Resilient Children, Resilient Communities
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Every day. In times of crisis. For our future. Putnam County | September 2015 Resilient Children, Resilient Communities
Transcript of Resilient Children, Resilient Communities
Every day. In times of crisis. For our future.
Putnam County | September 2015
Resilient Children, Resilient Communities
Agenda
1) Introductions
2) Project Briefing
3) Community Resilience Coalitions: Vision
for Putnam County
4) Baseline Assessment: Understanding the
Community Preparedness Index (CPI)
5) Questions/ AOB
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Understanding the unique needs of children in emergencies and the critical gaps that exist.
The Concern: Why focus on children?
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Children are not simply ‘little adults.’
Physical
– Reliance on caregivers:
• Mobility
• Communication
• Safety & protection
– Nutritional & medical needs
Emotional
– Lack coping skills
– Routine & comfort
Developmental
– Disruption of learning
– Milestone setbacks
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Unique Needs of Children
Critical role of everyday institutions in times of disaster
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A Community-Based Child-Focused Initiative
The Solution…
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Resilient Children, Resilient Communities Initiative
Model for child-focused community
resilience that is sustainable and replicable
Community Resilience Coalitions
Research & Evidence National
Policy Leadership
What we hope to achieve in 3 years
Local
• Improved resilience, coordination and preparedness of
child-serving institutions
• Cross-sector, sustainable process for child-focused
preparedness
• Demonstrated readiness through assessments and
scenario-based exercises
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National
• National model for increasing community preparedness for children
• Increased national awareness and understanding
• Influence on national policy leadership through National Leadership Board
• Increasing the ability of participating communities to better
protect children before, during and after an emergency
• Widespread adoption of best practices, tools and methods
• Reduced cost/effort of preparing communities to prepare for
children in disasters
• Increased national support/guidance for community-based
preparedness programs impacting children
• Reduced adverse effect of disasters on children nationally
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Long-term impact
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Getting to Know the Project Partners
Who?
Who We Are
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Nationally recognized “go to” center for translating science into impact – and practice
• Providing the disaster latest research, policy and practice
• Trained over100,000 people domestically and internationally
• Special focus on research and projects focused on children in disasters
National leader for children in emergencies
• Making sure children around the world are healthy, learning and protected
• Served over 1 million children since Hurricane Katrina
• Led National Commission on Children in Disasters & National Advisor to FEMA
One of the world’s leading reach-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies
• Committed to improving the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer
Roles in the Project
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Community Partners
Local…
• Expertise
• Networks
• Policies
Washington County
Putnam County
Save the Children
• Facilitation
• Training & Technical
Expertise
GSK
• Funder
• Communications
support
NCDP
• Assessment
• Research
• National networks
• Population: 207,900
– 25% children
– 27% children below poverty level
– 18% speak language other than
English at home
• Common hazards:
– Tornadoes
– Flooding
– Severe Storms
• 8 public school districts
• 3 hospitals
• Population: 99,700
– 23% children
– 6% children below poverty level
– 18% speak language other than
English at home
• Common hazards:
– Hurricanes
– Flooding
– Severe winter storms
• 6 public school districts
• 2 hospitals (in area)
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Washington County, AR Putnam County, NY
Snapshot of Participating Counties
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Working together to create a national model for community resilience.
How can we increase resilience?
But first, what is “resilience?”
Definitions of Community Resilience
Report by the Community & Regional Resilience Institute outlines
14 pages of definitions!
Resilience is the ability of communities or individuals to
cope with, respond to, and quickly recover from a
disaster or emergency which may have a broad
community impact.
Research has shown that the quicker children can return to school
and a normal routine, the faster they recover.
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How the Project is Set Up
Phase 1: Engagement
Phase 2: Assessment
Phase 3: Capacity Building
Phase 4: Sustainable Readiness
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Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Phase 1: Engagement
Phase 2: Assessment
Phase 3: Capacity Building
Phase 4: Sustainable Readiness
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Identify the
right people
Re-assessPrioritization
Community
Preparedness
Index
Awareness
Raising
Planning
Table-top
exercises
Training Sustainability
Plan
Community
Champion
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
The Inputs and Products
Organized local working groups: Community Resilience Coalitions
Improved local plans and processes
County representation with national dialogue (NCRB)
Broad communication of successes and best practices
Objective data on readiness and priority areas for planning
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Local Expertise
• Time and commitment
• Professional Networks
National Expertise and Research
• Unique needs of children in disasters
• Evidence-based tools/methods
• Technical assistance/facilitation
• Link to national support structures
and policy levers
Funding
Who
• Representatives and champions from multiple child-serving sectors, government agencies and emergency management
• Dynamic partnerships of public and private institutions and stakeholders
• Ultimately determined by the community
What
• Work together to assess community strengths & gaps in protecting children before, during and after emergencies
• Lead/facilitate community assessment efforts
• Develop community action plans
• Create a framework for national best practice
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Community Resilience Coalitions: A Catalyst for Change
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Facilitated discussion on what you want the Community Resilience Coalition to look like and achieve.
What’s the vision for Putnam County?
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1. What does Putnam already do well in
terms of keeping children safe (every
day or specific to emergencies)?
• Orange post-it
2. What improvements would you
ideally like to see 3 years from now?
• Yellow
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Discussion
3. Who in the community needs to be involved for this to happen?
Dream big! Remember, this project has a national component to it.
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Understanding the project assessment tool.
How do we measure success?
Community Preparedness Index (CPI)
• Co-developed by Save the Children and NCDP• Online self-assessment to help communities identify their strengths and
weaknesses in caring for children in disasters
Sectors :
Child Care Centers Family Child Care Providers Private & Public Schools Foster Care
Hospitals Emergency Shelters Lead Organizations Community-wide Orgs
Determine the geography or jurisdiction
you will assess
Choose your sectors, some
or all?
Form a working group
with key players
Identify a leader and
champions for each sector
Convene the group to
review the materials
• Getting started with the CPI:
CPI Instrument – Sample Questions for Child Care Centers
CPI ProcessIdentify Sector
Leads
Distribute Sector Questionnaire
Sector Lead Call
Sector Lead Completes
Questionairre
NCDP Facilitates Questionnaire
Completion
NCDP Inputs Questionairre
NCDP Inputs Questionairre
Enhanced technical
assistance available by
request
Research: National Attitudes and Opinions on Preparedness
• A national survey is being deployed to measure the public’s
attitudes and opinions on preparedness.
– Trended questions as far back as 2001
– New questions focused on children in disasters
• National survey results will be publicly released
• Washington County and Putnam County will receive their
own survey deployment
– County reports will NOT be released to the public
– Provided to the planning team to support action planning
– Inform local stakeholders on preparedness attitudes and behaviors
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Next Steps
• Identify leads for each sector of the Community Preparedness
Index assessment
• Date for next meeting
• Determine initial members, scope and objectives of CRC
• Identify existing resources and infrastructure for emergency
preparedness
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Contact & More Information
• Project Homepage: http://ncdp.columbia.edu/rcrc
• Project Director: Jeff Schlegelmilch
• CRC Lead: Jennifer Smith
– 347-382-0884
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