Need help with grammar: "xxをきっかけにxxしたxxとのこと"


> 主催の「災害」会議実行委員会も、当プロジェクトと同様に、災害 **をきっかけに** 発足したコミュニティとのこと。

I understand the meaning of the words in the above sentences, but I'm having
problems making sense of it due to the grammar, especially in the last half of
the sentence.

I understand '災害をきっかけに' to be 'in the wake of disaster', however the last part
is confusing for me.

I find the fact that the sentence is ending in とのこと to be the most confusing
part - I can't figure out what it is referring to. Thanks for any help.




> 主催の「災害」会議実行委員会も、当プロジェクトと同様に、災害をきっかけに発足したコミュニティとのこと。

The とのこと at the end means "They say~~" "I hear~~".  
It has its own entry [in this J-E
dictionary](http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%E3%81%A8%E3%81%AE%E3%81%93%E3%81%A8):

> とのこと; との事; I'm told; I'm passing on a message; he was informed; indicates
> that one has heard the preceding information from somebody

and in
[デジタル大辞泉](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/159742/meaning/m0u/%E3%81%A8%E3%81%AE%E3%81%93%E3%81%A8/):

> 人から聞いた話であることを表す。…という。…だそう。「彼は会社をやめたとのことだ」

You can rephrase it as 「とのこと だ/です」, 「ということ だ/です」, 「なのだそう だ/です」, 「という話 だ/です」
etc. depending on the situation/formality. To my ear, ending a sentence with
「～とのこと」 sounds more literary than 「～とのことです」「～ということです」 etc.

災害をきっかけに発足したコミュニティ is a noun phrase, the relative clause 災害をきっかけに発足した
modifying the コミュニティ, as the other poster said.

So I think your sentence means something along the lines of:

> The host "Disaster" Conference Executive Committee, as well as our project,
> is a community launched in the wake of a disaster, they said.  
>  or  
>  They say that the Executive Committee of the Conference on "Disaster",
> which hosted/sponsored this event, was launched because of a disaster, just
> like our project was.

Hope my English makes sense.

