Community emergency preparedness roundtable discussion
Community Planning and Capacity Building?
Community planning and capability building is the ability to plan for recovery, engage the community in the recovery planning process and build capacity for local plan implementation and recovery management. Following a disaster, communities and their local governments are often forced to make complex recovery decisions. These decisions range widely and can include important topics such as business reinvestment, affordable housing, and building long-term resilience. In addition, many of these communities may lack the capability to address the planning and decision-making processes needed to start their recovery. The consequences of these decisions may impact community prosperity, safety, and identity for years to come.
Community Preparedness Roundtable Discussion provides a forum where Governmental and non-governmental partners come together to share information and pool planning support resources. These resources can include planning technical assistance, program support, or funding for planning and capacity building-related initiatives.
Individual and Family Preparedness Training
community needs assessment overview
Identify and Assemble a Diverse Community Team
Identify the Scope of the Assessment
Develop Community Engagement Plan
Conduct Community Needs Assessment
Identify Assets and Needs
Create a Community Action Plan
Community needs assessement
WHY DO A COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT?
You might wonder why it is important to assess needs and resources in your community—especially if you feel you already know what they are. Until you gather empirical and qualitative data—that which is based on factual information or observation—showing what is happening, where the problems occur, to whom, and why, the anecdotal evidence you have may be only one piece of a much larger picture.
A community assessment is a comprehensive description of your target community (i.e., the vulnerable (At-Risk) populations). The assessment process is a systematic gathering and analysis of data about the community your coalition serves for the purpose of identifying and addressing local problems. For some, this may include Homeless population and services. For others it may be a way to understand the types of substance abuse prevention, treatment, and recovery programs, practices and policies that exist within the community. It also can be an assessment of the demographic characteristics of your community. Think about community assessment as a way to get the “lay of the land” so your coalition can target real problems specific to your community, capitalize on existing efforts, and fully understand existing resources to implement desired practices and policies.
A comprehensive assessment should · Create community consensus about the problems in the community.· Identify underlying factors that contribute to those problems.· Identify and analyze environmental, social, and individual factors that contribute to the problems. · Increase the likelihood that your coalition will select and implement policies and practices that will address the problems in the community. · Establish baseline information to track the coalition’s progress.
Normally community assessments are conducted at the beginning of a coalition’s development. But they can, and should, occur as an ongoing process—like a regular checkup. Communities and coalitions are not static, they change and develop over time. Understanding how community strengths, needs, resources, and make up change and evolve is critical to coalition effectiveness. This can occur through regular (annual or biannual) assessments so that your coalition can be responsive to the community in a proactive and effective manner. At the beginning of the assessment process, your coalition should develop a functional problem statement describing the issue you plan to address. Look at the statement as a place to start and know that it may change as your coalition moves forward.
Learn More
A community assessment documents gaps in existing resources—information that is critical to accomplishing your organization’s goals. Undertaking a community assessment can provide many opportunities for the organization and the community.
RESILENT HOUSEHOLDS & cOMMUNITY LIFELINES
Additional Information
Individual households are the building blocks of the complex network that makes up a community. The resilience of households directly impacts the resilience of a community. Resilient households depend on food, water, shelter, and access to money.
The network diagram above shows, the needs of households drive the daily business operations of the community – they require and consume food, water, pharmaceuticals, medical goods, power, fuel and other services. Businesses, industries, community organizations and government agencies form an interdependent network supporting the community’s households.
Community lifelines are the integrated network of assets, services, and capabilities that are used day-to-day to support the recurring needs of the community. Community lifelines enables the continuous operation of critical government and business functions and is essential to human health and safety or economic security. They are the most fundamental services in the community that, when stabilized, enable all other aspects of society to function.
Deliberate partnership between the private and public elements of that network can help keep households resilient – which in turn increases the resilience of the community.
Building resilience with diverse communities
Building Resilience with Diverse Communities (BRDC)
CPI use the Building Resilience with Diverse Communities (BRDC) process by engaging the whole community through its seven-stage process. Emergency managers identify underserved and unengaged faith-based and community groups and assess their capacity to participate in emergency preparedness and response activities. Based on that assessment, emergency managers can use the BRDC process to develop partnerships with these groups, provide training to strengthen their skills, and formally integrate them into emergency management plans and exercises.
Stage 1: Engagement
Organizers from the DHS Center and MDEM reach out to and engage formerly unengaged groups by building trust with faith-based and community group leadership. Organizers build trust by focusing on each group’s capacities and strengths.
Stage 2: Assessment
Organizers work with the community to assess how faith-based and community groups want to participate in the emergency management process. Many groups are interested in a broad set of topics, often including volunteer and donations management, partnerships, and sheltering.
Stage 3: Self-Guided and Group Training
Organizers use the assessments to help groups identify training that matches each group's specific goals and skills. Training topics can include first aid, community emergency response, volunteer and donations management, and incident command. To provide more formal training, where needed, BRDC organizers partner with the American Red Cross (ARC) and local Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD). Through these partnerships, BRDC organizers connect newly engaged groups to existing training courses from the ARC, the private sector, and FEMA.
Stage 4: Technical Assistance
In some cases, groups may require more assistance than training courses alone can provide. To help groups meet their goals, the BRDC process matches them with more seasoned emergency management partners who provide small-group or one-on-one technical assistance.
Stage 5: Participation in Scenarios/Exercises
The BRDC process builds on the newly acquired skills and capabilities of the engaged groups by making them a part of the jurisdiction's exercises and scenario planning. Participating in exercises tests groups' disaster readiness and skills. It also ensures smoother coordination between partner organizations and responders.
