National Youth Preparedness Council - Teens Can Apply Today!
Each year the Individual and Community Preparedness Division (ICPD) facilitates the youth preparedness council (YPC) application period to encourage high schoolers to apply to the National YPC. The YPC is a youth-based, FEMA-managed program focused on advocating disaster preparedness in teens' communities, states, tribes and across the country at large. Students not selected for the National YPC may be invited to join the Region 10 YPC, which focuses on serving communities specifically in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.
The 2021 application period is from January 18 to March 7, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. PT
Apply Online
Region 10 CERT Promising Practices Webinar
Thursday, January 28, 2021 from 10 AM - 11 AM PT - Zoom platform
FEMA Region 10 Individual and Community Preparedness Program staff and partners will share updates about the CERT program and facilitate discussion about promising practices for CERT teams during COVID-19. The target audience includes CERT program leads and CERT sponsoring agencies within Region 10 (Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington).
Register Online
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National Council on Independent Living Mentor Program
EmpowHer Camp is a multi-stage skill-building, empowerment, and mentoring program that brings a diverse group of girls with disabilities (ages 13 -17) to camp with successful women mentors with disabilities, in the Adirondacks. The week-long camp covers disaster preparedness and basic survival skills, while also developing independent living and leadership skills.
Apply or recommend a girl (ages 13-17) to attend this camp.
Resolve to be Ready Webinar Series
This series is part of FEMA Region 2's webinar series that occurs on a weekly basis. Join the regions' National Preparedness Divisions for 10 webinars in 10 weeks, featuring 10 steps you can take to prepare in 2021. Hear from across the nation as FEMA regional offices provide you with actionable steps you can take to be prepared.
Link to upcoming webinars
Link to past Region 2 webinars
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Alaska
CERT (Community Emergency Response Team)
Willow, Alaska (pre-COVID-19)
When faced with the reality of 30 minute ambulance response times, the Willow CERT team, located in a rural area 75 miles north of Anchorage, brought together a group of 23 CERT volunteers, a firefighter, and two teens to be trained in Stop the Bleed. They were given opportunities to practice packing wounds and applying tourniquets. After this training, they applied for and received a grant that provided funds for Stop the Bleed kits for their CERT members and successfully ordered kits for their team.
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Matanuska-Susitna (Mat-Su) Borough
Volunteers and nurses from all over the Matanuska-Susitna (Mat-Su) borough masked up and set up 19 drive-thru testing sites. This covered an area of over 130 miles serving over 330 community members. More than 100 active CERT members from five different teams contributed over 440 volunteer hours to help assemble testing sites in parking lots, set up traffic lanes, nurse stations, and coordinated appropriate traffic flow to ensure the safety of community members, the public health staff, and volunteers.
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Valdez High School
Five students recently graduated from the Teen CERT program at Valdez High School. Their final scenario was an earthquake simulation taking place at the school in which the team had to remove an injured victim out of debris. This simulation included their EMT 1 class that aided in infant CPR/AED and engaged the help of both new and seasoned CERT volunteers. With COVID-19 restrictions in place, these students were able to complete their tasks while masked and gloved for the duration of the course.
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Idaho
Ada County (Pre-COVID-19)
In January 2020 (pre-COVID-19), Ada County Emergency Management and Community Resilience hosted a CERT class for over 20 members of Meridian Citizens Academy. The class took place at the Meridian Public Safety Training Center over the course of a week, in partnership with Meridian Fire Department. The final simulation exercise included student volunteers from Meridian Medical Arts Charter High School acting as injured victims and assisting with moulage.
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Oregon
Lane County
During the Fall of 2020, the Central Aid Agency had members deploy to support a donations center for victims of the Holiday Farm Fire. The center was stood up by Lane County, United Way, and St. Vincent DePaul. The members helped with initial setup of the donations center, and then assisted with providing security for it. This deployment involved personnel from several of the central aid units, including many members of their CERT program. In total they had 11 people deployed over a week's time and volunteered over 100 hours of their time.
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Portland Neighborhood Emergency Teams (NET)
The Portland mask project (PMP) partnered with Portland NET and 63 of their volunteers to create 5,000 reusable cloth COVID-19 masks. They delivered 3,700 masks to 20 community based organizations, many of which went to underserved communities.
NET volunteers worked 584 shifts and contributed 2,867 hours to the COVID-19 response in the coordination center.
