For years, we have witnessed sad and unnerving news about communities devastated by floods, storms, fires and tornadoes. We know such scenes move us all to want to give, to help.

  

And, on a daily basis, unnoticed by others, individual artists and arts and culture organizations experience their own small but serious crises - medical emergencies, sudden loss of leadership, theft and IT crashes. These events, large and small, have the potential to compromise our capacity to survive and thrive in our vastly changing world.

 

The Southern California Arts Responder Network is a demonstration project of the National Coalition for Arts Preparedness and Emergency Response and the CERF+ (Craft Emergency Relief Fund + Artists' Emergency Resources), formed to help funders, who are so often looked to for aid, better prepare constituents and grantees to survive these trying episodes.

 

Our organization is one of several "hub" organizations participating in The Network, including, the City of Los Angeles, Dept. of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Arts Orange County, the Orange County Community Foundation and the San Diego Foundation, which are working together to develop a system that will improve our cultural community's capacity to respond to and recover from disasters.

 

In order to understand how we can all improve our overall readiness in Southern California, we need to gain a better understanding of our region's readiness level so that we can focus our effort where it is most needed.