WE ARE
THE BUCKET BRIGADE!
ORGANIZE
TRAIN
DEPLOY
The Bucket Brigade is a community resilience engine
Our primary objective is the deployment of volunteers in response to natural disasters and community crises. Thankfully, Santa Barbara is not always experiencing a natural disaster. So the tremendous challenge for us, and for all volunteer-based disaster response organizations, is how to build and sustain capacity between disasters. Our solution to the problem is unique: To grow our volunteer base and organizational capacity, we train volunteer leaders and local volunteers through year-round community restoration projects across Santa Barbara County.
Put simply, we train to restore the community after a disaster by restoring part of the community each week.
This approach creates a virtuous and sustaining cycle of training, restoration and growth, which enables us to respond to each disaster with a larger and better trained volunteer force. This is what it means to be a community resilience engine.
The Bucket Brigade’s innovation represents a genuine path forward as our community looks ahead to the challenges of life in a changing climate and you are invited to be a part of it.
“Helping heals the helpers as well as those who are helped”
– Abe Powell Co-Founder – CEO
Our Principles
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A caring, cooperative and organized community is the fundamental building block of resilience.
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Local knowledge empowers all preparation and recovery efforts.
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Swift, collaborative and sustained action is required for disaster resilience.
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The capacity to “self-rescue” is the difference between helpless community and and hopeful community in a crisis.
We know natural disasters change communities, but how we change is up to us.
Our Work
Communities experience disasters in a pattern that repeats and the same needs and gaps in services show up again and again.
The Disaster Cycle: Our Current Reality
Immediate response to a disaster is a flurry of activity and a tremendous investment of resources over a few days. Mitigation starts almost immediately but there is a delay before recovery resources are activated. Short-term recovery (3-6 months) blends into long-term recovery which is usually well-resourced for 9-18 months but can take many years. Post-disaster assessment leads to some planning, prevention and preparation, but these efforts diminish over time and we tend to collectively forget the severity and cost of previous disasters.
The Gaps: Where Systems Fail
The roots of the Bucket Brigade have grown in response to local disasters over many decades. Each time, we’ve seen the same needs and gaps in services, and each time, we get a little better at helping to meet those needs. Nobody wants to be alone in this – cleaning up our homes and yards, rebuilding, and preparing for the next disaster. The process of preparing together, responding together, recovering and rebuilding as a real community is the best way possible to weave a genuine community safety net.
Our Plan: Building Capacity for Resilience
We build grassroots resilience capacity every day:
- We organize local communities and volunteer leaders for resilience and cooperation.
- We train volunteers and volunteer leaders to be prepared for cooperative action at the Bucket Brigade Academy and through year-round Community Uplift Projects.
- We deploy spontaneous volunteers for disaster relief and to provide humanitarian aid in response to community crises.
Creating a community that is ready, willing and able to help neighbors in a time of need .
Awards
The Bucket Brigade and its leadership has been honored throughout California with the following awards:
Nonprofit of the Year 2018 California Association of Nonprofits
Environmental Hero Award Environmental Defense Center
Community Hero Award Montecito Firefighters Charitable Foundation
Local Heroes Santa Barbara Independent
Community Hero Award Santa Barbara Contractors Association
Honoree of the Year 2018 Hospitality Santa Barbara
Spirit of Service Award Rotary Club of Montecito
Community Service Award Chamber of the Santa Barbara Region
Community Service Award Santa Barbara Association of Realtors
Jacaranda Award for Community Service Santa Barbara Beautiful
Sky Changers Award The Carbon Institute
Honorary Membership Rotary Club of Santa Barbara
Lutah Maria Riggs Award Santa Barbara Chapter American Institute of Architects and American Riviera Bank