Kickoff Planning Session
January 2015
Working Together to Increase Preparedness
 The Ready Campaign promotes four universal building blocks of emergency
preparedness: Be Informed, Make a Plan, Build a Kit, and
Get Involved.
 America’s PrepareAthon!SM builds on this awareness to motivate action—
and encourages individuals and organizations to take simple, specific
actions to increase their preparedness for a potential local disaster.
 Citizen Corps and CERT provide grassroots infrastructure to engage the
whole community.
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 A national community-based campaign for action
 Emphasis on increasing emergency preparedness through
hazard-specific drills, group discussions, and exercises
 National PrepareAthon! Days every spring and fall
 Free resources and tools for different hazards:
 Earthquake, flood, hurricane, tornado, wildfire, and winter storm
www.ready.gov/prepare
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Campaign Goal
Build a more resilient Nation by
increasing the number of individuals who:
 Understand which disasters could happen in their
community;
 Know what to do to be safe and mitigate damage;
 Take action to increase their preparedness; and
 Participate in community resilience planning.
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Research-Based Design
 Delivers preparedness information through trusted
community members;
 Promotes peer-to-peer discussions within and across
community networks;
 Supports behavior change through experiential learning; and
 Provides platform to make preparedness a social norm.
 Learn more: FEMA, Preparedness In America: Research
Insights to Increase Individual, Organizational, and
Community Action, September 2013; and
 Visit www.ready.gov/prepare.
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National PrepareAthon! Days
 National PrepareAthon! Days: April 30 and September 30
 Selection of Hazards Focus: Earthquake, flood, hurricane, tornado,
wildfire, and winter storm
 All Community Sectors are Called to Take Action:
 Workplace
 K–12 schools
 Houses of worship
 Community-based organizations
 Institutions of higher education
 Participant Resources Available for All Hazards
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Campaign Structure
 Hazard specific
 Protective actions, preparedness actions, mitigation measures
 Sector specific
 K-12 schools, institutions of higher education, workplaces, faith-based organizations,
community organizations, individuals and families and local leaders
 National Days of Action twice a year: Spring and Fall
 April 30th Tornado, Hurricane, Flood and Wildfire
 September 30: Earthquake, Hazardous Materials, and Severe Winter Weather
 October : Great Shakeout Day of Action earthquake drills held nationwide
 National resources for local action
 Customize local events using the “PrepareAthon!” sub-brand.
 Action at Three Levels:
 Individual: A preparedness action everyone can do that will make a difference for a
specific disaster; is no-cost, and can be done in many venues.
 Organizational: A scenario-based discussion to walk managers through their
organization’s plans for disaster response.
 Community: HSEEP-based TTXs emergency managers can use for whole community
planning.
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Benefits of America’s PrepareAthon!
 Creates a model for others, spurring
dialogue and action.
 Complements and strengthens
existing disaster awareness
initiatives
 Provides a forum to engage
individuals of all ages on the
importance of preparedness.
 Demonstrates commitment to the
health and safety of the community.
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Benefits of America’s PrepareAthon!
 Provides a platform for volunteers to
learn about and become force
multipliers for disaster preparedness.
 Is low cost and scalable.
 Enables ownership – able to subbrand through easily accessible,
downloadable and customizable
promotion materials.
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America’s PrepareAthon! is for Everyone
Community
Organizations
Workplaces
Schools
Families
Faith-Based
Organizations
Individuals
Local
Leaders
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Tools and Resources Make Implementation Easy
WORKPLACES
K-12
SCHOOLS
INSTITUTIONS OF
HIGHER
EDUCATION
COMMUNITY-BASED
ORGANIZATIONS
FAITH-BASED
ORGANIZATIONS
INDIVIDUALS &
FAMILIES
America’s PrepareAthon! Playbook
(tailored for each sector above)
TORNADO
How to Prepare for a
Tornado
Day of Action:
Prepare your People
Day of Action:
Prepare Your
Organization
Whole Community
Tabletop Exercise
HURRICANE
WILDFIRE
FLOOD
How to Prepare for a
Hurricane
How to Prepare for a
Wildfire
How to Prepare for a
Flood
Day of Action:
Prepare your People
Day of Action:
Prepare your People
Day of Action:
Prepare your People
Day of Action:
Prepare Your
Organization
Day of Action:
Prepare Your
Organization
Day of Action:
Prepare Your
Organization
Whole Community
Tabletop Exercise
Whole Community
Tabletop Exercise
Whole Community
Tabletop Exercise
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Participant Resources
WORKPLACES
K-12
SCHOOLS
INSTITUTIONS OF
HIGHER
EDUCATION
COMMUNITY-BASED
ORGANIZATIONS
FAITH-BASED
ORGANIZATIONS
America’s PrepareAthon! Playbook
For K-12 Schools
TORNADO
How to Prepare
Guide
Individual Level Preparedness Action: How To Prepare: Tornado
Day of Action For
K-12 Schools:
Prepare your
People
Individual Level Preparedness Action:
• Discussions on tornado preparedness using How To Prepare Guide
• Practice a school-wide drill to safely move students/employees to protective
location.