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Washington
Whatcom CERT team
In March, 74 Whatcom County CERT volunteers were deployed and served a total of 1,085 volunteer hours in the COVID-19 response. The Whatcom CERT volunteers supported operations including: staffing health interview and temperature check at entrance of Emergency Operations Center (EOC), warehouse management, front desk reception, volunteer branch staffing, Bellingham Food Bank staffing and delivery, and staffing the Whatcom Unified Command Donation Center.
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Sequim and Clallam County Fire District 3 area
On top of helping to support the COVID-19 food drive in their community, over 150 CERT members are prepared to support vaccine operations through June, if sufficient doses are available to completely vaccinate the community of 40,000. This is a joint partnership effort between Jamestown S'Klallam Tribal Health, the city of Sequim, Trinity United Methodist Church (use of its parking lot to stage incoming vehicles and some personnel support), Clallam County Fire District 3 and the CERT program. Jamestown administers vaccines, while the city of Sequim provides public works, public information officers (PIO), and police support. The fire district provides EMTs for observation of patients for allergic reactions and has standby units ready to treat serious patients. CERT members have helped oversee traffic control for the masses.
City of Shoreline
CERT members staffed showers for people experiencing homelessness in an effort to help control the virus spread among the population. The recreation center that provided the showers was staffed three days a week for four hours a day. Their CERT team also helped with food box distribution at a King County Housing Facility in Shoreline.
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Girl Scouts of Western Washington
Be Prepared, Not Scared: COVID-19
The Girl Scouts of Western Washington have created the Be Prepared, Not Scared: COVID-19 dashboard on the girl scouts website that is a great introduction to preparedness in the COVID-19 environment. There is a downloadable program available that has a thorough description of how to stay prepared that is targeted for middle schoolers and up.
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The Science of Disaster Program
The Girl Scouts of Western Washington also worked to put together the Science of Disaster program in which they had guest speakers who were subject-matter experts come together to teach about four disaster paths: Earthquakes & Tsunami, Wild Fire & Landslides, Severe Storms & Tornados, or Hurricanes & Floods They were able to cover the science behind these disasters and the mitigation efforts in place to protect communities impacted by them.
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American Association of Retired Persons (AARP)
Alaska AARP has a long history of supporting preparedness activities across the state. During National Preparedness Month, the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (DHS&EM) partnered with Alaska AARP to host disaster preparedness webinars. These four webinars targeted the senior population and covered four distinct regions in Alaska; Southeast, Southcentral, Interior and Rural. The webinars were well received by the 80 AARP members who attended. This was a great opportunity for Alaska DHS&EM to answer questions in a virtual setting.
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The FEMA Region 10 Individual and Community Preparedness (ICP) Team plans to use this newsletter to share community preparedness activities and best practices. There are many community organizations and volunteers assisting with COVID-19 response and recovery and other important disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation efforts. If you would like to share your stories and/or photos in the next newsletter, please email fema-r10-communityprep@fema.dhs.gov.
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Region 10 Individual and Community Preparedness Menu of Resources
Region 10 has put together a menu of resources that outlines current programs separated into focus areas: Citizen Responder, Youth Preparedness, Capacity Building, Financial Resilience, and Preparedness Actions. Each course, training, and material can be adapted to meet the diverse needs of the audience. This document is meant to give a better understanding of timing, availability, and accessibility as well as links to resources and webpages.
Read the current document
When Seattle Shakes
Along with many unreinforced masonry buildings, Seattle’s historic structures are at risk from the numerous seismic faults in the Pacific Northwest and also from economic factors. Many at-risk buildings continue to have vibrant life in Seattle communities, and find it challenging to retrofit for earthquake safety.
When Seattle Shakes explores how to align the goals of historic preservation and resilient design by understanding the most effective ways of protecting a city’s historic building stock against earthquakes.
The online exhibit will launch February 4th.
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Region 10 Youth Preparedness Council (R10 YPC)
The R10 YPC is currently made up of 14 teenagers from Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.
Members focus on improving their communities preparedness and resilience to disasters. Recent accomplishments include:
- Dania (WA) has been working with the city and fire department in Redmond, Washington to package and distribute masks at local community areas. She has participated in four mask distribution events so far, and recently finished packaging 4,000 masks. She distributed these masks at an event on January 20th.
- Larry (WA) is working with Southwest Washington Red Cross to create a disaster preparedness presentation for their annual Leadership Development Conference.
- Neha (OR) will be taking a facilitated online CERT class – although it is all virtual, we are excited for this next step in her preparedness journey.
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Isaac (WA) spent over 160 hours in fall 2020 training to meet the state and national requirements for EMT certification.
