiced by NET volunteers in surveys:

1. NET volunteers should organize at the block level rather than the neighborhood association level. Many NETs believe neighborhood associations are too large to effectively plan for an earthquake response, and it's more practical to focus on the hyperlocal level (block scale) where the response will likely take place.
2. Team meetings have low attendance, and there could be various reasons for this. However, regardless of the reason, Team Leaders get frustrated and burnt out when they don't regularly hear from their Team Members and Affiliated Team Volunteers (ATVs).
3. NETs need the support and involvement of the entire local community, not just a few neighbors who are interested in preparing for a disaster. NETs can act as advocates for disaster preparedness and response at the local level, but they will require assistance from less-engaged neighbors to respond effectively after an earthquake.
4. Many NET Team Leaders prefer to focus on operational planning rather than administrative tasks. Some become leaders to plan for the response in their immediate area and may not necessarily want to manage rosters, conduct meetings, recruit others, or raise funds.

Jeremy Van Keuren (PBEM Community Resilience Manager) presented the first CRD concept paper to NET volunteers on November 8, 2018. NETs responded optimistically to the presentation and directed PBEM to develop the concept further by piloting it in several neighborhoods. A pilot had already started in late spring that year in the St. Johns neighborhood, where it continues today. Jeremy also set about meeting with Downtown NET volunteers to develop a CRD charter, but the effort ultimately failed under stress from the COVID pandemic in 2020. Response to COVID, in fact, effectively shelved implementation of the CRD concept. A meeting of NET Team Leaders and PBEM during the 2022 NETcamp affirmed that the CRD concept is still something NETs and PBEM should explore pursuing.

As of 2023, St. Johns/Cathedral Park is the only NET that has piloted the CRD concept.

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CRD Model Precepts

PBEM shaped the Community Resilience District model with the following guiding principles in mind:

1. Many hands make light work. Don't expect one volunteer or a small group to handle all the tasks. Workloads should be manageable, considering that people are busy and have lives.
2. Defy the Pareto Principle. The Pareto Principle states that 20% of people do 80% of the work. In the case of NET, this principle tends to hold true (approximately 25% of NET volunteers log 75% of all the hours). However, the principle harms the resilience of volunteer teamwork by placing too much burden on a few individuals, leading to burnout or a team relying on one or two people to thrive. Leaders should invest in their fellow volunteers' capacity and delegate appropriately. In other words, spread the effort around instead of depending on a few willing hard workers.
3. Align volunteer responsibilities with personal interests. Everyone has a role in disaster preparedness and response. Make use of the diverse skills and interests of volunteers to create a more effective response team. For instance, a registered nurse could be valuable in a medical response unit, and someone who enjoys cooking could contribute to a kitchen unit. Non-NETs (ATVs) can and should participate in community resilience.
4. Keep response plans up to date. A response plan is a dynamic document. Even if a charter or operations plan is written, it should be regularly reviewed and updated as resources change.
5. Build strong foundations. It's tempting to tackle all problems at once, but this leads to burnout and incomplete solutions. Instead, prioritize and focus on resolving issues decisively. Then, move on to the next priority, giving it the same attention. Be realistic about what can be accomplished based on available resources.

In practice, CRD's guiding principles address problems raised by NETs in the following manner:

Problem	CRD Solution
1.) NET volunteers should organize at the block level rather than the neighborhood association level.	Structure a Community Resilience District so that it is made up of block-scale operational NETs that report to a larger administrative body.
2.) Team meetings have low attendance.	Include a function of the CRD charged specifically with maintaining the CRD's roster and tracking volunteer involvement (called the "Whip", see below).
3.) NETs need the support and involvement of the entire local community, not just a few neighbors who are interested in preparing for a disaster.	Use Volunteer Support Functions (VSFs) and Operations Planning to set and implement resource goals for the CRD and the block-scale NETs. Give ATVs clear volunteer position descriptions with training arcs.
4.) Many NET Team Leaders prefer to focus on operational planning rather than administrative tasks.	Allow NET Team Leaders to take charge of a service area they determine themselves and turn in an Operations Plan for that area to PBEM.

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Basic Community Resilience District Structure

The CRD model involves three main components: Portland Bureau of Emergency Management (PBEM), Community Resilience District (CRD), and Neighborhood Emergency Teams (NETs).

Although it may seem hierarchical, the CRD is intended to serve as a supportive team for the administrative needs of NETs rather than a direct authority. In fact, notwithstanding the diagram below, the CRD could serve as an organization lateral to the individual NET teams inside a CRD service area. Its strength lies in empowering any community member interested in emergency preparedness and response, offering them roles and responsibilities. The goal of this model is not to create bureaucracy, but to strengthen community resilience by actively involving more individuals.