Day of Action For
K-12 Schools:
Prepare Your
Organization
Organizational Level Preparedness Action:
• TTX with tornado scenario tailored for schools . This scenario guide and PPT
walks managers through their plans to prepare for, respond to and recover from
a tornado.
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Ways to Participate
America’s PrepareAthon! is designed to work within your organization’s
infrastructure to allow you to determine what preparedness activities
are best for your employees, staff, volunteers and the people you serve.
 Prepare Your Community:
 Work with all members of your community to host interactive and
simple activities to increase preparedness throughout the year.
 Prepare Your Organization:
 Conduct a drill or preparedness activity that will make your
employees, staff, and volunteers more prepared at home and at
work.
 Promote America’s PrepareAthon!
 Use your organization’s networks to highlight and promote
America’s PrepareAthon! and National PrepareAthon! Day
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Promotional Materials
Overview handout and PowerPoint
Fact sheet, FAQs, Talking points
Communications Toolkit
Media Event Planning Guide
Bifold brochure for organizations
Resource Catalog
Digital invites, web badges, banners
Customizable general and
hazard-specific posters
 Animated Videos
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Promotional Materials – General
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Promotional Materials - Tornado
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Promotional Materials – Flood
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Smyrna, Georgia’s
PrepareAthon! Campaign
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Smyrna’s Example
 Date: March 21st and 22nd, 2014
 Key Partners: City of Smyrna EMA, Smyrna Citizen Corps
Council, Emory Adventist Hospital, Cobb County Schools,
Cobb-Douglas Public Health Department, Atlanta Red Cross,
Georgia Emergency Management Agency, National Weather
Service, FEMA Region IV.
 Event Type: Community-Wide Tornado Drill, Hospital
Exercise, and Family Preparedness Expo
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Smyrna’s Example
March 21st Community Wide Tornado Drill Agenda
 9-10:00 AM EST –Smyrna schools conduct Tornado Drill
 11:00 AM EST – Media Briefing
 12:00 PM – Community Wide Tornado Drill
 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM – FEMA Supported Full Scale Exercise
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Smyrna’s Example
Saturday,March 22nd Family Preparedness Expo
 10:00 AM EST – 2:00 PM EST
 Preparedness Expo to be held at Smyrna Elementary
 Activities to include: Red Cross Education, Generator
Safety, Chainsaw Safety, Blood Drive, Disaster Kit
Demonstration, Smyrna Swat Team, Food Safety (Public
Health), private vendor demonstrating disaster
preparedness items and classes, Boy Scouts demonstrating
safety activities, Neighborhood HOA Cert Team
registrations.
 Food Trucks
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Ways to Customize Your Event
Ready Smyrna PrepareAthon
 Created Ready Smyrna Website
 Developed Outreach Collateral Materials
 Distributed outreach materials as inserts in City Water Bill
 Targeted the Business Community and Partnered with the
Red Cross to promote the Ready Rating Program.
 Partnered with the local Hospital to include major exercise
as part of their Community Day of Action.
 Involved local Emergency Management and Citizens Corps
Council.
 Launched a Ready Smyrna PrepareAthon App next Friday
during their Community Preparedness Day activities.
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Contact Information
Greg Padgett, Regional Preparedness Liaison (CTR)
FEMA Region IV
Greg.Padgett@icfi.com
(678) 232-9752
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An Overview of
Spartanburg County’s PrepareAthon!
Doug Bryson
Spartanburg County Emergency Management
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Severe Weather Awareness Week
 March 8 – 14, 2015
 Tornado Drill – 3/11 @ 9am
 GOAL: Increase the number of individuals and businesses
participating in the drill by utilizing our partners, websites,
social media, local media, and the ENS System
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Dissemination of Information
 Website: www.scoem.org and www.spartanburgcet.org
 Social Media – SCOEM’s Facebook and Twitter
 Social Media – CERT’s Facebook and Twitter
 Local Media Outlets – To include but not limited to:
Spartanburg Herald, Ch 7, Ch 4, Ch 21, etc
 ENS System – Code Red
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CODE Red
 Has agreed to reimburse the minutes utilized for this
campaign (therefore the notifications are free)
 The Business call will reach approximately 14,314 contacts
and the Residential call will reach 73,006 contacts.
 At the end of each message, contacts will be prompted to
press 1 if they plan on participating in the Tornado Drill or
Press 2 if they plan are declining to participate in the Drill.
 The final results will show us the percentage of county
participants who plan to participate
 This message will go out the day of the Tornado drill, no
later than an hour before the drill and no earlier than 30
minutes prior.
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CONCLUSION
 Spartanburg County’s PrepareAthon! initiative will result in
the largest number of County Residents and Businesses
simultaneously conducting Tornado drills at their respective
homes/businesses in history.
 The initiative will result in little to no costs due to the
unbelievable support of our Code Red system, local media,
FEMA, and followers on Social Media.
 This event will allow Spartanburg EMA to gauge how
participation in the Statewide Tornado Drill varied, if any,
among individuals and businesses.
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 Our call out will provide invaluable data that can show how
successful our efforts really were.
 Based on this data we can have a brief After Action meeting
and create a better campaign from the lessons learned
during this campaign
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Questions?
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