Place and community engagement in a youth natural hazards and community resilience education program

The Hazard Education, Awareness, and Resilience Task Force (HEART Force) program includes place-based formal education curriculum, classroom activities, and community-based activities. The program’s design was guided by place-based and sociocultural learning frameworks to support rural middle and high school students’ understanding of natural hazards and community resilience and to empower students to engage in resilience efforts in their communities. The program scaffolds learning about natural hazards common to the areas in which the students live and attend school (drought, flood, and wildfire) and facilitates student partnerships with local experts and resilience practitioners to take action to increase community resilience. In the current study, quantitative and qualitative data from 295 students revealed that the program improved students’ understanding of community resilience, their knowledge about what their own communities do to prepare for and respond to natural hazards, and their confidence in engaging with community members in resilience efforts. Reflections from 12 teachers provided additional context for the program’s student outcomes, highlighting the importance of place and community engagement in educating youth about natural hazards and community resilience and helping them to develop a sense of agency to get involved in community resilience efforts. The primary lesson learned through this work was that having a flexible curriculum to fit within teachers’ instructional calendars and comfort with community-engaged learning enabled teachers to implement the curriculum. Local community resilience projects took a great deal of support from program managers, but scenario-based role play games provided an opportunity for impactful student engagement without program support.