When people talk about resilience, they usually mean the personal kind: the ability of one person to cope with hardship and recover. But after October 7th, it became clear in the Western Negev that personal resilience is not enough. People recover inside communities – and communities need to recover too.
What is community resilience?
Community resilience is the ability of a community to absorb a crisis, keep functioning during it, and rebuild afterwards – ideally stronger than before. It is not the sum of the resilience of individual residents. It lives in the connections between them: trust in neighbors and in local leadership, a sense of belonging, shared spaces and the feeling that “we are in this together”.
Research describes several layers that together make up community resilience:
- Social connection – how many people you can turn to, and how often you meet them.
- Trust in leadership – confidence in local and national institutions to make good decisions.
- Sense of belonging and hope – the wish to stay, to rebuild and to raise children in the place.
- Shared spaces – places where the community meets, talks and celebrates.
- Access to support – mental health, welfare and practical help when it is needed.
Why it matters in the Western Negev
In 2024 New Land Now, together with researchers from Tel Aviv University (ResWell), Tel Hai College and Indicate, published the Western Negev Resilience Index – two in-depth field studies of residents in cities, kibbutzim, moshavim and Bedouin communities. The findings painted a hard picture: according to the report, as covered by Walla News, about 60% of Western Negev residents were suffering from symptoms of depression a year after the war began.
Numbers like these show that rebuilding houses and roads is only part of the job. Without strong communities, people leave, loneliness grows and trauma deepens. With strong communities, people find meaning, support each other and stay.
How do you build community resilience?
There is no single recipe, but our experience in the field points to a few principles:
- Start with the community, not for it. Projects that residents build with their own hands belong to them.
- Create reasons to meet. Regular, informal meetings rebuild the social fabric faster than any lecture.
- Give volunteers a role. For many people, especially those facing trauma, doing something meaningful for others is part of healing.
- Combine community and therapy. Social activity does not replace professional mental health care – the two strengthen each other.
- Measure. Data helps decision-makers direct resources where they are needed most.
What we do
These principles guide our projects: accompanying the establishment of a network of volunteer-run social pubs – 12 pubs in 12 communities since 2024 – that serve as cultural and social hubs; a healing village, which we are developing in 2026 together with the Patrizio Paoletti Association Israel; and the Resilience Index research, whose reports are available on our site.
Community resilience is built slowly, one connection at a time. If you want to be part of it – as a volunteer, a partner or a donor – join us.
Looking for a healing and resilience workshop for your group? See our wellness workshops in the Western Negev.