- Shivani (WA) attended a ‘Red Cross Mapathon’ Meeting to map out disaster prone cities with 150 other youth.
Holiday cheer during the Region 10 YPC December meeting!
R10 YPC Social Media Content
Region 10's Youth Preparedness Council has been hard at work creating content for their new social media pages. Follow along for new updates, shout-outs, and creative story telling at these pages:
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram , Website
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R10 YPC Member Project
Isaac Bozeman, a member of Region 10's YPC, just finished the premier video in a series that will focus on preparedness for recreationalists in his community. The project is with Skagit County Ground Search and Rescue and will consist of monthly videos as well as bonus interviews, live events, and activities.
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Safety Matters; Staying Safe in a Pandemic
Region 5 YPC Led Webinar on February 1 at 4pm PT
This webinar will be addressing ways to help you and others stay safe during COVID-19. Learn important ways to slow the spread of the virus with subject matter expert, Dr. Elizabeth Swedo, MD, MPH, FAAP from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who will discuss the importance of social distancing, handwashing, using personal-protective equipment (PPE), and following health guidelines.
Register Online
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To find additional information on the below topics, please visit the Washington Emergency Management Division website where the Prepare in a Year Guide is available in several languages.
MONTH ONE: COMMUNICATIONS PLAN
Start by preparing 1 hour of the month for the next year to be prepared for disasters. This month we will be focusing on creating a Communications Plan (page 3 in Prepare in a Year Guide).
When disaster strikes, normal communication methods may not be readily available. Being prepared can help keep you and your family from panicking in case you aren't able to reach one another. You can take small steps to prepare a communications plan, including:
- Sign up for local emergency alerts, this can give you time to evacuate, take cover, or get in contact with someone.
- Ask an out-of-area friend/relative to be your contact person, they will help link you and your family members together in case cell phone signals or internet is down.
- Write down the contact information for household members that is with you at all times.
- After the disaster if you have access to Facebook, mark yourself safe so that people know you are okay.
- When the danger has passed, register at the American Red Cross "Safe and Well" website so that loved ones can check in on you.
MONTH TWO: ACTION PLAN
See pages 4-6 of Prepare in a Year Guide for information.
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Meet with your family and discuss your action plan in case of a disaster. Take into account the needs of individuals in the household and make sure everyone is aware of any updates to the plan.
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MONTH THREE: WATER
See page 7 of Prepare in a Year Guide for more information
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Have a healthy amount of water in the home prior to a disaster. In the case of water contamination. you want to make sure to have a clean source of water that can last you and your family at least two weeks. Learn more about how much to store, how to store, and what to do if your water becomes contaminated.
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MONTH FOUR: GRAB & GO KIT
See page 8 of Prepare in a Year Guide for more information
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Learn more about the importance of a grab and go kit, where you should have them located in case of a disaster, and the different items that should be going into them.
Remember to take into consideration the needs of family members in your home and to ask if anyone has special items they may need. Don't forget your pets' needs as well!
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CDC COVID-19 One-Stop Shop Toolkits
CDC’s (Center for Disease Control) One-Stop Shop provides quick access to communication resources. Topic-specific toolkits make it easy to access, leverage, and share CDC resources. These toolkits provide COVID-19 videos, social media, public safety announcements, print resources, checklists, frequently asked questions, and web resources. There are tabs for 10 different audiences, including K12 schools, community and faith-based organizations, and shared and congregate housing.
Accessible COVID-19 Messaging
Georgia Tech has created accessible messaging for COVID -19 for people with disabilities. The materials provided have been funded by the CDC foundation and contain links to further information.
Guidance in Health Equity
Oregon Health Authority (OHA) is in the process of creating a new crisis care guidance that specifically responds to the concerns of people with disabilities about rationing of care. This final guidance is being written with the input of key stakeholders. In the meantime, OHA recommends that hospitals and healthcare providers use these Principles in Promoting Health Equity during Resource Constrained Events to guide them.
Vaccine Guidance
Messaging is currently being amplified and vaccinations have begun around the country.
The current recommendations by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for vaccine prioritization are as follows:
- Health care personnel
- Residents of long-term care facilities
- Persons aged ≥75 years and frontline essential workers (non–health care workers)
- Persons aged 65–74 years, persons aged 16–64 years with high-risk medical conditions, and essential workers not recommended for vaccination previously should be offered vaccine.
Remember to do your part: cover, distance, clean.
For more resource on how to get prepared follow the links below:
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