Stage 6: Affiliation
Groups that complete required training and participate in an exercise can formally affiliate with an emergency management agency or known VOAD partner. By formally partnering with groups that have gone through the BRDC process, emergency managers can trust that new groups understand their role(s) and meet all legal and regulatory requirements. Affiliated groups can then better contribute to emergency management efforts. The affiliation process also keeps groups active during non-disaster times by maintaining personal connections through engagement meetings, newsletters, web-based resources, and exercises.
Stage 7: Integration
Integrating affiliated groups into existing emergency management plans is the final stage of the BRDC process. This step expands emergency managers’ capacity to respond to disasters and improves
engagement with formerly unengaged faith-based and community groups. Building long- term community resilience requires subsequent staff and whole community partners to recognize successful outcomes from this process and continue the practices that helped drive those successes.
preparedness: involves the whole community
Preparedness is a shared responsibility in the Whole Community; it calls for the involvement of everyone — not just the government — in preparedness efforts.
Whole Community includes:
- Individuals and families, including those with access and functional needs
- Businesses
- Faith-based and community organizations
- Nonprofit groups
- Schools and academia
- Media outlets
- All levels of government, including state, local, tribal, territorial, and federal partners
A community’s ability to respond to or recover from a disaster depends on the level of preparedness of every member. However, a Citizen Corps National Survey found that 29 percent of Americans have not prepared because they think that emergency responders will help them and that over 60 percent expect to rely on emergency responders in the first 72 hours following a disaster. The reality is that in a complex disaster, first responders and emergency workers may not be able to reach everyone right away. In addition, providers may not be able to restore critical services, such as power, immediately. By working together, everyone can help keep the nation safe from harm and help keep it resilient when struck by hazards, such as natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and pandemics.
Community preparedness is a key priority in lessening the impact of disasters. It is critical that all community members take steps to prepare in advance of an event. Effective community preparedness occurs at all levels including:
• Government
• Public and Private Sectors
• Neighborhood
• Individuals and Households
Government
Government has the responsibility to:
• Develop, test, and refine emergency operations plans.
• Ensure emergency responders have adequate skills and resources and provide services to protect and assist their citizens.
• Involve the community in the planning process.
• Provide reliable, actionable information.
• Encourage training, practicing, and volunteer programs.
Government emergency service providers include:
• Emergency Management: Prepares for and coordinates response and recovery to disasters.
• Law Enforcement: Maintains law and order.
• Fire and Rescue: Protects life and property.
• Emergency Medical Services: Provides preventative and emergency medical services.
• Public Works: Maintains and repairs infrastructure such as roads, bridges, water, sewage, utilities, etc.
• Human Services: Provides food, shelter, and counseling following a disaster.
Private-Sector and Nongovernmental Organizations
The private and public sectors have a responsibility to participate in community preparedness.
• The private sector is a key partner in incident management activities at all levels. The private sector:
- Is responsible for most of the critical infrastructure (i.e., telephone services, banking) in the Nation and thus may require assistance in the wake of a disaster or emergency.
- Provides goods and services critical to the response and recovery process, either on a paid basis or through donations.
• Nongovernmental and voluntary organizations are essential partners in responding to incidents. Nongovernmental and voluntary organizations assist in providing:
- Sheltering, emergency food supplies, counseling services, and other vital services to support response and promote the recovery of disaster victims.
- Specialized services that help individuals with special needs, including those with disabilities.
Individuals and Households
Individuals and households play an important role in the overall emergency management strategy by:
• Reducing hazards in and around their homes.
• Preparing an emergency supply kit and household emergency plan.
• Monitoring emergency communications carefully.
• Volunteering with an established organization.
• Enrolling in emergency response training courses.
All members of the community should:
• Learn about community alerts and warnings, evacuation routes, and how to get critical information.
• Take training in preparedness, first aid, and response skills.
• Practice skills and personal plans through periodic drills in multiple settings.
• Network and be able to help others.
• Participate in community feedback opportunities.
• Report suspicious activity.
• Volunteer.
Engaging the Whole Community
Citizen Corps is the grassroots movement to strengthen community safety and preparedness through increased engagement of all sectors of the community. Citizen Corps is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but implemented locally. The goal of Citizen Corps is to make communities safer, more prepared, and more resilient when incidents occur.
Citizen Corps Councils bring government and community leaders together to ensure emergency plans more effectively reflect the community. The goals of the Councils are to:
• Tailor activities to reach all sectors of the community.
• Identify and build on existing strengths.
• Increase collaboration between government and community.
• Expand integration of community resources into plans and protocols.
• Encourage personal/organizational preparedness through outreach, training, and exercises.
• Promote volunteer opportunities for ongoing community safety and surge capacity in disasters.
Get Involved
Preparedness requires active participation from all.
• Start the process by talking to your friends and family about the hazards in your area and what steps you all need to take to be able to help each other in a crisis – large or small.
• Ask about emergency planning at your workplace, your schools, your place of worship, and other social settings.
• Make sure government officials have a plan and are connected to community authorities on emergency management and planning.
• Consider volunteer opportunities to get your community better prepared for any emergency, including:
• Become a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) member. The CERT Program educates people about disaster preparedness for hazards that may affect their area. The program trains team members in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations.
• Using the training learned in the classroom and during exercises, CERT members can assist others in their neighborhood or workplace following an event when professional responders are not immediately available to help. For more information go to: https://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/
• Volunteer with a nonprofit organization and be trained before the next disaster. There are many organizations and faith-based groups in your community that have active disaster programs and need volunteers. The following groups offer a wide range of services following a disaster:
• http://www.citizencorps.gov/
