Community Resilience Committees

Active 2013-Present

Many communities in eastern Central African Republic (CAR), northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan face the daily threat of violence and exploitation. Isolated and without basic protection, they are targeted by violent poachers and other armed groups who recognize and seek to exploit their vulnerability. The violence they face, related exploitation of wildlife and natural resources, and the ripple effects of insecurity (displacement, poverty, insecurity, etc.) leave individuals and whole communities struggling to overcome trauma, feelings of scarcity, and other stressors. This can be debilitating to communities already struggling to survive and also often results in community tensions and further violence.

For communities to have the opportunity to break free from cycles of violence, they must be equipped with basic resilience tools and information that allow them to safely and effectively respond to threats, protect the natural environment, resolve conflict, and prevent violence.

Our response

Alongside local organizations, we equip central African communities most vulnerable to and affected by violence with these tools by helping establish and support Community Resilience Committees in tandem with our Early Warning Radio Network and Trauma Healing initiatives.

Through Community Resilience Committees, we bring together key representatives of all parts of the community — including religious leaders, women, youth, and ethnic minorities. Our team and partners then facilitate workshops with committee members, providing training on conflict management, income-generating activities, trauma-healing, and community protection. Members of the committee are then equipped to bring the tools and information gained in workshops to the broader community, ensuring that the whole community is prepared to be central agents in the safety and thriving of the whole. Using an innovative mobile cinema tool – we also provide sensitization training to help incorporate local communities into efforts to support peaceful defections of Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) fighters and remove the threat of LRA-related violence.

Watch the Mobile Cinema Film, ‘They Came At Night’

Learn More

Establishing Community Resilience Committees is a two-step process developed by our locally-led teams in partnership with community organizations and takes about six months to fully implement. From the onset, we work closely with members of the local community to tailor the process to their specific needs.

A key element of the process is utilizing our Mobile Cinema tool, which was created after a year of collaborative research between Invisible Children and Discover the Journey (DTJ). Together with DTJ, we created a film for communities affected by LRA violence, which uses the power of story to convey to communities that defection, reintegration, and forgiveness of LRA fighters is the most promising path to removing the threat of LRA violence against their community. This innovative use of media has already proven to be a successful sensitization and informational tool in the context of the LRA crisis.

Our response

By the numbers

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