Building resilient communities around the globe with disaster financial literacy

Framed in the COVID-19 context, this presentation will provide information on how communities can plan for economic recovery after a disaster through increased focus on disaster financial literacy. The presentation will introduce lessons learned from recent disasters and will provide an overview of currently available resources and tools for disaster planning, opportunities to develop stronger partnerships between community actors, and best practices for utilizing available resources. By the end of the presentation, participants will be able to identify key elements of financial literacy, including critical components of pre-disaster planning, recognize ways to coordinate intermediate and long-term plans among community partners who can support financial recovery, identify elements of a personal and organizational economic recovery plan that incorporates resources from public, private, and volunteer agencies in their communities.

Josh DeVincenzo is a Research Associate II, Sr. Instructional Designer, and Adjunct Lecturer at Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness. His focus is on developing learning experiences associated with training projects that navigate disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and resilience. At NCDP, he has developed national scale instructor-led and web-based curricula regarding financial literacy, economic impact analysis, and community partnerships. Josh hopes to create accessible and quality educational programming that benefits the common good at scale, particularly around themes of climate change. Josh has also developed and taught courses at the University of Pennsylvania, Teachers College of Columbia University, the Columbia University Earth Institute Professional Learning Programs, and the School of Professional Studies. Josh is currently an adjunct lecturer at Columbia Climate School’s graduate program on Climate & Society. He holds a master’s degree in Education Policy, Organization and Leadership from the University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign and is currently a doctoral candidate in Adult Learning and Leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University. His work on climate pedagogy has been published in the Journal of International Affairs, State of Planet and the Hill.