1.0. Introduction Psychosocial support is an accepted practice during the recovery and reconstruction phases following disasters. Saraceno (2006) suggest that psychosocial support social addresses the reactions to enormous losses, which are often ignored in the immediate aftermath or forgotten during the reconstruction phase of a disaster Psychosocial support builds on the knowledge and awareness of local needs and protective factors to provide psychological and social support to people involved in disaster situations. The aim is to enhance survivors’ resilience in achieving psychological competence. Reestablish ‘sense of place’, requires that survivors examine the way they think and act in order to reconstruct their lives, as environment, social, and ecological changes are taking place during the reconstruction phase. Psychosocial support identifies the survivor as the main actor in the reestablishment of ‘sense of place’. They are actively engaged in making communal decisions, taking the time and making an effort to choose their goals, identifying resources and making their action plans, all of which help to empower them and their communities. There has been a move in the past ten years to develop Psychosocial Support Programs as part of the repertoire of services offered after a disaster. Most notable among the National Societies is the Danish Red Cross that has been operating psychosocial programs for well over a quarter of a century. Currently, the Danish Red Cross houses the IFRC ‘Psychosocial Documentation Center’ and has a pool of experts that is available to serve in any part of the world. In 1999, a devastating earthquake hit Turkey. As a consequence of this disaster, the Turkish Red Crescent Society organized a psychosocial program for the affected area. Initially, the psychosocial program served those affected by the earthquake. In recent years, the Turkish Red Crescent Psychosocial Support Program has been very active in providing international responses. In 2002, as a result of the Gujarat earthquake, the Indian Red Cross developed a strong Disaster Mental Health and Psychosocial Care Program. The materials prepared by IRCS have been used extensively in South and South East Asia as valuable resources during the 2004 tsunami. Trained IRCS members have joined the American Red Cross in providing a timely and strategic response immediately after the tsunami. The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) approved a Psychological Support Policy in May 2003. The policy mandates six “should” activities for national societies: 1. Integration of psychological support into existing programs (disaster preparedness, disaster response, first aid, health, social services and youth) 2. Developing psychological support as a community-based program 3. Coordination with existing GO’s and NGO’s that are providing psychological support, 4. Planning to develop implementation of psychological support in conjunction with other programs during the acute 5. Rehabilitation 6. Reconstruction phases of a disaster. Following the 2004 Asia Tsunami and the Pakistan Earthquake of 2005, psychosocial support activities have come to the fore. As Psychosocial support continues to be identified by the Humanitarian community as a tool for alleviating suffering and enhancing resilience of the survivors, the questions arises: (1) what constitutes psychosocial support intervention leading to reestablishment of ‘sense of place’’. , This paper, attempts to address this question. 2.0. Theoretical Framework for the Psychosocial Program 2.1. Sense of place The term ‘place’ denotes humans’ subjective experiences and meanings of the locations which they inhabit (Bott, Cantrill, and Myers: 2003). Steele (1981) noted several types of place experiences (immediate feelings and thoughts, views of the world, intimate knowledge of one spot, memories or fantasies, personal identification, etc.) and several major characteristics of place (identity, history, fantasy, mystery, joy, surprise, security, vitality, and memory). The recent tsunami highlighted the importance of memories in determining place attachment, as well as of control over meaningful space, the manipulation of that space, and the re-creation of some essence of significant past settings in later life. Such acts have important psychological consequences: we are motivated to effect these changes in order to discover, confirm, and remember who we are. Our memories of, and self-expressions through, settings are profound reminders of self-identity, especially at times when that identity is weakened or threatened (Cantrill and Senecah: 2001). Tuan (1974) used the term ‘rootedness’ to denote the merger of personality with place, based on living in a location for an extended length of time. Prohansky, Fabian, and Kaminoff (1983) defined ‘place identity’ as a relationship in which, through personal attachment to a geographically locatable place, a person acquires a sense of belonging and purpose in that place, which gives meaning to life. Moore and Graefe (1994) considered ‘place identity’ to be the valuing of a particular setting for emotional-symbolic reasons, such as profound ‘first’ experiences, or being from a place. 2.2. Loss of place: Most Serious Impact of a Disaster Fullilove (1996) suggests that any catastrophic event such as a disaster causes a loss of place and triggers the need to survive. Human survival depends on having a location that is ‘good enough’ to support life. People interacting in a psychosocial environment are sensitive to spoken and unspoken dynamics of power. Messages of acceptance and mutual respect are essential for the creation of strong community networks. Those that do not bind the individual to the group may leave people feeling isolated, without a sense of common purpose. Over time, survivors develop a unique perspective of what their ‘place’ is. There are different stages of human responses during the recovery and reconstruction phases that are similar to the phases of community development. In effect, the establishment of self is nothing more than reconstructing a sense of community, and concludes with the development of competence. 