Preparedness is about more than having a kit

Having the physical resources to get through a disaster are important: food, water, flashlights, a radio, medicine, a means to charge your phone, etc...these are some of the components that make up the foundation of self-sufficiency that everyone should have in preparation for an event. Many of you probably know much of this because physical preparedness is drilled into our heads, because it's tangible; you can create simple messaging around it and it’s easy to quantify impact and evaluate results. The tougher side, the side that is often overlooked and far more difficult to quantify, is creating social value in learning and passing on the knowledge of relevant information pertinent to response outside of: Make a Plan, Build a Kit, Get Involved.

Make a Plan | Build a Kit | Get Involved

This is the message that gets pushed at all levels of government, simple and straightforward, yet translating awareness into action remains a challenge. In the Booz Allen Hamilton paper: Mitigating Our Nation's Risks: Calling upon the Whole Community an examination of the psychology of behavior and what needs to happen in order to turn awareness into action is discussed. As it turns out, we all think a disaster is going to happen to anyone but us, and as a result, we can be lax in our approach to preparing for an event. This delusion is what ends up hampering response and recovery efforts down the line because many don’t know what to do and more importantly, what to expect.

Teach Someone To Build a Kit and They’ll Know How to Build a Kit

Disaster Preparedness is not just about having a kit and a meeting point, although those are integral aspects to personal preparedness; it’s about education and the setting and managing of expectations in an effort to help mitigate some of the confusion of an overwhelming situation. While there are a host of resources out there that reference preparedness, here are few topics that I think individuals would benefit from if included in preparedness materials:

Topic	Info
Insurance: Knowing what you’re covered for and an idea of how the process works will save you time and frustration.	·     How to read your policy ·     What’re you covered for? ·     How do you file a claim? ·     Does an Adjuster have to        conduct a site visit before I        begin cleaning up? ·     In lieu of a site visit will          photos or a video suffice?
Roles & Responsibilities: Knowing who is supposed to do what will work to mitigate a lot of misdirected anger.	·     What is FEMA’s role in                 response? ·     What does the Red Cross         actually do? ·     An explanation of the FEMA        grant process
Timelines: Having a general idea on timing can help mitigate confusion and anger.	·     Search & Rescue ·     Response ·     Recovery
Long Term Recovery: What happens once everything is cleaned up?	·     Transition from cleanup to        Long Term Recovery ·     Long Term Recovery        Committee formation ·     Permitting process for        repairing and rebuilding

The point of the above is that there are more pieces of information out there that will help create a base level of understanding beyond existing messaging related to disaster preparedness.

So what do we do about it?

We need to approach this like any for profit enterprise would in an effort to try and change mindsets - use Marketing, PR, and Advertising and the many tools it has at its disposal. This is already happening and what's being produced is pretty cool...but in too much of an ad hoc manner. With operational budgets dwindling, finding room for advertising sounds ridiculous, and is. But there are people out there whose sole mission is to change the way we think about soap, toothbrushes, and dish detergent...why can't we hire those minds to help us think through how we can change mindsets around preparedness and do it in a way that will change behavior?

Let's Get Digital
Sites like Khan Academy and Ted Ed are examples of online education 2.0, they are places that people seek out to gain access to new ideas and perspectives...when was the last time you went to Ready.gov to do that or FEMA's Independent Study Website? The opportunity is there to create an online space that can act as a resource clearinghouse while providing access to tutorials, updates, and relevant content promoting preparedness.

or...

Let's Go Old Skool

I vividly remember Officer Grazonty standing in my Elementary School auditorium telling us about ‘Stranger Danger’ and how to be safe on Halloween 20+ years ago. I also remember D.A.R.E from high school, Drug Abuse Resistance Education. Of course we all made fun of it…but we remember it. And finally I remember P.A.S.S. from a safety lecture in reference to how to use a fire extinguisher. Maybe I'm Rainman and have a gift for remembering safety related information...or maybe I was in school and the confluence of age, environment, message, and speaker all worked to indelibly imprint these safety tips in my psyche. Based on that, I believe there are opportunities for integrating disaster preparedness into existing school curriculum: Earth Science, Health, Social Studies, etc...ways to illustrate a disasters' impact and what they can do and encourage their parents to do to help mitigate them.

If we are going to get serious about integrating disaster preparedness into a ‘whole of community’ paradigm, it can’t just be for senior level officers in Non-Profits and Emergency Management. Of course we want those people well versed in all things disaster, but the support of a community who has been involved in the planning will be a far greater asset than those who feel like they've been kept in the dark during response and recovery.

30 posts deep -- lets take a moment.

30 has never looked so artsy...

I've been posting for about a month now, sharing my thoughts and hopefully posing some questions and ideas (both original and not) that help to challenge the way we think about how non-profits and the charitable sector engage in community preparedness and resilience, as well as disaster response and recovery.

With that said, thank you for your continued interest in what I'm putting out there and please continue to share it widely with friends, colleagues, and strangers alike. Growing the base of individuals who read this can only spur more conversation and work to add ideas that can create new approaches to how we help those impacted by disasters. With that said, the response to yesterday's guest post were really fantastic, and so I would like to throw out the opportunity to more of you; if you'd like to write a guest post on Everything's A Disaster, shoot me a message and lets figure it out. New viewpoints, topics, and expertise are always welcome.

So...30 posts deep, what do we like? What do we want to see more of? What do you we want to see less of? I can guarantee that I will continue to post but in an effort to make this more relevant and engaging for you, some feedback would be helpful.

Thanks again for your continued interest and support, I'll be back on Thursday with a new post.

-Jeremey

Ted Talk

This made the rounds awhile back but the points remain as valid as ever. Dan speaks to why non-profits limp along in terms of raising funds and scaling impact and the backward cultural reinforcement that perpetuates it.

In the video he calls for a re-thinking of how we approach non-profit donations and our aversion to the term "overhead." While I couldn't agree more, I wonder how the non-profit world would react to more consistent capital? Would a radical change take place? I haven't spoken to anyone in the non-profit world who doesn't say their organization/agency/etc isn't a mess...would opening the proverbial flood gates, providing access to capital revolutionize the impact the non-profit sector has? Probably, but I believe it would also magnify many of the challenges sector currently faces. 

Some of the issues that could potentially be magnified are covered in this article from the Center for Investigative Reporting on the Dirty Secrets of the Worst Charities.

Either way, this talk clearly articulates some of the chalenges that exist with the way we approach supporting non-profits with dollars to achieve their mission.