From science to practice: Community-based public education initiatives

Abstract

The aim of this report is to provide the Earthquake Commission with a set of concepts and considerations to assist in the design of a successful community-based public education initiative. As public education alone does not provide people with enough motivation to prepare for earthquakes and other hazards, other ways to motivate and increase preparedness need to be explored. Community-based initiatives have been found to effectively increase preparedness through assisting with mitigation projects and by fostering the qualities in people that motivate them to undertake preparedness activities.

This study contains three elements: a review of local and international community-based education initiatives, a summary of issues around volunteering, and a guide to elements of programme evaluation. The programmes reviewed range from a conventional community-based public education project to projects that involve physical modifications, community action projects and action research. Following each case study notes on the relevance of the programme to EQC are listed.

Volunteering is explored due to the fact that many community-based initiatives depend on volunteer labour. Understanding how to attract volunteers and sustain their participation is an important aspect of programme development. Evaluation methods are examined to provide scope to what is involved in an evaluation and to highlight necessary considerations for their integration into programme design.

Overall, the study identified numerous keys to programme success, to motivating and sustaining volunteers, and considerations for programme evaluations. Successful programmes are consistently attributed to factors such as community consultation, multi-partner collaboration, working with established groups and initially implementing simple and achievable projects. Volunteers can be attracted and retained by promoting opportunities that correspond with their motivations, by having specified tasks and matching their skills and interests with those tasks, and giving them recognition for their achievements. Evaluation requirements need to be contemplated at the same time as conceptualisation of the initiative in order to ensure the goals of the evaluation are met. To undertake a meaningful evaluation, the purpose, intended audience, information requirements and sources, and timing and budget for the evaluation need to be established.