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Diagram of the basic structure of a Community Resilience District (CRD). The CRD itself might be an organization above or lateral to the NETs. Illustration by Hugh Newell.

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Community Resilience Districts need a charter, but don't let the word "charter" make you think PBEM expects you to flounce about in a doublet or kirtle.

What is a Community Resilience District?

Under PBEM guidance, a CRD is made up of four essential parts:

1. A service area: A CRD has a service area that can be geographically depicted on a map. Inside that service area are operational teams that plan for and activate in a disaster...the NETs. PBEM recommends that a CRD's service area conform with a Fire Management Area (FMA). FMAs are ideal because each FMA has its own fire station and FMAs tend to have a consistency in operations planning risks inside their area. For example: FMA 27 is in Forest Park. A CRD and associated NETs working in FMA 27 all need to consider and plan for the problems that emerge with living in a wildland/urban interface area (such as wildfires). Meanwhile, a CSD and NETs in FMA 4 (Downtown Portland) must contend with the issues of organizing and responding in a dense urban environment, and so on.
2. A committee: The CRD committee is a group of volunteers (almost none of whom need to be NET trained) charged with providing administrative support to the NETs in their service area. That administrative support may include volunteer recruitment, convening meetings, outreach, fundraising, arranging training events, and more.
3. A charter: Despite its arcane name, the CRD charter simply clarifies responsibilities and sets goals for the CRD and associated NETs.
4. The individual block-scale NETs associated with the CRD: These are teams of NETs and neighbors who determine their own service area boundaries and operations plan. Their service area boundaries are inside the CRD service area boundary. Only NET Team Leaders are expected to interact with the CRD Committee.

Community Resilience District Service Areas

Every CRD begins with a Service Area: a geographic area of Portland inside of which the CRD Committee has jurisdiction and carries out its CRD Charter. The guidelines applying to CRD Service Areas are:

• CRD Service Area boundaries are a part of a CRD Charter and, therefore, are subject to PBEM approval.
• PBEM recommends that a Service Area be entirely inside City of Portland city limits. A Service Area can extend contiguously over the border of Portland and into another city or incorporated county area. However, volunteers operating outside of Portland city limits are never indemnified by the City of Portland.
• Except in unusual circumstances, CRD Service Area boundaries will be contiguous.
• CRD Service Area boundaries will never overlap with the boundaries of another CRD Service Area.
• CRD Service Area boundaries should include a minimum of one active NET team.

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What's an FMA and why do they matter?

FMA stands for "Fire Management Area" and FMAs are historically the service areas of single fire stations. Ironically, PF&R doesn't really use FMAs any longer. Today, a computer system dispatches the nearest available fire apparatus to a call, negating the need for FMAs. In the early days of Portland NET, FMAs served as the service area as a single team though they are no longer used for that either. But they are still possibly of use to PBEM and NET for community organizing purposes.

PBEM recommends that CRDs choose an FMA for their service area boundaries, for the following reasons:

• Each FMA has their own fire station. This makes working with PF&R easier, since it means fire officers need only keep tabs on one team instead of multiple teams.
• Each FMA has similar public safety problems to solve. With an exception here and there, FMAs were plotted with the response capabilities of fire stations in mind. For example, FMA 27 is up around Forest Park and the firefighters there are ready to fight fires in the Wilderness Urban Interface (WUI). Go down the slope and you're in FMA 6, Portland's industrial part of town. The firefighters there are prepared for industrial accidents. It makes sense for NETs to organize themselves around these similar response challenges.

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Phases of CRD Development

PBEM recommends CRD Committees develop the CRD with the following arc in mind, and approach each phase as a goal in and of itself:

1.) Assessment/Planning Phase Determine CRD Service Area. Plug willing people into as many CRD roles/jobs (interim if necessary) as feasible. Decide term limits, if any. Identify who can help you with the next phase (outreach); create a plan of action to move forward, decide what success looks like for this phase and set that as a goal.	2.) Outreach Phase Organize/announce a couple community-wide meetings to inform people/businesses inside the CRD of the plan and get them on board as resources, and to help determine CRD priorities. Use social media. Build a list of people who are willing to help and have skillsets that will benefit the CRD committee. Decide what success looks like for this phase and set that as a goal.
3.) Organization Phase Clarify where the NETs are located in the CRD. Identify acute barriers to participation in your community (such as language, ability, apathy, time) and attempt to address those issues in the way your committee is structured. Make final determination of who the CRD officers are and their responsibilities. Decide how often to meet in the foreseeable future.	4.) Continuance Phase Consider writing/adopting a charter (if it makes sense to do so). Identify ongoing agenda items. Set yourselves into a cycle of identifying problems relevant to the CRD's mission and solving them; appoint task forces as needed.