Reducing the death toll, bodily harm, and destruction from natural or man-made hazards requires greater public awareness. Residents must be conscious of potential disasters and immediate responses to earthquakes, storms, floods, wildfires, or anthrophonic threats, for example, industrial explosions. Equally important is the first responders’ awareness of hazard-mitigation strategies and pre-disaster plans.
Empowered public officials would have a higher level of preparedness and response to help reduce the long-term risk of disasters to people and property. The purpose of this training program is to enhance the hazard risk awareness of various stakeholders to support organization-level disaster mitigation strategies or policy actions. Implicit in hazard risk reduction are coordination, cooperation, and information exchange among actors during emergencies.
Target Audience
The engagement of agencies will be required to enable them to lead hazard mitigation (HM) activities in their jurisdictions. The authorities will conduct public awareness and outreach programs to reduce disaster threats based on the local understanding of risks and vulnerabilities (Mische & Wilkerson, 2016). The target audience for the training comprises three categories. The first group is the federal, state, and local government officials involved in developing HM plans to determine potential threats and vulnerable communities and create sustained strategies for protecting life and property (Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA], 2019).
The second group is emergency management professionals and first responders. Examples may include county firefighters, Red Cross personnel, and paramedics. The last category comprises hazard mitigation planners in the community who serve as a liaison for different professionals engaged in disaster risk reduction. The rationale for involving various technical disciplines and authorities is to foster coordinated interagency responses and partnerships for increased awareness and utilization of local mitigation capabilities.
Issues to be addressed
The training will ultimately lead to improved local capabilities to detect, assess, and mitigate the impact of hazards on residents. The participants will be guided through the steps of the HM planning process. In this view, the issues to be addressed by the training will include the four components of HM planning: “risk assessment, capability evaluation, mitigation strategy, and plan maintenance procedures” (Levin, Berliner, & Merdjanoff, 2014, p. 80).
First, the participants will be trained on the identification and analysis of probable natural and man-made disasters in their county. The training will focus on the collection and review of relevant data to aid in risk assessment. Cooperation among federal, state, and local agencies is critical. For example, hurricane mitigation would require effective collaboration among emergency management professionals, county law enforcement, firefighters, hospitals, and local media. Other areas that will be covered include the determination of the vulnerabilities of different zip codes and HM prioritization.
Training public officials on capability assessment will be critical to promoting the ability of the participating county to implement local HM initiatives and policies. Thus, the awareness program will equip participants with skills to review the domestic capacity to put into action specific HM measures, for example, providing a disaster supplies kit to residents at risk of floods.
In such a situation, a coordinated approach that brings together local agencies, tribal leaders, and media would be critical to mobilizing funds and resources to reach vulnerable persons in far-flung areas. Capability assessment is essential in identifying realistic mitigation programs that would reduce the risk of hazards (Levin et al., 2014). The rationale for incorporating this element in training is to boost participant knowledge or awareness of the available local resources and opportunities for HM.
A county mitigation strategy can help address local vulnerability to build a more hazard resilient community. Such a blueprint often specifies the goals, objectives, and relevant responses to each disaster aligned to community priorities. Thus, the development of a local mitigation strategy from the outcomes of a risk and capability assessments will be a core component of the training (Levin et al., 2014). Empowered participants will develop an implementation framework for every mitigation action. A plan for maintenance of the strategy will ensure that this tool and related procedures remain relevant in the long-term.
Media Type and Format to be utilized
A multi-hazard mitigation plan such as the one proposed requires integrated measures involving various stakeholders. Therefore, an ideal media type for delivering the training content to disparate actors will be via the internet. The specific format will be webinar series to allow interactive sharing of information and experiences on HM and promote partnerships. For example, FEMA (2019) uses web-based video conferencing to link up with agencies like the American Planning Association to learn HM measures and procedures from each other. The training will adopt a similar approach to promote peer-to-peer learning about county-level hazard mitigation.
Each webinar will focus on a specific topic on HM planning and stress the linkages with rescue preparedness. The participants will be able to share experiences and best practices in mitigating different hazard events. Perhaps the most crucial aspect of this tool is the horizontal cooperation among different actors to develop new HM policies and measures. Web-based training and presentations will be made available to participants through the webinar.
Feedback/evaluation for the Training
Assessment of the training will inform changes to improve the program’s efficacy. The reason for evaluating the plan is to troubleshoot problems or flaws for possible revisions. Baseline participant knowledge of the HM strategies and measures for natural and man-made hazards will be obtained through a survey. Specifically, individual understanding of risk identification, capacity assessment, vulnerability analysis, and development of response strategies will be assessed. Participants will be required to complete a short web-based survey focusing on these areas before taking part in the training.
The adequacy of the program to improve HM strategy awareness among public officials will also be determined through the evaluation. Participant feedback after completing the training will be obtained through a post-implementation survey. Representatives from the participating public agencies will rate personal satisfaction with the different components of the program, for example, the mode of delivery (webinar), comprehensiveness of the content, and alignment with local HM objectives and priorities.
The aim is to capture feedback on the outcomes of the training and evaluate acceptance levels. Further, a comparison of post-training understanding of HM concepts and measures with baseline data will help discern the overall effectiveness of the exercise.
Implementation for the Program
The training will be implemented in the jurisdictions of each participating agency to build local HM capabilities. However, authorities from different regions can cooperate to launch multi-jurisdictional HM initiatives after the program. Participants will be expected to roll out community-specific mitigation strategies in their respective areas under the supervision of a planning committee. The program will include a comprehensive range of post-training actions to foster the local capacity to reduce risk to people and property.
Examples of such measures include public safety policies, awareness initiatives conducted through mass media, and outreach activities. The authorities will receive support to design and implement regulations meant to address local vulnerabilities to hazards.
The training will also include a capacity-building component to ensure that participating agencies can develop and revise county-specific HM plans according to FEMA requirements. This body expects local authorities to update their HM programs every five years (FEMA, 2019). Frequent revisions would enhance the effectiveness of HM plans to address evolving natural and man-made disasters. Formal approval by the commission will be necessary to ensure effective local implementation. Routine monitoring and reports from each jurisdiction will be required to inform changes that would improve the effectiveness of the document.
A planning team will be constituted for each jurisdiction to oversee the implementation of local HM plans. The membership of this ad hoc committee will be drawn from the business community, county authorities, law enforcement, and other bodies. The multidisciplinary nature of this team will foster the integration of the HM plan into public awareness initiatives. A centralized interactive site will be created after the training to support information sharing and risk communication among agencies. The goal is to ensure a coordinated approach to HM for better results.
Conclusion
HM plans are created and implemented in specific areas to reduce vulnerability to risk. The core target audience for the proposed awareness training program will be emergency response teams, representatives of county authorities and businesses, and HM planners. The central purpose is to improve local collaborative capacities to identify, assess, and mitigate risk to people and property. The delivery mode will include a webinar series. Routine monitoring and participant feedback during implementation will help evaluate the success of the program.
References
Federal Emergency Management Agency. (2019). Hazard mitigation planning training. Web.
Levin, K. L., Berliner, M., & Merdjanoff, A. (2014). Disaster planning for vulnerable populations: Leveraging community human service organizations direct service delivery personnel. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 20(5), 79-82. Web.
Mische, S., & Wilkerson, A. (2016). Disaster and contingency planning for scientific shared resource cores. Journal of Biomolecular Techniques, 27(1), 4–17. Web.