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This week, FEMA’s Ready Campaign relaunched newly updated Ready.gov/kids, or Ready Kids, webpages. The relaunch is part of week three of National Preparedness Month, which focuses on the importance of including young people in disaster preparedness.
Ready Kids is the youth preparedness platform for the Ready Campaign. The updated website is a one-stop shop with interactive search features, tools and resources to help engage kids and young people on emergency and disaster preparedness. It also includes games and activities for kids to teach them about being prepared for disasters.
Parents, caregivers and educators are encouraged to go to Ready.gov/kids for tools to create a family communications plan, a checklist to build an emergency preparedness kit, and resources to talk with children and teens about disasters that may occur where you live.
Ready.gov/kids also has resources to support the integration and implementation of children’s disaster-related needs into preparedness, planning, response and recovery efforts. State, local, territorial and tribal governments and other stakeholders responsible for the temporary care of children can find tools for developing emergency operations plans, trainings, guidance, policies and more on the updated Ready Kids website.
Learn more about preparing for disasters and emergencies at Ready.gov.
Last week, FEMA’s National Integration Center released three documents for national engagement, designed to provide guidance to state, local, tribal and territorial jurisdictions in preparedness, as well as response and recovery activities.
The three documents are as follows:
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Planning Considerations: Disaster Housing This document provides guidance on national housing priorities, types of housing, key considerations, and housing-specific planning recommendations that jurisdictions can apply when developing or improving housing plans.
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Disaster Financial Management Guide This document is intended to support jurisdictions in establishing and implementing sound disaster financial management practices. The document also presents an overview of common disaster recovery funding programs and resources that may be beneficial to jurisdictions’ recovery efforts.
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NIMS Basic Guidance for Public Information Officers This is an updated document that includes digital engagement and social media protocols as well as provides operational practices to help PIOs perform their duties within the NIMS Command and Coordination structures.
FEMA will host a series of 60-minute engagement webinars to describe the draft documents and answer participants’ questions about providing feedback. The webinars will be open to the whole community.
To review the draft housing and financial management documents, please visit FEMA website.
For the draft PIOs document, go to FEMA website.
Information on the webinars is available on both webpages.
FEMA announced $8 million in awards for the Fiscal Year 2019 Homeland Security National Training Program/Continuing Training Grants to help improve the nation’s ability to respond to and recover from all-hazards events.
The grant program develops and delivers innovative national-level training programs that play an important role in the implementation of the National Preparedness System.
The grants provide funding to applicants to target and provide training solutions for responders and emergency managers throughout the country to address emerging threats (specifically cybersecurity) and Community Lifelines.
This highly competitive program attracts applicants from state, local, tribal and territorial governments, along with eligible non-profit organizations to include colleges and universities. The Fiscal Year 2019 award recipients are as follows:
- Emerging Threats (Cybersecurity): The University of Texas at San Antonio - $1.5 million.
- Food, Water and Sheltering (Housing): Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness in New York, N.Y.- $1 million.
- Transportation and Communications (Economic Recovery): International City/County Management Association in Washington, D.C. - $500,000.
- Food, Water and Sheltering (Logistics and Supply Chain Management):
The Mid-Atlantic Center for Emergency Management and Public Safety at Frederick, (Md.) Community College - $1 million.
University of Tennessee - $1 million.
- All Lifelines (Tribal and Rural Preparedness): The Center for Rural Development in Somerset, Ky. - $3 million.
Additional information is available on FEMA’s Continuing Training Grants webpage.
The third week of National Preparedness Month highlights the importance of including youth when preparing for disasters. Between school, sports and social lives, it’s possible that you won’t be with your kids if a disaster happens. Educating them means that when the time comes, chances are, they’ll feel prepared, not scared.
Young people experience the same hazards as adults do, this makes them an important part of building a national culture of preparedness.
Here are some ways to include youth in preparedness:
Each September, National Preparedness Month reminds us to prepare ourselves, our families, and our communities for the disasters and emergencies that could happen where we live, work and visit.
Learn more about the many ways that you can prepare in the case of a disaster or emergency by visiting Ready.gov.
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Congressional Support for National Preparedness Month
FEMA appreciates the support of the Members of Congress who are serving as 2019 co-sponsors for National Preparedness Month. Throughout September, the FEMA Bulletin will feature statements from these members.
Representative Maxine Waters, Chairwoman, Committee on Financial Services
“As natural disasters continue to increase in frequency and severity, American families must be prepared not only to protect their physical health and safety, but their financial well-being. As Chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, I am committed to ensuring that families and businesses are well-equipped for the devastating economic, physical, and social impact of natural disasters as I continue to push for a long-term reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). NFIP provides homeowners, businesses, renters, and communities with the certainty they deserve, and I’m pleased to participate as a 2019 National Preparedness Month Congressional Co-Chair to raise awareness of the importance of flood insurance and other forms of emergency and disaster preparedness.”
Representative Sam Graves, Ranking Member, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
“As my own district in Missouri continues to recover from devastating flooding from earlier this year, now is the perfect time to remind everyone across the Nation that no community is completely immune to disaster of one kind or another. Being prepared for floods, wildfires, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, or even acts of terrorism can save money, save property, and most importantly, save lives.”
Senator Gary C. Peters, Ranking Member, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
“Over the past few years, Michiganders have seen the tremendous cost of extreme weather and flooding caused in part by climate change,” said Senator Peters. “National Preparedness Month serves as a reminder that we must be prepared for emergencies and make investments that will help reduce the toll that disasters take on our communities and families. As Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, I’m proud to join FEMA in urging families in Michigan and across the country to ensure everyone stays safe when disaster strikes.”
In this week’s episode, listen in on a roundtable discussion focused on youth preparedness and National Preparedness Month. Learn more about the important roles children can play in creating a systematic shift in the culture of preparedness.
The FEMA podcast is an audio program series available to anyone interested in learning more about the Agency, hearing about innovation in the field of emergency management, and listening to stories about communities and individuals recovering after disasters.
FEMA Participates in Twitter Chat: "How to Prepare Your Business Before Disaster Strikes."
On Wed, Sept. 18 at 3 p.m. EDT, the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety will host a Twitter Chat: "How to Prepare Your Business Before Disaster Strikes." Follow the chat using #SBAchat.
The event will raise awareness to help organizations and businesses understand their disaster risks. It will help them develop business continuity plans for rebuilding and recovery. Follow the chat to get tips on how to create a disaster preparedness plan.
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