It takes a community to weather a storm

Climate change is wreaking havoc in our communities. The weather is increasingly unpredictable and extreme. Vulnerable populations are catching up plus vulnerable.

Because of this, emergency management in Canadian cities and towns is changing. Municipalities are recognizing religious organizations (FBOs) as collaborators and partners in this turn, which is not surprising, since caring for people is in their DNA.

Houses of worship are positioning themselves to be neighborhood “safe havens” during times of crisis, either acting as cooling centers during extreme heat events, serving as places to charge phones during a power outage, or as places to take shelter during an ice. storm.

In fact, it was the 2013 ice storm in Brampton, Ontario. that had Alain Normand, then an emergency manager for the City of Brampton Office of Emergency Management (BEMO), seeing the need for a change in the way disasters are handled. With power outages and treacherous conditions outside, Normand explains how when designated community centers opened, very few people showed up. “People were stranded, older people couldn’t get to the centers on foot,” he recalls. “And yet many people wanted to help, but the mechanisms to do so were not in place. I thought, ‘We have to find a better way.’

Vulnerability mapping

Normand proposed mapping the general location of known vulnerable populations and resources that are within easy reach. These resources were overwhelmingly places of worship of various religions. Additionally, 90 percent of Brampton’s 600,000 residents join a faith.

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Their research revealed that the proximity of the 79 Brampton worship centers to vulnerable population groups in the community would require that only 20 of them could respond to whatever need arises.

Michelle Sullivan, the BEMO team leader at the time, notes that by mapping the vulnerabilities of a community, they realized that communities do not necessarily face the same dangers. Some cities may have air or flood situations, others could be in the path of a tornado or wildfire.

“For Brampton, their vulnerability had to do with who couldn’t afford the help they needed, who couldn’t walk, who was so far apart that neighbors and friends couldn’t help them either, and how we could put refuge areas in those spaces.”

For Sullivan, it is essential to have someone who is aware of the situation of these dangers. She says the city of Brampton had gained a good understanding of dangers over the years because Normand had a great team dedicated to the issue. “He mentored the students to look at our demographics, to find not only the vulnerabilities, but also to find out where the strengths are, what our genius is and how we can harness it.”

The lighthouse project (LHP) grew out of these mapping exercises and community building efforts. A collaboration between the City and 20 of its OBFs is aimed at turning these religious groups into meeting points. LHP acts as a communications hub and the mechanisms are established in advance. Through the LHP, Sullivan helped train and equip hundreds of religious volunteers to be first responders.

Sullivan emphasizes the need for cities to look beyond their geographic boundaries to see how they could work with neighboring cities: “Think if we could help and absorb people, and if they could help us if the need arises,” he said. He says. “So a community would want to know, ‘Is there a welcoming environment around us with like-minded people doing the same thing?'”

Fortunately, Brampton is analyzing that scenario. Megan Ball, the city’s senior media relations advisor, says Brampton’s Emergency Management Program often overlaps with neighboring municipalities.

“As emergencies know no geographic boundaries, many of the plans (from the Brampton office of emergency management) integrate with other cities in support, coordination and interoperability with each other to try to build resilient communities abroad.”

COVID and the Lighthouse project

LHP was temporarily halted due to COVID-19 because BEMO had to shift focus to pandemic response.

One benefit of LHP’s hard-won and pre-established relationships with its FBOs is that the city relied on them to help with its Backyard program grow vegetables for food banks.

“It was one of the ways that LHP was a blessing,” says Sullivan, who helped coordinate teams of volunteers. “We had full participation of the religions at all times: we grew food, distributed it and promoted the program in their churches, temples, mosques and gurdwaras.”

With things settling into a new standard, BEMO has re-engaged FBOs to understand how the city and FBOs can mutually meet the needs of residents in times of uncertainty.

The concept expands

Faith and the common good (FCG), a multi-religious environmental charity with branches across the country, has been testing the concept of FBOs as “extreme weather centers” since 2013.

In 2018, FCG partnered with the BEMO team to expand the LHP in Toronto and Hamilton.

The Halton region followed in 2019 with Oakville Ready, a partnership between the Halton Environmental Network, FCG, the City of Oakville, and other community-focused groups, working to engage FBOs in emergency preparedness. Oakville Ready it now has eight religious groups involved and is adding two more.

These are just a few examples of how social infrastructure is beginning to be recognized as as critical to a community’s resilience as physical infrastructure, because it takes a community to weather a storm.