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Youth Resilience Corps: An Innovative Model to Engage Youth in Building Disaster Resilience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 October 2015

Joie Acosta ,
Vivian Towe ,
Anita Chandra  and
Ramya Chari
Joie Acosta*
Affiliation:
Rand Corporation, Arlington, Virginia.
Vivian Towe
Affiliation:
Rand Corporation, Arlington, Virginia.
Anita Chandra
Affiliation:
Rand Corporation, Arlington, Virginia.
Ramya Chari
Affiliation:
Rand Corporation, Arlington, Virginia.
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Joie Acosta, PhD, RAND Corporation, 1200 South Hayes St, Arlington, VA 22202 (e-mail: [email protected]).
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Abstract

Objective

Despite the growing awareness that youth are not just passive victims of disaster but can contribute to a community’s disaster resilience, there have been limited efforts to formally engage youth in strengthening community resilience. The purpose of this brief report was to describe the development of a Youth Resilience Corps, or YRC (ie, a set of tools to engage young people in youth-led community resilience activities) and the findings from a small-scale pilot test.

Methods

The YRC was developed with input from a range of government and nongovernmental stakeholders. We conducted a pilot test with youth in Washington, DC, during summer 2014. Semi-structured focus groups with staff and youth surveys were used to obtain feedback on the YRC tools and to assess what participants learned.

Results

Focus groups and youth surveys suggested that the youth understood resilience concepts, and that most youth enjoyed and learned from the components.

Conclusions

The YRC represent an important first step toward engaging youth in building disaster resilience, rather than just focusing on this group as a vulnerable population in need of special attention. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2016;10:47–50)

Keywords

disastersdisaster planningemergency preparednessemergency responders
Type
Brief Reports
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , February 2016 , pp. 47 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2015 

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