Preparing for Disasters: Mutual Aid, Community Response, and Recovery from Climate Disasters
Preparing for Disasters
Mutual Aid, Community Response, and Recovery from Climate Disasters
March 11th to April 15th
Every year, climate change unleashes more extreme weather and disasters. Many communities find themselves on the frontlines of climate chaos, either directly impacted through evacuations and destruction, or stepping up to support those who have been. In this increasingly volatile climate, it is essential to be prepared for disasters as individuals and as a community. From hotter heat waves to fiercer wildfires, extreme rain, floods, and stronger hurricanes, these disasters demand resilient responses.
Preparing for Disasters is a 6-week online course designed to equip participants with essential skills and collective strategies for navigating climate change, disaster response, and community recovery.
About the course
How can we develop skills and organize for more inclusive, equitable, and effective disaster response and recovery?
Preparing for disasters goes beyond personal safety and having the right supplies and go-bag. It’s about being ready to support neighbors and those disproportionately impacted by extreme weather. It involves sharing skills and resources, and organizing for mutual aid, collective care, and disaster justice. It’s about having a vision for the days, weeks, and months after a crisis, and working collectively to ensure no one is left behind or excluded from returning home, rebuilding, and recovery.
How can we build the necessary community and climate resilience needed to weather the coming storms?
As we face climate change and more extreme and regular disasters, we navigate chaos and crisis by coming together, showing up for each other, and creating inclusive and expansive webs of connection, collaboration, and mutual aid. Join Leila Darwish and special guests as we learn about disaster preparedness and climate resilience with a focus on mutual aid, community response, and equitable recovery.
Course Content
In this course, we take the reality and urgency of the climate crisis head-on. We focus on tools and strategies to prepare ourselves, take care of each other and the land, and create beautiful, fierce, and resilient lifelines through the coming fires, floods, heat waves, and storms. Together we can work to build our skills, create collective strategies for climate resilience and survival, and mobilize courageous and compassionate community disaster response and recovery efforts rooted in justice, mutual aid, and collective care.
- Session 1 – Personal Preparedness & Hazards:
- Personal emergency preparedness & planning.
- Hazards 101: extreme heat, wildfire, drought, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes & pandemics.
- Session 2 – Community Preparedness & Tools for Climate Resilience:
- Disproportionate impacts, equity and access in disasters.
- Collective strategies for climate resilience and disaster response.
- Building coalitions and working with emergency management agencies and disaster NGOs.
- Sessions 3 & 4 – Disaster Response: Evacuation planning and support
- Emergency communications. Sheltering.
- Emergency food response & feeding community.
- Animals & disaster. Trauma and healing support for disaster survivors and responders.
- Sessions 5 & 6 – Equitable Recovery
- Introduction to equitable recovery and disaster justice.
- Community organizing for mutual aid & community recovery.
- Post-disaster clean-up.
- Resilience & recovery centers. Managing donations.
- Housing & rebuilds. Post-disaster bioremediation & environmental justice
- Much more.
Classes will feature stories and guest presenters honoring the experiences of disaster survivors and responders, and highlighting inspiring climate resilience, mutual aid, and disaster response and recovery organizations and projects!
Enroll today and prepare to make a profound impact in your community’s readiness and recovery efforts.
Questions?
We are here for you. Please reach out at: support@earthactivisttraining.org
YOUR LEARNING JOURNEY
Preparing for Disasters: Mutual Aid, Community Response, and Recovery from Climate Disasters is part of the Regenerative Land Management diploma program and The Disaster Preparedness & Emergency Response Program
MEET YOUR TEACHER
Leila Darwish, Lead Instructor
Leila Darwish (she/her) is a community organizer and disaster response and recovery worker with a deep commitment to supporting communities on the frontlines of climate change and disaster. Leila has worked in emergency management in the United States and Canada for various government agencies and disaster non-profits, responding to major storms, floods, hurricanes, wildfires, heat waves, and the COVID-19 pandemic. She is especially passionate about accessible and inclusive disaster response and recovery, mutual aid, climate resilience, food security, and post-disaster bioremediation and ecological restoration.
In addition to her disaster response and recovery work, Leila has taught bioremediation and oil spill response courses in communities across North America for over a decade. Leila is the author of, “Earth Repair: A Grassroots Guide to Healing Toxic and Damaged Landscapes“(New Society Publishers: print, ebook, audiobook). She has worked as a community organizer for environmental justice organizations across Canada and the USA on a variety of climate justice and watershed protection campaigns. We are proud to call Leila a graduate of Earth Activist Training’s Permaculture Design Certificate course. She also teaches: Bioremediation & Earth Repair.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
COURSE INFORMATION
- Location: Virtual
- Dates: March 11 – April 15
- Timing: Tuesday 6pm PST
- *Helpful Tool: Time Zone Converter
- Taught by Leila Darwish with amazing guest presenters.
- A certificate will be awarded upon successful completion of this course.
- Each week has 2 hours of live instruction with supplemental online material.
- All live sessions are recorded and closed captioned.
- Access to resources, documentation and recorded class content in the virtual classroom.
PAYMENT
We are dedicated to making our courses as accessible as possible by offering:
SCHOLARSHIPS & DISCOUNTS
- Group Discounts and Diversity Scholarships available? Yes!
- Keep reading below
Questions?
- Contact: Support@EarthActivistTraining.org