2.3. Re- Establishing a Sense of Place Participatory assessment is one of the most frequently used techniques in assessing the community, determining risks, and identifying community resources. The purpose of participatory assessment is to give a voice to those community groups that are traditionally not heard. In this section, four forms of participatory assessment are discussed: (1) community mapping, (2) community three-dimensional models (3) community inventories, and (4) focused groups. When the community is ready to design a community resilience project, it must identify and prioritize the problems that need to be tackled. It needs to learn techniques that involve all community members in the identification of problems that affect psychosocial well-being. Therefore, community members need to learn the principles and skills of participating in evaluation, assessment, and appraisal. There must be agreement and consensus among community members that the chosen problem to be solved is the one with the highest priority. An accurate appraisal by the community members is necessary before the members can decide upon priorities and agree on a project to start action. 3.0. Standards, Indicators, and Guidance Attempts in the last three years to include psychosocial support in emergency response guidelines and standards have witnessed the development of standard tools and guidance documents by SPHERE Project (2004), Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergency (INEE) (2004), and MHPSS/IASC (2007). The SPHERE Project defines ‘social intervention’ as that which aims primarily at social effects. ‘Psychological intervention’ means intervention that aims at psychological (or psychiatric) effect. It acknowledges that social interventions have secondary psychological effects and that psychological interventions have secondary social effects, as the term ‘psychosocial’ suggests (p. 291). INEE defines psychosocial support as the a methodology that fosters the reconstruction of local structures (family, community groups, and schools) which have been destroyed or weakened by a disaster, so that they can give appropriate and effective support to those suffering severe stress related to the ‘loss of place’. (Nicolai, 2003) The most recent guidance for mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) developed by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (2007) enables humanitarian actors and communities to plan, establish, and coordinate a set of minimum responses to protect and improve people’s mental health and psychosocial well-being in an emergency. Minimum responses are the first and essential first steps that lay the foundation for more comprehensive efforts that may be needed over the life of an emergency (including the stabilized and early reconstruction phases). These guidelines bridge the traditional divide between mental health and psychosocials support programs during disaster recovery and reconstruction. The guidelines contain strategies for mental health and psychosocial support to be considered immediately before and after the acute emergency phase. These ‘before’ (emergency preparedness) and ‘after’ (comprehensive response) steps establish a context for the minimum response and emphasize that they are only the starting point for more comprehensive support. These guidelines (SPHERE, INEE, and IASC/MHPSS) serve as a roadmap to the development of psychosocial support programmes during the acute, recovery, and reconstruction stages following a disaster. 3.0. Initiating Community Contact Psychosocial support practices include several steps which assist the community in the identification of perceived and felt needs. The lessons learned from the American Red Cross PSP is that several steps need to be taken with the community as the main actor: (1) inputs from all community members through community mapping exercises: (2) systematic information to assist the community in prioritizing its perceived needs; (3) identification of community resources and human capital; and (4) involvement of community members as executors of the projects (planning, developing, monitoring, and reporting). Community inputs are obtained through community mapping exercises and by preparing community facilitators to assist different groups in the process of developing a community-driven agenda for recovery and reconstruction. Communities develop their capacities based on their recognized strengths and solidarities. Including communities in managing their own resources (Greenberg and Suundararajan, 2006) is probably the result of a mapping exercise. Equity and respect for human rights are central to the recovery process. Preparing Red Cross volunteers, branch personnel, and community facilitators, as well as understanding the language of distress of the community, is called the ‘gestation period’ of the project. The way of enhancing the capacity of the community to look at itself is through community mapping. The psychosocial community committee, comprising Red Cross volunteers, community facilitators, traditional healers, and trusted elderly and under-represented groups, participate in a physical walk through the community, and draw a map of the area. The map includes communal facilities, buildings, roads, utilities, human capital, environmental strengths and risks. After the map has been drawn, the community facilitators along with small diverse groups (women, children, adolescents, and elderly men) develop separate maps. Next, all the small groups prepare a large three-dimensional map, combining and synthesizing what is included in all small group maps. These maps show the perspective of the participants and reveal much about local knowledge of resources, land use, and settlement patterns, or household characteristics. Community mapping is a dynamic process, and reflects the worldview and focused objective