Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management

Crisis and Emergency Management

January 2004 Volume 5 - Number 4

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Community Preparedness Issues...

Document community preparedness issues – SAFE Conference, FEMA Region 6 conference,
National Association of Counties (NACO), National Conference of Mayors, etc.

by Adam Jachimowicz

Community preparedness lies at the heart of any Emergency management program. Thus, Emergency Managers should always include them as participants in all phases of the Emergency Management Paradigm.

Citizen Corps

CERT teams are made up of non-professional first responders who are trained to provide immediate assistance to citizens and support professional responders during disasters.

The Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) is composed of retired and active health care workers that can provide many types of medical care and medical support.

A key issue that is prevalent within these programs is maintaining visibility throughout the country and within local communities.

Red Cross

The Red Cross provides disaster services at the local, state and national level for all types of disasters. It is not a government agency, but is a key stakeholder, and is incorporated into most response plans including the Federal Response Plan (FRP).

Associations, Lobby Groups, and Think Tanks

. These groups serve the function of ensuring that as much money as possible is allocated to their members, and that policy is implemented that supports the represented group’s goals.

Academic institutions and think tanks also provide a platform for discussing many issues related to community preparedness. These institutions provide an arena where ideas get tested, analyzed, improved, and validated. Many of these ideas become policy, and emerge as best practices throughout the country.

By and large the largest issues these groups face is balancing the need for theoretical approaches with practical solutions to problems. When developing strategy, these groups must be cognizant in providing practical knowledge in a generic fashion that can be used in communities across the nation, and still able to add value to them.

Federal Government Stakeholders

Federal Offices provide billions of dollars in grants to support a wide range of activities that fall under emergency management.

SAFE Conference

The goal of the SAFE conference, of March 2003, was to foster relationships between local leaders who are responsible for creating and maintaining local homeland security activities. A key issue is getting stakeholders to participate in these types of conferences, and making sure that the right ones are the one representing their communities.

Case Study** Seattle’s SDART program

Seattle Disaster Aid and Response Teams (SDART) are an innovative city program that provides the structure for neighborhoods to form teams that can perform the following functions: communications, damage assessment, first aid, safety & security, light search & rescue, and sheltering & special needs. The city provides funding and guidance for these teams to form, train, and provides supplies that can be used following a disaster.

Document community preparedness issues – SAFE

Conference, FEMA Region 6 conference, National

Association of Counties (NACO), National

Conference of Mayors, etc.

In the post 9/11 Emergency Management Community authorities have been quick to use terms such as leveraging, optimizing, and stakeholders. These buzz words represent two concepts in Emergency Management that are simple yet not always understood and adopted. The first is that all emergency management should start at the community level, and should always avoid a top down approach.

Secondly, emergency managers must learn to perform to increasingly higher expectations with a very limited budget. In addition, Emergency Management activities will only be truly tested during an actual disaster. During the times in between, Emergency Managers will have very little evidence in showing their programs effectiveness. Thus, they will have an extremely difficult time in getting money for preparation activities but will still be held to a zero-tolerance standard for failure during a real emergency. The result is a drastic under-funding and under-emphasizing of an essential phase of emergency management

This paper will document several programs that seek the goal of community preparedness while employing these two key concepts, as well as identifying a key challenge that each program faces.

Citizen Corps

Citizen Corps is a program under the umbrella of USA freedom Corps that was created in 2002 by President Bush. An essential program within Citizen Corps is the Community Emergency Response Team program (CERT). CERT teams are made up of non-professional first responders who are trained to provide immediate assistance to citizens and support professional responders during emergency situations (**see case study). CERT teams are trained by instructors who have completed FEMA’s Train the Trainer courses. Teams are trained for disaster preparedness, disaster fire suppression, basic disaster medical operations and light search and rescue operations.

The Department of Homeland Security has provided $19 million in grants for FY03 , and has a goal of training 400,000 citizens through the next two years.

Another program within Citizen Corps is Medical Reserve Corps (MRC). MRC is composed of retired and active health care workers that are organized into units and can be called upon to support emergencies in mass casualty situations. The people who make up the units are volunteers. Communities receive grants that provide the necessary training and communications systems needed to train and equip the volunteers.

A key issue in these programs is maintaining visibility throughout the country and within local communities. Increased visibility serves the purpose of recruiting volunteers. Furthermore, visibility serves to educate the public on what these programs do and what support can expected during an actual event. Maintaining public exposure requires a significant investment in marketing and advertising.

