Be the Ground alumni · Fall 2026 cohort, Salt Spring Island

You practiced being the ground. Now bring it home.

This page holds everything from our sessions together: the checklists, your first three steps, and a way to start preparing your own town with the neighbors who live there. It stays here for you, and for every cohort after yours.

A note from your guides

Be the Ground is built on a simple idea: you are a part of the ground. We hope you came out of this week with a recognition that you can do hard things. That difficulty does not preclude deep laughter. Now take it home, and keep becoming the ground for yourselves, your families, your communities and your more-than-human kin, from an awake place of fierce love and wholeness. The community you're looking for is already gathering, and you are part of what makes it so interesting!
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Laura Blakeman and Julian NorrisCo-founders, Wolf Willow Institute
Life gets local, fast. The help that reaches you first is already within your walkshed, and the folks who come through best already know their neighbors' names, skills and needs. You spent a week learning to do hard things together; your street and neighborhood are the next places to practice. Start small. Knock on five doors.
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Scott JamesCo-founder, Executive Director, Prepare Your Community
Bring Prepare Your Community to your town

Be the first in your town.

Prepare Your Community gives towns free street- and neighborhood-level preparedness tools: a local hazard profile, team structures, checklists, and a way for neighbors to find each other. Tell us where you live. If you would like to lead the effort, we will set you up as your town's Community Champion.

What a Community Champion does

  • Invites neighbors and gets the first block or neighborhood organized with Ready Your Street
  • Connects with local emergency management and community groups
  • Gets support from Prepare Your Community staff, with optional consulting on a sliding scale

Where Prepare Your Community is available: The beta is open to U.S. communities today. Version 1.0, which adds Canada, is scheduled for release by the end of 2026, and expansion into Europe is on our 2027/28 roadmap. Sign up now wherever you live, and we will reach out as soon as your town can join.

Your first three steps

Three ways to start on your street this month.

1

Knock on five doors

Learn five names. Then ask: if something bad enough happened that 911 wasn't available, what could you offer, and what would you need?

2

Throw a Ready Your Street party

Invite up to about 20 households for a potluck, then walk through the 60-minute Ready Your Street booklet together.

3

Add your town

It takes two minutes to sign up. Then invite your local emergency professionals in early.

Add my town

Your digital toolkit

U.S. and metric units. Print them, share them, adapt them.

Download all checklists (.zip)
Go bag essentials on a table: backpack, water, food, first aid kit and radioON THE MOVEGo Bag

Packed and ready for a quick three-day evacuation out of the region.

Download PDF
Get home bag at an office desk: backpack, water bottle, first aid kit, gloves and mapON THE MOVEGet Home Bag

Kept at work, for getting home when the ferry, bridge or highway is out.

Download PDF
Shelter in place supplies: water, food, first aid kit, radio, tape and plastic sheetingAT HOMEShelter in Place

For an ordered shelter-in-place event, kept in your safe room.

Download PDF
Clear bin under a bed holding a hard hat, gloves, shoes, goggles and flashlightAT HOMEUnder-the-Bed Kit

Shoes, hard hat, gloves and a light, within reach the moment the shaking stops.

Download PDF
Home supplies: a bin of canned and dry food with water, a first aid kit and a flashlightAT HOMEHome Supplies

The base that stocks every other kit. Aim for four weeks initially, and add more as you are financially able.

Download PDF
Neighborhood team box: a green tote with a bullhorn, first aid kit, caution tape and radio, beside clipboards, gloves, a crowbar, a shovel and a fire extinguisherON YOUR STREET OR NEIGHBORHOODNeighborhood Supplies

A shared team box for your street's or neighborhood's first response.

Download PDF
Childrens school kit on a desk: small backpack, water pouch, granola bars, first aid kit, emergency blanket, flashlight, mask, wipes, teddy bear and family photoAT SCHOOLChildren's Kit

A small kit for your child's backpack or desk, packed each September.

Download PDF
Cover of Prepared Neighborhoods: Creating Resilience One Street at a Time, by Scott JamesKEEP GOINGPrepared Neighborhoods

Scott's book on building resilience one street and neighborhood at a time: the playbook behind everything on this page.

Get the book
Optional · about one minute

Three quick questions

Your answers help Prepare Your Community and Wolf Willow shape what comes next, for you and for future cohorts. Skip any you like.