of the exercise; therefore it must be reviewed every quarter. In an integrated program, it is essential that different groups address the focused objective and then utilize photography and tabletop layouts to interpose layers (similar to GIS technology). In this activity, the Red Cross volunteer identifies someone who may assume the role of community facilitator and who could introduce the volunteer to a small circle of families, friends, and acquaintances. These networks are used for initial interviews and for observation. Since everyone knows many other people, the Red Cross volunteer and the community facilitator work their way through social groups, finding more and more people to talk to, and being allowed into more and more homes. This process takes considerable time since virtually no one is willing to talk in depth about his or her disaster reactions and subsequent experiences on the first visit. Time, familiarity, and ‘going with the flow’ are needed until enough rapport is established so that the Red Cross volunteer can take out a note book, or videotape the interview. Once the primary barriers are down, the volunteer and the community facilitators (with supervision by ARC expatriate staff) are able to return and gather much more information from the community members. The Red Cross volunteer and the community facilitator gain the trust of the survivors, and people share their views with others who support, create, and run the community-based PSP in small focused groups. The five-step process involves PSP personnel from outside assisting the local branches and communities in developing their own resources. There are typically five specific stages in the participatory process followed by the ARC/PSP model: (1) entry into the community; (2) sharing of information gathered during initial interviews with families; (3) information review and confirmation with ARC personnel to come up with themes and key informants in the community; (4) focused group interviews on selected topics; and (5) exit from the community. In all cases, these are cyclical processes which may take between one to three months. 4.0. The four core components of Psychosocial Support 4.1. The School Program The school-based program is composed of several projects that are oriented at understanding the psychosocial competence of children, teachers and volunteers. Teachers learn to listen to children and plan the school activities with them. Creative and expressive activities create an environment where students can begin to express themselves in a safe and non-judgmental environment. A. School Psychosocial Crisis Response Planning The first step in developing a psychosocial support program in schools is to work closely with teachers and volunteers so that they understand: • The role of teachers and the school in promoting the physical and emotional development of children • How to develop methods for classroom management that promote positive behavior changes and a safe and secure environment • The importance of/ How to create a learning environment that is safe for children to express themselves and learn ways to communicate in positive ways. The American Red Cross PSP program uses participatory methods with all school groups (children, teachers, volunteers and other adults in schools) to identify mental health and psychosocial needs, provide staff development for teachers and other adults (teachers, community social workers, and non-formal educators) and assist the school community to establish a psychosocial crisis response plan. Teachers and other school staff and volunteers receive relevant and structured capacity-building activities, teaching aids and tools to develop their skills. Using these activities and tools enables them to give psychosocial support to students and their families when needed and to promote students’ development of psychosocial competence according to the needs and circumstances during emergencies. Teachers are encouraged to share their adaptations and experiences with other adults in the school that may be included in the teacher-training curriculum. Teachers and other school personnel are provided with regular supervision and capacity building activities on topics related to psychosocial competence and support for their own psychosocial needs. Teachers and other adults start the process of developing a plan by identifying what constitutes a crisis in their respective schools. Once the definition of crisis is made operational and the teachers understand the concept of vulnerability and protective factors, they then learn to conduct a situational analysis of their school grounds. The situation analysis is recorded by doing a three-dimensional map of the school grounds. The two questions that are answered in this exercise are: 1. Where is our particular exposure to the threats identified and who is at risk as a result? 2. How and why are we vulnerable? Usually teachers spend a lot of time discussing external sources of the problems. Once they get back to their map, then the discussion turns inward to the reality of their school situation and challenges in the grounds around it. The teachers identify the vulnerable population that may be at risk (kindergarten classes, children with exceptional needs, those that are physically handicapped etc.). School mapping is performed to understand the risks to achieving psychosocial competence of teachers and students. Teachers and students are exposed to capacity-building activities that prepare them to handle a crisis or an emergency. Exercises and simulations are conducted every two months to make sure that all members of the school community are able to perform their assigned tasks. Since schools do not have the resources for the equipment needed for this activity, the program provides a resilient school grant to purchase the equipment (more under the section on resiliency projects). The teachers also identify the available school resources that can support the activities to reduce the crisis-related