LA Wildfire Disaster Recovery

APA California Response to the LA Fires:

Recovering and Rebuilding

In response to the devastating wildfires impacting communities across the Los Angeles area, APA California – together with the California Planning Roundtable and other partners – has launched an ongoing webinar series to support planners navigating the challenges of recovery and rebuilding.

This series features expert roundtable discussions offering practical guidance, resources, and best practices for fire recovery and resilient redevelopment.

Visit this page regularly for updates. All webinars are recorded and available on-demand.

Upcoming Webinar

This webinar is part of a continuing series to provide planners with an overall understanding of the fire recovery process and best practices for recovery and redevelopment.

This webinar has ended.

The communities affected by the Eaton and Palisades fires have been assisted by a wide variety of non-governmental organizations and resources. These include countless community-based organizations, many of which have formed in response to the fires, and hundreds of millions of philanthropic funds. How are these resources being matched to community needs?  How are all the new community organizations responding to resident needs and communicating among themselves? What can planners learn from this self-help system, and how can we most effectively support these recovery efforts? Our two speakers, representing organizations that provide coordinating roles, will provide an introduction to this process and some thoughts about what lies ahead. 

CM credits offered: CM 1 | SR 1

Speakers:

Lily Bui, PhD Director of Climate & Disaster Preparedness and Resilience, SoCal Grantmakers

Dr. Lily Bui provides strategic direction, thought leadership, and partnership coordination in support of developing engagement strategies to increase climate justice and equitable disaster preparedness, relief and recovery funding across the region and state. Prior to her role at SoCal Grantmakers, she served in positions related to climate and disaster resilience in higher education, applied research, public policy, media, impact investing, and consulting in coastal communities across the Pacific and Caribbean regions. She received her PhD (’20) in urban planning and a master’s (’16) in comparative media studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Andrew King Community Recovery and Survivor Advocacy, Department of Angels

Andrew King is a seasoned educator and former charter school principal in DTLA with nearly two decades of experience advancing equity and student-centered leadership. After losing his home in the January Eaton Fire, Andrew became deeply engaged in disaster recovery. Now, working with the Department of Angels, Andrew brings a focus on community resilience, adult learning, and trauma-informed recovery, centering joy and justice in every facet of his work.

UPDATE:

Recordings of all past webinars from our Wildfire Recovery Series are now available to watch on YouTube.

EXPLORE THE SERIES

Resources

Organizations

Executive Orders

Reports & Studies

Policy & Regulatory Guidance 

Toolkits & Best Practices

Code Examples, Case Studies & Lessons Learned

Funding & Assistance Resources