Community center “seed” grows in Utatsu

What happens when the community of Heisei no mori joins forces with 3/11 Initiative students, professionals, and professors?  A seed is born!  The above photo shows the first steps towards a community center in Utatsu.  It is the hope that creating a covered outdoor space before winter snows fall will encourage the informal gatherings and brainstorms that have already taken place in the rebuilding.

More updates on the project will be provided as it progresses.

“Let’s not make Japan yesterday’s news.”

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Brookline philanthropist Atsuko Toko Fish takes action to help her native Japan through activism and generous donations to the Japanese Disaster Relief Fund of Boston.  Her story is featured in the Boston Globe here.

The Initiative is a grateful recipient of a portion of Fish’s generous gift.

MIT ILP feature on post-quake planning

MIT Japan 3/11 Initiative Raising Funds — and Consciousness — for Post-Quake Disaster Resiliency Planning

“In addition to the immediate social need for a memorial community center, our underlying aim is to create a more holistic approach to disaster relief planning and disaster-resilient design that isn’t quite embedded in Japan yet. They already have great expertise in individual disciplines such as disaster relief, seismography, engineering, medical technology, and more. We see our role as finding practices and processes that integrate all of those areas for better-informed reconstruction efforts as well as more effective responses to disasters by future generations.”

// Shun Kanda, quoted by William Manning in the MIT Industrial Liaison Program (ILP) Institute Insider (July 15, 2011)

Read more here.