Community resilience hubs have emerged as powerful means to address social and environmental inequities in the face of climate change. Yet despite their virtues and popularity, I’ve begun to question if resilience hubs effectively respond to neighbors’ climate traumas in ways that foster emotional resilience. As an embedded community participatory action researcher working alongside resourceful neighbors in south Puerto Rico’s largest coastal Barrio, Playa de Ponce, I see the critical need to address our neighbors’ mental health disparities.
Community resilience hubs are commonly forged in partnership between residents, non-profits, and locally elected leaders, providing year-round physical and social infrastructure. During and after climate disasters, the hubs pivot to coordinate disaster services and to distribute food and water.
Resilience hubs are experiencing a bit of a boom. In 2014, the first community resilience hub opened in Baltimore’s Perkins Homes public housing complex. Today, an estimated 252 resilience hubs operate in socially vulnerable, hazard prone communities across the nation.
Un Nuevo Amanecer’s (UNA) experience with resilience responses began with the formation of the organization around proviidng mutual aid. In the early days of the Pandemic, UNA became a venue for COVID testing. After 2022’s Hurricane Fiona left many neighbors’ homes flooded and in the dark, UNA’s volunteer board spontaneously organized. We worked our vast social networks, gathered and distributed supplies to the vulnerable seniors, partnered with World Central Kitchen to distribute pizzas, distributed food and ice, referred those in need to social services, and used our modest mutual aid fund to extend help to those with dire need.
Caption: Un Nuevo Amanecer provided a venue for COVID testing early in the Pandemic
Caption: World Central Kitchen supported Un Nuevo Amanecer’s Hurricane Fiona response
As a resilience planning resource, our neighbors have researched the multifaceted challenges posed by climate change and socio-economic disparities. UNA has responded by enhancing its building with potable water cisterns, solar energy and backup batteries, a short-wave radio, a recently opened community kitchen to provide food for neighbors in need, and facilities for washing clothes. UNA is developing community-led plans for a resilient future via improved neighborhood infrastructure.
Surfacing a need for mental health support
Encouraging words, solidarity, and helping hands are a natural response to devastation. But they are insufficient to heal emotional wounds from losing property, security, and sometimes loved ones to disaster.
The significance of incorporating mental health support into resilience hubs came on my radar when I realized that UNA’s community researchers were emotional raw after surveying hundreds of flood-affected households. When I asked about the survey experience, with a little nudging UNA’s community researchers tearfully shared their own horror stories of surviving multiple floods.
This underscored a gap in our research planning; When dealing with traumatic themes, community researchers should have access to emotional support.
Integrating mental health support
Being a strong, neighborhood-rooted organization in a disaster zone demands a holistic approach to disaster resilience – one that prioritizes the well–being of the whole organization and the communities we serve.
Yet, integrated mental health support is surprisingly often overlooked in the technocratic planning for resilience hubs. I am at a loss to explain the low priority of emotional support given that thepioneers in resilience studies (Garmezy, 1973; Werner & Smith, 1977; Rutter, 1979) were rooted in health science and psychology.
Thankfully, UNA’s vice president Pastor Roberto Ortiz played a crucial role in helping to bridge this gap. He opened the door to Recovery International (RI), a volunteer-based mutual support organization specialized in mental health that now holds weekly meeting at UNA’s center. No professionals in mental health lead the meetings. Instead, peers trained and certified in Recovery International’s self-help method facilitate. Neighbors learn how to manage symptoms from PTSD, for example, in a manner that promotes peace, order and balance. RI has profoundly transformed the lives of its participants by addressing mental health disparities.
Looking ahead: Expanding our impact
As UNA continues to develop and implement projects, we are constantly seeking new opportunities to expand our impact. UNA has reaffirmed my belief in the power of communities to research and design resilience solutions, including those that address mental health. Through our collaborative efforts, we are not only creating safer and more resilient communities but also fostering a sense of empowerment and collective responsibility.
