Community and Regional Resilience Institute

IT ANTICIPATES: problems, opportunities, potentials for surprises

IT REDUCES VULNERABILITIES: related to development paths, socio-economic conditions, sensitivities to possible threats

IT RESPONDS: effectively, fairly, and legitimately

IT RECOVERS: rapidly, better, safer and fairer (objectives which may not align perfectly, calling for widespread community participation in strategy development)

"Partnerships with state, local, tribal, and territorial agencies affect DHS's ability to identify threats and bolster preparedness before an accident; they also affect our ability to work with first responders and assist a community's recovery after an incident. The information we gather, the funding we grant, and the training and assistance we provide are all more valuable in securing our Nation if DHS's relationships with the involved state and local agencies are strong."

Secretary Janet Napolitano, 25 Feb 2009

Testimony of Secretary Janet Napolitano before the House Committee on Homeland Security on DHS, The Path Forward

The Community and Regional Resilience Institute (CARRI) is dedicated to research and practical application across the full continuum of prevention, protection, response and recovery to enhance the resilience of communities and regions. CARRI seeks to assist the nation in developing an accepted, common framework for community and regional resilience that integrates the full suite of community resources into a coherent resilience pathway so that the community can get back on its feet following a natural or man-made disaster as quickly as possible.

CARRI began as an "initiative" in 2007 and is a collaborative effort between the Department of Homeland Security (Science and Technology Directorate), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Savannah River National Laboratory, and a number of academic institutions. Early CARRI activities included the engagement of a diverse collection of individuals, organizations, and government entities - with a charge to learn all that we could about the condition and path of community resiliency. While our efforts were productive and worthwhile we soon recognized that an accurate understanding of the interdependencies and connections between communities could not be achieved without the involvement of actual communities. Three communities in the Southeastern United States joined the CARRI team and brought with them an abundance of knowledge, first-hand experience, and remarkable compassion for their societies and citizens. CARRI is designed to combine community engagement activities with research activities; our Research Team is diverse and generates an interdisciplinary array of knowledge that is unsurpassed.

Resilient communities are our objective and research combined with practical experience is critical to ensure CARRI's expertise is based on knowledge and evidence.