distress. They identify the key elements of the strategy of response in cases of crisis or emergency. This exercise broadens the understanding of the teachers and students on the risks to which they are exposed and the available resources to cope with those risks. The primary stakeholders for all school activities are children. Therefore, ARC’s PSP focuses on developing skills of children as an investment in the future of the community and through becoming educated citizens for the well being of the nation. The final part of the capacity-building activities for the ‘Safe School Program’ is the appointment of the coordinating committee and five operational committees. The coordinating committee manages the training, simulations and response. The five operational committees are: 1. Evacuation 2. Fire fighting 3. Rescue and first aid 4. Psychological first aid 5. Other support committees These five committees are composed of teachers, students and other adults in the school. Ultimately, the purpose of appointing these committees is to be able to return the children safely to the local authorities and the parents. B. Facilitating a school environment that leads to feelings of positive psychosocial competence Once the school has developed the ‘Safe School Program’ and children and teachers are capable of conducting the activities in the plan, the projects turns its focus on preparing teachers to facilitate education for the children in an environment that nurtures learning and provides teachers with an understanding of all the students. Usually this activity begins in the early reconstruction phase of the disaster (the guidance for this activity is taken from the INEE Standards). Most classrooms have received school chests (the school chest project was borrowed from a program in the domestic side of ARC) from the American Red Cross or other INGOs. The chest contains drawing books, pencils, crayons, colored clay, skipping ropes etc. that are useful in engaging children and provides a window for expressing feelings and experience sharing. However, the experience has been that the chests have been given to teachers with no clear instructions on how to use the contents. Thus the chests, instead of being a helpful tool, have become a hindrance for schools that often do not have a secure storage space. The American Red Cross PSP program has provided teachers with the recreation chests (usually one chest per teacher). The teachers are given clear instructions about the contents of each chest and they organize a one-day workshop in developing activities that are contextual and age appropriate for the children in their classrooms. The school chest serves as a conduit for psychosocial activities. C. Organizing expressive and creative activities in schools To alleviate disaster-related stress in students, counselors and other school personnel could use one of the three cultural appropriate approaches: 1. The talking approach, allows children to talk about their feeling and experience related to the disaster. The sequence to follow while using the approach is to speak about disaster in general, discuss their specific disaster and talk about the personal experience during the disaster. 2. The drawing approach, with which children are able to express their feelings using a non-verbal medium. The stimulus could be: Where were you when the disaster happened? ARC experience has been that collages are a powerful means of expression. 3. The writing approach, which can be used with older children and adolescents. Utilizing either drawing as stimulus or paper clippings or pictures allows students to write about their disaster-related experiences. Under the program, expressive and creative activities (drama, drawing, writing, singing, dancing, group discussions, arts and crafts, collages, story telling, plays and community theatre) were organized in the schools. These activities allowed the children in the target schools and communities to communicate their feelings. 4.2. Re-establishing the community’s ‘Sense of Place’ The objective of engaging the community in a systematic process of looking at themselves and determining their strengths and human capital is called ‘Re-establishing the Sense of Place’. It is experienced that the community interventions that are planned and developed for augmenting resilience and assisting the community to use their own resources for re-establishing their ‘sense of place’, are proactive, preventive, and positive in minimizing psychological dysfunction. The programs’ objectives are to: • Conduct participatory assessment and context analysis of local community’s resources, services, and practices, including local resource people and community members; • Provide capacity building and supervise community-based psychosocial workers on how to administer emergency support to alleviate disaster-related distress; and • Address pre-emergency psychological or social symptoms and assist the community members to identify potential resilience activities that will contribute to the community psychosocial competence. The program identifies community volunteers and provides capacity building to them, so that they can become community facilitators (non-paid volunteers). The community facilitators assist in the development of community-owned and managed psychosocial support activities by promoting positive coping, individual and group behaviors and strengthening networks that lead to psychosocial competence. The Table 1 below, briefly outlines the qualifications of the community facilitators. In every community the effort is to identify one person in every fifty people, to become a community facilitator. There are three distinct sets of activities that have to be developed by community facilitator: (1) informal schooling, (2) informal health, and (3) community organization. All program segments rely on resilience projects to move the community forward. Thus the challenge in developing community programs is to recognize that by enhancing resilience and assisting community