Red Cross

The American Red Cross has always been an indispensable partner with local, state and federal government during Emergency Situations. A hallmark of their organization has been to provide disaster services in events ranging from a car accident, house fire, to a massive earthquake. It is not a government agency, but is a key stakeholder in all aspects of emergency management. ARC is incorporated into most response plans including the Federal Response Plan (FRP). Red Cross provides shelter, food, health and mental health services to allow disaster victims to resume their normal daily activities independently.

The Red Cross enjoys the status of being one of the most recognized symbols and organizations that exist. It has done so by maintaining credibility and reliability to its customers over the past 100+ years. Therefore, the biggest issue that the Red Cross faces is maintaining the extremely high standard for which it is known.

Associations, Lobby Groups, and Think Tanks

These organizations that seek to link dispersed groups with common interests have recently gained importance, primarily because there is more money available at the federal and state levels for local governments. These groups serve the function of ensuring that as much money as possible is allocated to their members, and that policy is implemented that supports the represented group’s goals. National level groups include the National Association of Counties (NACO), National Conference of Mayors and the National Association of Neighborhood Safety (NANS). In addition to lobbying, they sponsor conferences, conduct training sessions, gather and disseminate information and hold exercises. For example, the National Conference of Mayors provides on-going assessments on how much money that Congress appropriates to community first responders actually gets there. They also offer recommendations on how to improve the process of grant disbursement and training.

are the Taubman Center for State and Local Government, The George Washington University’s Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management, the newly formed USC center for Homeland Security, and the ANSER Institute for Homeland Security.

By and large the largest issues these groups face is balancing the need for theoretical approaches with practical solutions to problems. These groups operate away from the communities that they serve and as a result often lose touch with them. When developing strategy, these groups must be cognizant in providing practical knowledge in a generic fashion that can be used in communities across the nation, and still able to add value to them.

Federal Government Stakeholders

There are several major stakeholders in the federal government that provide funding for community preparedness. The first is the Department of Homeland Security, and specifically the following subordinate offices: the Office for State and Local Coordination, FEMA, and Office of Domestic Preparedness (ODP). These offices provide billions of dollars in grants to support a wide range of activities that fall under emergency management. The Department of Health and Human Services spends billions of dollars a year improving community public health infrastructure specifically to respond to a bio-terror attack and other mass casualty events.

The biggest issues that these federal stakeholders face are two-fold. First, ensuring that the money gets into the hands of the local organizations that they are intended for. Secondly, that the money is spent effectively. The first challenge requires a strategy that allows for local input into the funds distribution. As there is little choice but for the Federal government to use the State as an intermediary, local participation in the process is essential to see that the funds are effectively distributed. Measuring effectiveness is an even greater challenge without a simple answer. The current administration is attempting to tie in performance measures directly to the disbursement of these grants. They claim that linking current performance to future grants will greatly increase efficiency in the long run.

SAFE Conference

The first ever conference titled “The Community and Homeland Security” was held in March 2003, in conjunction with the SAFE Project and the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. The goal of the conference was to foster relationships between local leaders who are responsible for creating and maintaining local homeland security activities. The conferees identified the top 4 issues facing them:

1) Greater access to money for funding their programs and initiatives.

2) Gaining better information and practical lessons about implementing programs

3) Deciding on the most effective programs to be implemented.

4) Customizing programs and services to special needs populations.

This conference and other similar ones are essential in providing a form where relationships can be built, ideas can be tested and shared, technologies can be proliferated and partnerships formed. A key issue is getting stakeholders to participate in these types of conferences, and making sure that the right ones are the one representing their communities.

** Case Study: Seattle’s SDART program

The City of Seattle has come up with an innovative approach to community based preparedness within the CERT framework. Seattle Disaster Aid and Response Teams (SDART) are based “on the belief that a cooperative effort between a City and its citizens is the only sure way to prepare for major disasters” (www.cityofseattle.net/Emergency_mgt/whoweare/preparedness). The city has recognized that following a major disaster it will not be able to provide regular emergency services because of the surge in demand combined with inaccessibility to many areas.

Therefore, the city has created a program that provides the structure for neighborhoods to form SDART teams that can perform the following functions: communications, damage assessment, first aid, safety & security, light search & rescue, and sheltering & special needs. The city provides funding and guidance for these teams to form, train, and provides supplies that can be used following a disaster.

The program utilizes innovative events such as block parties that the city subsidizes as a way for members of a neighborhood to get together during normal times; simply to get to know each other. The philosophy being, that if you know your neighbors, you will be more likely to help them in a time of need.

By involving the whole community, rather than just the professionals, Seattle has uncovered a huge resource that comes with minimal cost and provides extraordinary benefit in the times of greatest need.