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A vibrant and holistic grassroots guide to disaster preparedness that builds community resilience.
polycrisis noun /‘pa:.li,krai.sis/
a time of great disagreement, confusion, or suffering caused by many different crises occurring simultaneously and amplifying one another.
How do we live in the age of disaster? In this updated and expanded guide to collective crisis preparedness, Kailea and Kate, organizers and coeditors for the book and magazine publisher Loam, share community-shaped strategies on how to practically navigate the challenges posed by overlapping catastrophes—be they environmental, economic, political, or otherwise. Help is here for our bodies, hearts, minds, and shared homes. By amplifying resources for resilience, the authors underscore preparedness as a constant, communal practice. They offer inspiration from frontline organizers who help their communities prepare for emergencies, demonstrate how to envision probable futures after upheaval, and showcase people-powered projects that nurture collective regeneration. With engaging prompts, concise checklists, and heartfelt advice, Compassion in Crisis helps its readers build and sustain the durable mutual aid networks necessary for rapid response in the face of disaster. This is your invitation into the lifelong work of caring for our Earth and one another as we all find our way through the polycrisis.
Praise for Compassion in Crisis:
"As we enter an era of climate shifts and more frequent, layered catastrophes, this is the book you want beside you to navigate the realities of disaster and recovery. Drawing from survivors, practitioners, and thinkers, this book offers a guide to cultivating the kind of attentiveness and care that might help us think about preparedness wholistically, from philosophical ideas about how our experiences of time shift to practical and profound advice that can move the needle towards justice in the aftermath of grief and loss. Weiner, Loften, and their contributors help us consider what it takes to move through change and the kinds of transformation that are inevitable in the wake and shadows of disasters, acknowledging that systems and institutions can and do fail us, and showing where and how communities can be created, revitalized, and mobilized to step in and step up for each other." —Candis Callison, member of Tāłtān Nation and author of How Climate Change Comes to Matter: The Communal Life of Facts
Kailea Rose Loften is a mother of Tahltan, Kaska, and Black American ancestry. She is coeditor for the community publisher Loam and has guided climate change policy with an emphasis on Indigenous rights, previously serving as a Climate Commissioner for the City of Petaluma, California. You can contact her through kailealoften.com.
Kate Rose Weiner is a writer, editor, and publisher working at the intersections of culture and climate justice. She is coeditor of Loam and director of Loam Library, a mobile library committed to bringing the power of print to the people. Weiner's work is shaped by her studies in environmental art, social practice, and community herbalism.
INTRODUCTION
PART ONE: STORY SHARES
- Know Your Neighbor with LinYee Yuan
- We Are Our Own First Responders with Valencia Gunder and Amirio Freeman
- Centering Caregivers with Malaika Ludman
- Mutual Aid in Emergency with Noelani Ahia, Autumn Ness, and Nicole Huguenin
- Redefining Just Recovery with Amelia Hoppe
- Disaster Companionship with brontë velez and Jiordi Rosales
- Grief as Liberation with Michelle Carrera
PART TWO: RESOURCES FOR RESILIENCE
- Nourishing the Nervous System with tayla shanaye
- Building Earth Intimacy with Lauren Hage
- Herbal First Aid with Renée Camila and Antonia Estela Pérez
PART THREE: PREPAREDNESS AS PROTOCOL
- Before Disaster with Summer Starr
- Stay Tuned
- Stock Up
- Take Care
- Get Organized
- During Disaster with Summer Starr, Rebekah Uccellini, and Birthmark Doula Collective
- Scenario: Stay Home
- Scenario: Leave Home
- Prenatal & Perinatal Emergency Preparedness
- After Disaster with Rebekah Uccellini, Emergency Legal Responders, and Maui Medics Healers Hui
- Disaster Legal Needs Timeline
- Protecting Your Home After a Disaster
- How Can I Help?
- Scenario Briefs
- Hurricanes
- Floods
- Wildfires
- Heatwaves
EPILOGUE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NOTES
RESOURCES
CONTRIBUTORS
ABOUT THE AUTHORS