Government Reevaluating Ready.Gov Preparedness Recommendations For Public: “Get A Plan” Getting More Emphasis, “Get A Kit” Getting Less, “Get Trained” Getting New Attention

Government Reevaluating Ready.Gov Preparedness Recommendations For Public: “Get A Plan” Getting More Emphasis, “Get A Kit” Getting Less, “Get Trained” Getting New Attention: "

U.S. officials are reevaluating the government’s original post-9/11 Ready.Gov citizen preparedness recommendations and in public statements are already reprioritizing what they are urging Americans to do to prepare for disasters.

It means that Ready.Gov’s “Get A Kit, Make A Plan, Be Informed” framework — which has been used by many federal, state and local preparedness sites since its launch six years ago — will likely get an overhaul. “We are taking a look at the website content,” Ready’s Acting Director Rebecca Marquis said last week.

Though changes have yet to be made on the Ready.Gov site, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate has already been altering the Ready citizen preparedness message in a number of recent appearances. He has been urging people to “make a plan”, but has been omitting mention of a getting a (supply) kit. An example is the video (below) shot in the new Los Angeles Emergency Operations Center from FEMA’s website earlier this month in which he urges Americans to “get a plan, get trained.”

FEMA HEAD CRAIG FUGATE TALKS ABOUT PREPAREDNESS IN LOS ANGELES EOC EARLIER THIS MONTH (ABOVE)

The changes come as many in the preparedness community have expressed concern that asking Americans to create a 72-hour supply kit may be too difficult financially and logistically. By contrast making a family plan, Fugate has said, doesn’t cost anything.

The current “Get A Kit, Make A Plan, Be Informed” approach came out of an effort in the years after 9/11 to standardize and simplify the preparedness message to the public. While the Ready.Gov messaging has definitely made some awareness inroads with the public, I have found a general consensus in the preparedness field area that revising and augmenting the approach would be helpful. FEMA will be working with the Red Cross and other partners in developing the changes.

I think it is a great idea to take a new look at Ready.Gov and other preparedness messaging. My major suggestion, as I have written on the blog, is that any communications overhaul be done as part of an overall strengthening of the government’s citizen preparedness effort, because there is a limit to what even the most effective information campaign alone can do in changing public behavior.

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New Survey Says 64% Of Americans Would Take A 20-Hour Training Course To Help Their Community Recover From Disasters; Citizen Corps Study Also Shows Many People Expecting Too Much Of Responders In Major Emergency

New Survey Says 64% Of Americans Would Take A 20-Hour Training Course To Help Their Community Recover From Disasters; Citizen Corps Study Also Shows Many People Expecting Too Much Of Responders In Major Emergency: "

Almost two-thirds (64%) of Americans say they would be willing to take a 20-hour training class to assist their community recover from disasters, according to a new survey released by the U.S. Citizen Corps. Initial results of “Personal Preparedness In America, were announced by Citizen Corps Director Karen Marsh at the National Conference on Community Preparedness this week in Arlington, Virginia.

The 64% figure was striking to me, because it points out an interest of many Americans to become more knowledgeable in emergency preparedness/response (and it is a question that isn’t often polled). Twenty hours is the standard amount of training to become qualified as a member of a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). That’s not to say that two-thirds of the population want to join the CERT program, but it does seem to indicate that a lot of Americans would be amenable to some sort of disaster education/training — maybe held in their workplace, house of worship, social club, etc.

Another interesting finding in the study is that a major impediment for people getting prepared is that they believe emergency responders will take care of them in a disaster (despite the warnings of the responders themselves that they can’t handle everyone, particularly in the first 72 hours). According to the survey:

From a list of possible reasons why individuals had not prepared, 30 percent of individuals indicated that a primary reason they had not prepared was because they believed that emergency personnel would help them in the event of a disaster. Further, 61 percent of participants indicated they expected to rely on emergency responders in the first 72 hours following a disaster.

The Citizen Corps, which is part of the FEMA’s Community Preparedness Division, has been measuring the public’s knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors on preparedness since 2003. I previously wrote about the 2007 survey which was released earlier this year. This updated report includes surveying fielded in the Spring; some of the initial results were released at the Conference. The rest of the data and further analysis will be presented at a later date. (n.b. the “training” question and 64% result is not in the report issued this week but was part of the presentation at the conference)

The survey is comprehensive and worth looking through for those interested in citizen preparedness research. Below are the “Summary And Recommendations”:

* Individuals’ high expectations of assistance from emergency responders may inhibit individual preparedness. Communicating more realistic expectations and personal responsibilities is critical.

* Too few people had stocked disaster supplies, and most supplies were incomplete. More emphasis is needed on the importance of stocking disaster supplies in multiple locations, and more specificity is needed on critical items to include, such as flashlights, radios, batteries, first aid kits, and personal documents.

* Greater appreciation for the importance of household plans and knowledge of local community emergency procedures and response resources is needed. Individuals who reported being prepared lacked critical plans and information.

* Practicing response protocols is critical for effective execution. Greater emphasis on drills and exercises is needed.

* An awareness of vulnerabilities to natural disasters motivates individuals to prepare. Most individuals, however, did not believe their communities will ever be affected by any type of disaster.

* Perceptions of the utility of preparedness and confidence in ability to respond varied significantly by type of hazard. Because all-hazards messaging may dilute critical differences in preparedness and response protocols, preparedness and response education should include a focus on hazard-specific actions appropriate for each community.

* Social networks, such as households, neighborhoods, the workplace, schools, and faith-based communities, and the concepts of mutual support should be emphasized

* Focusing on individuals in the contemplation and preparation stages for personal preparedness may yield greater results. Messaging and community outreach efforts should be designed to support those already considering taking action. Individuals’ strong interest in attending training courses and volunteering should be harnessed through social networks. Training and volunteer service should be linked with a responsibility for educating and encouraging others to prepare.

* Specific sociodemographic characteristics correlated with attitudes toward and actions for preparedness. Insights into these differences offer the ability to tailor outreach efforts to targeted audiences.

* Individuals believed they had a personal responsibility to report suspicious behavior but greater collaboration between citizens and law enforcement is needed.

The survey was conducted by ICF Macro’s Carol S. Freeman who has done the previous Citizen Corps research and is a (if not the) leading opinion researcher in the area of citizen preparedness.

At the Citizens Corps conference, I had an opportunity to talk to some local emergency officials about the 64% finding. Below is a brief interview I did with San Francisco Fire Department Lt. Erica Arteseros, who coordinates the city’s Neighborhood Emergency Response Team program (CERT is called NERT in SF). In the video, she says government need to capitalize on the interest expressed in the poll.

San Francisco NERT coordinator Lt. Erica Arteseros talks about the Citizen Corps survey.

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Latest CERT National Newsletter Digest

In this issue of the CERT newsletter, Volume 2, Issue 2, you will read about the Hamden, CONN CERT training on public safety officer rehabilitation and on-scene victim care. Another story "CERT Programs: Rural and Urban" describes the similarities CERT members receive in both locations and also the challenges both communities are faced with. The article on Teen CERT is a compilation of five individuals from across the country who conduct Teen CERT in their local communities.

Here's the link: http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/newsletter.shtm