About Us

Natural, systemic and human-induced disasters are accelerating in frequency and scale each year. These events dramatically alter the status quo, impact public safety, endanger life and cause serious economic impact. Building resilience is about increasing the capacity of communities and organizations to mitigate, prepare for, respond to and recover from major hazards and threats. The need for awareness, education, training and event simulation programs targeted at building resilience is increasing steadily with the growing frequency and severity of natural and human-induced emergencies and disasters.

Developing and practicing emergency plans plays a critical role in building resilience, particularly as it applies to multi-stakeholder decision-making within and across organizations. Simulation exercises, incorporating complex scripting developed by subject matter experts, expose the nature and problems of multi-stakeholder decision making under stressful and evolving disaster conditions. This is a deeply engaging learning methodology which encourages the development of collaborative decision-making both within and across organizations. IDEAS Network has established a leadership position in the area of simulation exercises and continues to invest in that expertise.

Centennial College’s pursuit of excellence in the area of community and health education, through its School of Community and Health Studies and with the leadership of Renée Kenny, has established core expertise in interprofessional education, effective management of mass casualty events, major event simulations, experimental and advanced learning technology. Innovation in the use of advanced simulation technology in the development of students’ professional competencies extends and complements Centennial’s capacity to lead in this area.

A major part of this activity has been a program of mass casualty event simulations, led by Dr. Laurie Mazurik and engaging first response agencies and critical infrastructure organizations from across Ontario, allowing the development of a distinctive and recognized expertise in this area and the undertaking of a variety of related knowledge development, technical innovation and research activities.

The IDEAS Network applied research program is led by Trish Dryden, who works with an international team of researchers to evaluate IDEAS innovations and to transfer knowledge in disaster management preparedness to community and industry partners, policy makers and the public.