in attaining its ‘sense of place,’ will lead to psychosocial competence - the focus of community-based psychosocial support programs. Table 1: Three lines of community service for American Red Cross PSP community facilitators (36 hours of capacity-building activities and 100 hours of supervision) A. Informal schooling The ‘informal school program’ works with children below five and out-of-school youth and marginalized groups of handicapped individuals, elderly, and widows. Each of these informal schools is provided with a recreation kits and other psychosocial support materials. Education within these schools is facilitated by the ‘community facilitators’ and led by the school teachers. In the morning sessions the focus is on education for children under five. The community facilitator, informal school teacher and adults and adolescents from various marginalized group’s assist in educating this group. In the afternoon session the activities focus on education for out-of-school youth and tutoring for children who need extra attention. These informal schools also serve as a venue where community elders come together to educate children about their history and culture, and enhance their vocational skills. Informal schooling includes creative and expressive activities to facilitate the involvement of the whole community including elderly, physically handicapped, widows, and children in its recovery process. Not everyone feels comfortable expressing themselves verbally. Creative and expressive activities such as drawing, story telling, art and crafts, can provide creative ways for these individuals, to communicate their feelings. Community-based skits and story telling has also proven to be a powerful and effective way of venting feelings; it is a simple healing process with feeling of enjoyment and togetherness. These types of activities are used in both in the school and community focused activities to facilitate expression of feelings, reduce distress, and enhance a sense of belonging. B. Informal health activities Community health is divided into two sectors.1) Trained medical personnel in the community health clinic or the local hospital conduct the formal health activities, and 2) Community members carry out the informal health activities. These interventions usually rely on the traditional community resources, belief systems, and the definition of psychological well-being before the disaster. This level is broad and covers the: 1. Strengthening of the support provided by pre-existing community resources; 2. Community participatory activities that include getting members of the community together in self-identifying and planning community activities to reduce the mental and social distress and promote self care; 3. Activities that address important social factors to reduce social suffering; 4. Structured social services outside the health sector; and 5. Strengthening of community networks through community activities that ensure that isolated persons come in contact with one other and mutual support is generated. C. Community cohesion and resilience projects The community facilitator is in charge of mobilizing the community and has responsibilities that are similar to someone working in disaster preparedness or response. But the exception is that the community facilitator is suppose to bring the representatives of all segments of the community together for understanding the community and to plan a project jointly. Planning, conducting, and evaluating a project leads to a more cohesive community with renewed skills for developing itself. Keeping the deliverables in sight, the training of the community facilitator consists of elements of leadership, group development, and conflict resolution, mapping and developing community plan. The plan should: 1. Identify orphans and vulnerable children, including children with physical disabilities, children in women-headed households, children of people in prison for war related crimes, street children etc.; 2. Identify widows and widowers; 3. Identify other vulnerable populations (chronic diseases, those with physical disabilities, elderly); and 4. Establish the segment of population in need and the ratio that is being served. 4.3. Organizing, Developing and Implementing a Community Resilience Project Planning resilience projects is a ‘futuristic activity,’ proactive rather than reactive, sequential, and collaborative. Built upon set of core choices, it must include necessary details of timing, budget and phasing. In emergency settings, the surrounding chaos, suffering and time pressures push humanitarian agencies to act quickly, without learning about local beliefs and practices. Due to this haste, it becomes more likely that culturally inappropriate programming will be imposed. The meaningful participation of project beneficiaries in the assessment, planning and implementation stages is essential for generating appropriate activities and a sense of ownership and increased likelihood of sustainability. This section describes how resilience projects enhance psychosocial competence in the disaster-affected communities. Resilience projects are engaged in a cycle where the community assesses, formulates and evaluates the participatory interventions, which through cycles of response and reconstruction, recognize community resources and establish a ‘sense of place’ for the survivors. The more the community takes charge of identifying their own needs (seeking indigenous solutions and engaging in solution-focused activities), the quicker is recovery and the achievement of psychosocial competence. To ensure that programming is inclusive, contextual, culturally sensitive and appropriate, it is valuable to consider the four key questions that determine the response to disaster and assist in developing a comprehensive community-based psychosocial support program: • What do we want? All community members get together and identify their psychosocial support needs. They rank the needs on the list and prioritize with