How do we recover from natural disasters?

Like most tenth graders completing their personal project this week, my process was one that was chaotic and hurried to be blunt, but one very reflective of myself. Over the past few months it had taken many forms, but after the Los Angeles fires at the start of the year it became increasingly apparent to me that I wanted to work on something that resonated with my community. Seeing the efforts of my neighbors and community members to rebuild, and also uplift a city that was so deeply damaged was really what inspired the spirit of my project. Yet, despite all the best intentions of volunteers and the flood of donations, it became evident that a lot of us were ill-informed of what our own involvement should look like when it comes to disaster relief. The learning process included reading and watching countless stories of loss & hope and talking to individuals directly affected by the fire. What my final product ended up being was sort of a hybrid between a scrapbook and a journal with some insight on ways to help, resources, and what’s already being done. Enjoy and hopefully you’ll learn something new!