This
presentation will share two practices that brought people together to
bring about increased knowledge and action on emergency preparedness.
First, we will hear about the lessons learned from the Massachusetts
Active Planning project, which brought together local disability
community members with their localities, to work collaboratively, share
resources and expertise about emergency preparedness and response for and
with people with disabilities, ultimately enhancing resilience for the
whole community. Our speakers will focus on a replicable collaborative,
inclusive Community Stakeholder Meeting (CSM) gap analysis process to
address issues of community-wide concern, such as needs assessment,
resident participation in local emergency planning, risk communication,
public preparedness education and creative use of community resources to
address emergency needs, for example in emergency shelters. Our second
set of speakers will describe an effort to get people with disabilities
and other access and functional needs to prepare for emergencies, for
that group to communicate needs to emergency responders, and to encourage
businesses and local civic leaders to plan cooperatively for needs
through periodic community meetings.
Learning
Objectives:
Understand
how to identify key stakeholders in the community and learn
strategies for collaboration.
Learn
how to perform a gap analysis of your local emergency plan using the
Active Planning Workbook and identify priorities and strategies for
plan improvement.
Learn
strategies and practical steps for improving the general state of
emergency preparedness in a community.
Presenter:
Sue Wolf-Fordham and Nancy Shea,
Active Planning Project, University of Massachusetts Medical School
E.K. Shriver Center Emergency Preparedness & Response
Initiative.
Ted Stamp Southwestern Center for Independent Living and Tammy VanOverbeke,
Lyon County Emergency Manager.
Community and family preparedness
internationally.
There are benefits to the use of nuclear energy. If the waste of nuclear energy is deposited
in your back yard how would you feel?
Plan for minor disruptions, and disruptions that persist
until it turns into a disaster.
Review (click) on the ‘Radioactive
Waste’ heading for more information.
BEMA
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to BEMA@BlackEmergManagersAssociation.org using GovDelivery, on behalf of: U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) · 11555 Rockville
Pike · Rockville, MD 20852 · 301-415-7000
The Power Of Human Resilience After Major Disasters— And The Importance Of Community
Researchers had the unique chance to measure the "happiness" of vulnerable New Orleans residents before and after Hurricane Katrina. The results are uplifting.
Two years before Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, killing 1,800 people and destroying more than 60% of the city’s housing stock, a group of researchers embarked on what was then an average academic study designed to improve the educational performance of about 1,000 low-income parents enrolled at two community colleges in the city.
The storm disrupted the researchers' entire study but proved to have a silver lining: Their initial survey was suddenly incredibly valuable for an entirely different purpose. If the researchers, based at several universities around the country, could get in touch with everyone again, they’d have something relatively rare in social science research: A before and after comparison of how people respond to the worst and most unpredictable kinds of disasters.
The Resilience in Survivors of Katrina ("RISK") Project was born, and the researchers ended up tracking down about 70% of their initial cohort twice: one year after the disaster and again after four years. They conducted the same surveys again, also adding questions about how the hurricane had affected their lives. In the years since these surveys, the RISK project has published dozens of studies that compare the pre- and post-Katrina results on topics ranging from post-traumatic stress, child outcomes, residential mobility, and mental health.
One of the intriguing studies to come out of the work was published recently in theJournal of Happiness Studies. It looked at what you’d expect: The pre- and post-disaster levels of happiness among 491 of the survey participants, all women. It honed in on how they answered the survey question, "If you were to consider your life in general these days, how happy or unhappy would you say you are?"
The results, according Rocio Calvo, an assistant professor at Boston College’s School of Social Work and the lead researcher on the happiness study, were encouraging and surprising. Even only one year after the storm, almost 89% of women remained in the "somewhat happy" or "very happy" categories, though there was a drop in happiness on average. However, by four years after the storm, almost all of the respondents had gone back to their pre-storm happiness levels. "I think individuals are more resilient than they are given credit for," she says.
This is amazing to think about. These are already vulnerable women who went through major stress because of Katrina—85% of their homes were seriously damaged and almost one-third had lost a family member or close friend. On average, they experienced at least three major stress factors during the storm, such as no medical care for themselves or a loved one or no food to eat.
There was one exception: 38 women who continued to have lower levels of happiness even four years after the storm. They were more likely to be living on their own after the storm and reported consistently lower levels of perceived support from their communities.
"Our research showed that social support, both before and after Hurricane Katrina, was the main factor associated with women's happiness," Calvo says.
Calvo, who also studies happiness in Latino immigrant communities, believes the study underlines the importance of supporting the community fabric in vulnerable populations. Social workers, she says, can’t just come in and dictate how communities should use resources, even if they mean to help. "Communities might be poor and vulnerable, but they may know better than you what works," she says.
I hope this message finds you
in good health and at ease. Allow me to inform you that we have publicly
launched the ANTI VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT (AVAWA) campaign. We hope you will
support the Bill by signing the petition. We also hope that you will
encourage your network to sign the petition as well and support our goal to
reach 1,000,000 signatures. Volume of people signing on behalf of an
organization will be shared openly and merited as co-signees of the petition
and recognized partners.
As you may agree, we need all
the support we can get to have the Anti Violence Against Women Act (AVAWA) adopted
as an imperative component of sustainable legislative strategy for peace and
security in Africa. The AVAWA initiative is a non-intrusive diplomatic strategy
to mitigate as well as make ending violence against women and girls a top
priority for African States. AVAWA suggests that the African States’
governments honor the existing provision for women as stated in their
constitutions with a comprehensive, multi-sectorial strategic national plan for
reducing and ending violence against women. Adopting AVAWA may encourage
countries that do not have gender sensitive legislation in their constitution
to recognize the need for such inclusion. Your endorsement will make the
AVAWA annual report a legal tender of nations’ accountability act on the issue of
women and human rights. Failure to make effective use of the opportunity that
AVAWA presents may subject African countries to a perpetual cycle of
interventionist agenda that has no real effect.
Making AVAWA a priority gives
Africa a great boost on its cause for self-determination with extensive benefit
from the value of advancing the status for women around the world. It will also
empower the Anti Violence Against Women Associations to create a global network
and set stage for the PINK Africa Summit. Detail information about AVAWA is
provided to guide you through the full understanding of the detriments of
Violence Against Women and the all-encompassing benefit of AVAWA at this link: http://bit.ly/AVAWA-petition
Hurricanes, tornadoes and solar eruptions can have profound effects on America's economy, public safety and well-being.
A noon lunch briefing next Tuesday at the Senate Visitor's Center on Capitol Hill, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, will provide an overview of the current state of storm research.
In particular, panelists will discuss work to improve risk assessment and hazard preparedness in order to mitigate vulnerability to storm impacts.
What:
A briefing about severe storms
Featuring:
Roger Wakimoto, assistant director for Geosciences, National Science Foundation
Jenni L. Evans, acting director, Institutes of Energy and the Environment, Penn State
Howard B. Bluestein, professor, School of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma
Harlan E. Spence, director, Institute for Study of Earth, Oceans and Space, University of New Hampshire.
Where:
Senate Visitor's Center, Room 212-10
When:
Tuesday, March 24, 2015, 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Lunch will be provided.
RSVP: Please contact lisajoy@nsf.gov for more information and/or to reserve a spot.
NOTE: This is a closed event and reservations are required, and must be received by 9 a.m. on Monday, March 23, 2015.