Growing Community Resilience from the Grassroots: Risk Awareness, Confidence in Institutions, and Civic Participation in a Natural Hazards Context

This article explores the factors that influence citizens’ confidence in public and nonprofit sectors in the context of natural hazards. Utilizing a survey of residents in Austin, Texas, USA, we model the influence of residents’ hazard risk awareness on the perceived confidence in formal institutions that are responsible for hazard preparedness and response. The empirical results of structural equation modeling show that perceived confidence in public and nonprofit sectors is differentially affected by residents’ hazard risk awareness. Importantly, we also find the role of civic participation to positively mediate the effect of hazard risk awareness on the levels of confidence. Our findings contribute to the growing literature on coproduction of services for preparing urban residents for the impacts of climate change and emphasize the importance of community-driven development of community resilience.