The Home Made Disaster Kit is a card game designed to help people have conversations about their concerns, anticipated needs, and best use of available resources in planning for environmental disasters.

The game uses a deck of cards with common household items that participants will use to collaborate in responding to an impending crisis in their neighborhood, for example, a fire or a flash flooding. The goal of the game is to design uses for these common items to protect their families and mitigate the risk to their homes.

How to play

1. Cards are laid on a table in front of participants.
2. A scenario is described to participants. It can be either from a scenario card or a specific one that facilitators wish to develop. Some recommendations are:
   • Use audio or video on the background to set the mood (here is an example: Media:Storm thunderbolts.ogg).
   • Describe the scenario as vividly as possible.
3. Participants are left to use the cards to think of ways to mitigate the risk. Examples of these are using sandbags as barricades to stop the flow of water into their homes or a flashlights to walk at night when the power is off.
   • Allow participants to create new cards or imagine possible scenarios.
   • Facilitators can help participants by nudging possible uses, as long as the discussion is left to them.
4. At the end of each scenario, the participants will list all the chosen items for their kit. There is no limit to how many cards they can use (they can even use all of them!).

Participants presenting their Homemade Disaster Kit.

Files

A ready-made version of the kit is available at Media:(HMDK) cards individual 01.pdf.