12TH ANNUAL ALLHAZARDS HIGHER EDUCATION CONFERNCE MEETINGS NEEDS AND

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12th ANNUAL ALL-HAZARDS HIGHER EDUCATION CONFERNCE

12^thANNUAL ALL-HAZARDS HIGHER EDUCATION CONFERNCE

MEETINGS NEEDS AND EXPECTATIONS

INTEGRATING HIGHER EDUCATION, THE GOVERNMENT, AND PRIVATE SECTOR INTO NEW ENGLAND’S CONTINUM OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

(1^st Breakout Session of Tuesday June 2, 2009)

Moderator

Paul Benyeda CEM MEP

[email protected]

Training Specialist, Integrated Emergency Management Section

Emergency Management Institute -FEMA

Panel:

Captain W. Russell Webster, USCG (Ret.)

[email protected]

Federal Preparedness Coordinator

FEMA Region I

Michelle L. Collins

[email protected]

DAE

FEMA Region I

Prepared by:

Opal M. Coleman

[email protected]

Graduate Student

American Public University

Opal Coleman

Center of Excellence

Building partnerships is the work of the Region 1’s Federal Preparedness Coordinator and his office’s mission to make Region1 a “center of excellence.” The “center of excellence” concept is achieved by addressing the needs of colleges and universities for planning and emergency management programming. At the elementary level this concept is achieved by the development and implementation of the STEP program. This program teaches elementary students about emergency preparedness. The progress of education and outreach programs are built on the partnerships of higher and elementary education, government and private sector. These relationships and their successful outcomes, it is the hope of Captain Webster, will have other regions looking to Region1. This would establish Region 1 as a center of excellence.

At the College and University Level

For emergency planning, Captain Webster assesses the position and resources already held by the colleges and universities. The following questions are important to that assessment:

-Is the college/university the center or in the center of the population?

-Are they State-funded?

- Have they been affected by disaster or emergency?

-Next to emergency planning schools?

-Community-college eligible grant programs for CERT?

-Are there other resources that they provide in regards to shelters, volunteers, and food distribution centers?

The answers to these question help provide a baseline for direction and obtaining planning resources.

The second part of Captain Webster’s coordination role is connecting people to develop emergency management programs at the higher education level. This is achieved through the establishment of partnerships of local players and private industry. As a result of these efforts there are several colleges and universities within the region that have emergency management programs or will be starting such programs. There is EM programming in CT, RI is getting started, Maine has possibly two schools to be next in line for programs, VT has a program at UVT, and NH assisted in planning evacuation routes.

Student Tools for Emergency Planning (STEP)

At the elementary level, Captain Webster’s office and a partnership with the External Affairs office of Region 1 created the Student Tools for Emergency Planning program or STEP. Supervised by Michelle Collins, the STEP program brings emergency preparedness into the 4^th and 5^th grade classrooms. The STEP program is implemented by providing the teachers with instructor guides and items for the students to build their emergency planning toolkits. In addition there is also the requirement that teachers schedule one hour for the initial lesson with up to five hours for initial lesson reinforcement. This program also includes the return of the “Disaster Dudes” video which is the visual component of the STEP package. This program is a pilot running in forty schools impacting over four thousand students. STEP is also a partnership opportunity that brings together different age groups. Teachers in classrooms aren’t the only source to teach elementary students the STEP program. Teachers can be the elderly, college students, and CERT volunteers.

Feedback from this program has been positive indicated by the videotape of students talking about what they have learned from the STEP program. Initial survey of the effectiveness of this program on the 4^th and 5^th grade levels finds that is more effective to teach this program at the 5^th grade level. Whether 4^th or 5^th graders or both are trained in emergency preparedness, the result is that they get parents involved. Using that advantage is the way that the training of elementary students with the STEP program results in family preparedness. This is due to the program teaching these students on how to prepare a “go bag” and the importance of the family plan.

It is the hope of both Ms. Collins and Captain Webster that this program will be picked up by another organization. This organization would continue to fund the program as well as introduce it into more schools in the region and across the United States.

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