Assessing the links between first aid training and community resilience 13 1 Introduction key aim of the British Red Cross Saving Lives, Changing Lives strategy 2010 – 2015 is to facilitate the building of A resilience in communities to help them prepare for and withstand disasters. An underlying assumption at the British Red Cross is that first aid training helps to build community resilience, through communities being better able to “rely on their own skills to save lives” (ICRC, 2010, p11). In March 2010 the Senior Management Team agreed to commission internal research into the outcomes and impacts of first aid training in communities and the links with community resilience, to ensure that this British Red Cross strategic priority is underpinned by evidence. The aim of this research, therefore, is to examine whether there is evidence of community resilience as a result of receiving British Red Cross first aid training. 1.1 defining ‘community’ The majority of community resilience literature views communities in geographic terms, for example groups of people living in