What’s Your Plan?
Robby Powers
Emergency Preparedness Coordinator
City of Tallahassee
Emergency Preparedness
• Work with all City departments to prepare
for executing an effective response to any
disaster. Preparation consists of:
–
–
–
–
Planning
Training
Tests and exercises
Review of real-life events
• Coordinate the City of Tallahassee’s
response to an event by:
– Communicating between agencies
– Meeting the needs of first responders
– Meeting the needs of citizens
Emergency Preparedness and Volunteers
• The relationship between the Emergency Preparedness
Department and Volunteer Organizations is mutually
beneficial
–
–
–
–
Ensure responder/citizen needs are being met during a disaster
Conduct presentations
Developed training manual for small non-profits
Assistance with obtaining grants
Volunteer Roles
• Volunteer roles change
during each stage of a
disaster
– Preparedness:
• Prepare self first
• Sign up on COAD and 211
– Response:
• Be ready to fulfill mission
to community
• coordinate/communicate
your actions
Volunteer Roles
• Recovery:
– Be prepared to continue your mission, and know when your
mission has been completed
– Have the capacity to reload quickly
– Provide care to volunteers
• Mitigation
– Identify actions that could have prevented adverse impacts
– Identify missions/actions that could have been carried out more
effectively
Benefits and Challenges
• There are many benefits and challenges of working
with non-profits
– Benefits:
• Non-profits have a mission to serve the community
• Can help you reach your target population
• COAD has created a network of non-profits, which enables
an effective, organized response
– Challenges:
• Volunteers may have other commitments/may not be able
to fulfill their commitment to the non-profit
• Over-estimate capabilities
• Not knowing where your organization fits into the system
• Lack of planning
Recommendations
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Know your mission
Never stop recruiting
Train volunteers well
Develop a plan
Test the plan
Keep people informed
Create partnerships