Community wellbeing: applications for a disaster context

The concept of resilience has become a guiding principle for preparedness, management and recovery. This paper argues that community wellbeing provides a broader means to understand disaster affects and outcomes and recognises that the cultural and social history and future of the community is more than just its experiences of disasters. The concepts that underpin community wellbeing approaches are explored, as are potential approaches to assessment that hold significant value in the reframing of communities beyond their experiences, offering the potential for both empowerment and strengths-based reflection.