• Presenter location: Manila, Philippines
• Language: English

This workshop introduces the Resilient Communities Program (RESCOM), a grassroots framework developed by Mutual Aid Disaster Relief – Search and Rescue (MADR-SAR) to strengthen community autonomy, collective resilience, and mutual aid.

While many communities are exposed to a wide range of natural and human-induced hazards and are becoming increasingly vulnerable due to underlying social, political, economic, and ecological conditions, we believe that the community itself is the first line of defense.

RESCOM creates opportunities for communities to access knowledge, training, and practical skills through popular education, skills sharing, and participatory learning. By strengthening local capacities for prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery, and long-term transformation, the program supports communities in building autonomous systems for food, water, energy, emergency response, ecological stewardship, and collective care.

Participants will explore how community-led organizing and mutual aid can reduce structural vulnerabilities while advancing self-determination, solidarity, and ecological resilience.

This is not a presentation on how communities should organize. It is an invitation to share one framework that we’ve been developing and testing in the Philippines, and to exchange experiences on how communities around the world are building autonomy in the face of disasters and systemic crises.