Building Resilient Communities

San Fransico, CA

Building Resilient Communities, Recipient

“If you don’t have holes in your boat, then you can help everybody else.” That’s the mantra of Building Resilient Communities (BRC). Faith-based BRC trains people in houses of worship how to assist their community when disaster strikes—from earthquakes to floods to house fires. Affiliated with the local, state and federal government, BRC’s services range from preparing facilities to training volunteer emergency teams to providing supplies. And with branded labels, the organization was able to raise awareness about who they are and what they do. Spreading the word to thousands BRC volunteer holding emergency PPC bag. Most of BRC’s programs are “blue sky” programs—those that prepare people for disaster before it happens. However, their Christian Disaster Relief Coalition is for “gray skies”—when disaster has already struck. For example, at COVID-19’s start, BRC began the Mask-Up Project. With PPE donations from local counties, the State of California and FEMA, BRC staff helped local businesses, houses of worship, group homes and a nursing school gear up. BRC stocked thousands of two-gallon plastic bags with PPE, along with an emergency preparedness pamphlet. The initiative gave them an opportunity to brand the bags, providing awareness of how they help their community in a disaster. Thanks to a 4imprint one by one grant, BRC received branded labels for the bags. Since the start of the pandemic, they’ve distributed more than 36,000 face masks, 2,000 face shields, 1,600 hand sanitizers and more. And with the labels, BRC has spread the word about their work to thousands more people. “The fact [4imprint is] willing to give us the labels with the one by one grant is huge. They don’t have to do that. It takes a team effort between non-profits and for-profits to help the community. When they provide a grant like that, it means we can use that money someplace else,” CEO Debra Williams said.

For more information about Building Resilient Communities, please visit https://www.brcus.org/