the help of the community facilitator. They identify what they want. This is the basis of the community-based psychosocial support intervention. • What do we have? Knowledge about the capacity of the community, its resources, strengths, and liabilities, by analyzing the outcome of assessment process gives the community an insight into its actual rather than felt needs. • How do we us what we have to get what we want? The community identifies the resources it has in terms of manpower, tools, land, etc. and in a participatory process, assesses its utilization to achieve desired results. • What will happen when we do? The outcomes of the community effort are compared with the program objectives, whether achieved or not. ‘Participatory Situation Analysis’ identifies and defines the characteristics and problems specific to particular category of people. Information for situation analysis and ‘problem definition’ collected with the community members is valid, reliable, and comprehensive. The qualitative and quantitative ‘Participatory Assessment’ technique identifies the response mechanism for the community resources and determines risks. The assessment process involves the whole community in decision-making, and encourages community members to take responsibility for any facility or service that may be installed in the future. The community assessment sets the stage for the resilience project. Before implementing community-based psychosocial support program planners, implementers, and beneficiaries should set up clear goals. The support organizations function as a facilitator, providing structure and stimulation. Community members are normally and usually willing to engage in the process and learn the skills in the process. The outcome of the assessment acts as a baseline or data for problem identification, measuring progress, and is therefore an element of community-based monitoring and evaluation. A. Focus Group Discussions Focus group discussions are useful when there is a range of experiences and opinions among members of the community. For support agencies, it is best to work as facilitator, one leading the discussion and making a record. The chosen discussion topics should be fewer and more specific than taken for the general community. Conduct separate sessions for the different interest groups, record their contributions carefully, and bring them together to share their special concerns. Special focus groups give an opportunity to work separately with different groups that may find it difficult to work together at first, but the facilitators efforts brings them together and bridging the gap. The ARCs PSP has developed a form that shows the step to take in developing a resilience project and the results that will indicate completion. Table 2: Steps to be taken in developing a resilience project and the results Agreeing on the strategy involves determining all inputs needed to implement the project, defining responsibility of different groups or individuals, and specifying roles that they will play in the project. A mechanism for resultant progress toward objectives and feed back on activities should also be developed. This may involve participatory assessment meetings in which monitoring data are discussed and further action plans are elaborated. B. Sharing the Good News The completion of the resilience project must be shared with the participants, the community, and the support agency. The implementation and organization of the community celebrations are hard work and are important and vital parts of the mobilization. For the community, a celebration is an exciting break from the monotony of work or study. Drumming, dancing, plays, skits, parades, talent shows, and other modes of entertainment should be included in every celebration. Invite local amateur culture groups and school groups to perform. The celebration is a turning point for the community. They recognize that they are victorious in accomplishing their project. This single step significantly contributes to the community recognizing its psychosocial competence. 4.4. Supporting Host Government Capacity to Implement Psychosocial Support Programs In collaborating closely with the affected countries’ government, the psychosocial programs can gain institutional acceptance and sustainability. In the immediate aftermath of a disaster, American Red Cross Psychosocial Support Programs, as a matter of policy, promptly begin coordination efforts with government and non-government groups. The coordination groups usually have representation from the key government ministries such as the ministries of health, social welfare and education, UN agencies and national and international non-governmental organizations. The National Societies are the national voluntary organizations acting as auxiliaries to the public authorities of their own countries in the humanitarian field. In most cases the National Society (NS) encourages the American Red Cross to participate in tripartite programs with the key government ministries. This is an important element not only in terms of ministries but also in case of National Universities that the National Societies has worked with on PSP. The services offered by ARC include capacity building, material development and sharing or purchasing of books and periodicals on psychosocial support activities and interventions. This activity has high impact, wide reach, high visibility and because it is co-sponsored by the government, high acceptance from the public. 5.0. Achieving Psychosocial competence 6.0. Summary Psychosocial support is recognized as an important component of recovery and reconstruction efforts in communities in the aftermath of disasters. The forms and methods of such support have grown in response to the severity of disasters and have been refined to suit specific local needs. Community resilience projects or the reestablishment of ‘sense of place’ is a form of empowerment of the community in moving ahead. 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