Archive for August, 2011

September: A Time to Remember. A Time to Prepare.

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

EDEN is in a lineup of National Preparedness Month partners in the Community Preparedness Webinar Series. The presentation, “Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN): Improving Disaster Preparedness through Education: An overview of the opportunities for disaster preparedness education provided by EDEN,” is September 8 at 2 pm EDT. No registration necessary to join the webinar (http://citizencorps.gov/news/webcasts.shtm). Sign in early—the webinar starts promptly on the hour!

The following post was prepared by Abby Lillpop.

September marks the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York City, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC. September is also National Preparedness Month (NPM), and this year’s theme is “A Time to Remember. A Time to Prepare” to remember those lost in the 9/11 attacks as well as to encourage everyone to prepare now for future emergencies.

September was founded as NPM following 9/11 to increase preparedness in the U.S. It is a time to prepare yourself and those in your care for an unexpected emergency. 2011 has brought unexpected tornadoes, devastating wildfires, historic earthquakes, and flash flooding to name a few of the disasters that have affected millions this year. Each of these events proves a disaster can hit anytime, anywhere, and affect people just like you.

This September, please prepare and plan in the event you must go for three days without electricity, water service, access to a supermarket, or local services. Just follow these three steps:

  1. Get a Kit: Keep enough emergency supplies on hand for you and those in your care – water, non-perishable food, first aid, prescriptions, flashlight, and battery-powered radio – for a checklist of supplies visit Ready.gov.
  2. Make a Plan: Discuss, agree on, and document an emergency plan with those in your care. For sample plans, see Ready.gov. Work together with neighbors, colleagues and others to build community resilience.
  3. Be Informed: Free information is available to assist you from federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial resources. You can find preparedness information by:
  • Accessing EDEN.lsu.edu and/or FEMA’s Ready.gov to learn what to do before, during, and after an emergency
  • Contacting your local emergency management agency to get essential information on specific hazards to your area, local plans for shelter and evacuation, ways to get information before and during an emergency, and how to sign up for emergency alerts if they are available
  • Contacting your local firehouse and asking for a tour and information about preparedness

 EDEN has partnered with FEMA each year to promote NPM and offers resources available on the EDEN website. To help our communities prepare for disaster, consider joining the National Preparedness Month Coalition. It’s easy to join the coalition — register here. Please sign up individual colleges and their locations with EDEN as affiliation so that local communities can identify them among the college and university list and by state. The calendar for activities is also accessible from this site. You can also sign up as individuals. The daily blog is a compendium of what interested members of the public and those working on preparedness share with the list.

What activities are you planning to promote NPM?

Posted in Community Prepraredness, Family and Individual Preparedness | No Comments »

Getting in the Knowledge Groove

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011

August is a great month. We finish our summer projects and vacations, decide on fall projects and get ready for a new school year.  I remember getting ready for school and the clean-slate feel of it. I’ve been out of school for a long time, but the new beginning feeling remains.

Reinforcing that back-to-school feeling are recent JOE articles by EDEN delegates.  Chuck Schwab’s article describes a pilot evaluation of an internet educational module. The evaluated module is one portion of Chuck’s Tractor and Machinery Virtual Classroom. The classroom, intended for 4-h’ers, focuses on safety. There are four interactive modules: IconMatch (featured in the article; one goal is to familiarize tractor and machinery operators with universal symbols), Tractor Explorer (demonstrates physical locations of operational controls and describes their basic functions), Give Me Five (demonstrates hand signals), and Lights ‘n Stuff (not operational at this time). Hitch & Go Safely is also available (match vehicle with wagon). Fun ways to learn!

 In Washington, teaching the youth about the relationship between biosecurity measures and disease transmission risks falls to volunteer leaders, but what do they know about biosecurity–and where do they get their information? Susan Kerr and colleagues at Washington State University collected materials through an Internet search to learn that information on biosecurity in 4-H livestock projects is available from many sources, including Extension, but none of them specifically target volunteer leaders who oversee livestock projects. The authors also gathered information from faculty, staff and volunteer leaders to determine the need for educational materials. In response, an online module (not yet available) about biosecurity was developed for the volunteer leader audience. Learn more about this assessment that can be adapted across the country.

What kind of development support does your institution provide for new employees? Expectations for new faculty are outlined in Roadmap for Excellence in Extension. Kris Saunders and co-author Diane Reese describe the process Utah State Extension uses to assist new Extension faculty through the tenure and promotion system. If you supervise employees in the tenure track or you are in a tenure track position, you’ll find this article to be quite informative.

What articles have recently piqued your interest?

Posted in 4-H disaster education, Professional Development | No Comments »

Prepare for National Preparedness Month

Wednesday, August 10th, 2011

Next month is the eighth presentation of National Preparedness Month (NPM) and the tenth anniversary of the New York Twin Towers destruction. To honor those who died and those who responded to the tragic event in 2001, this year’s NPM theme is “A Time to Remember. A Time to Prepare.”

To get the most benefit from FEMA’s toolkit, you must register. Becoming a coalition member is a simple process and opens the door to lots of resources. Once you’ve registered, you will have the opportunity to join your (FEMA) regional forum where you can connect with regional coalition members. This is an online discussion group that focuses on ideas and topics specific to your region.  

You can also join a national preparedness discussion. This online collaboration allows you to view, create and respond to discussions using the website or directly from your email.

Coalition members have access to customizable products, including a preparedness presentation, and a bill stuffer and posters in English and Spanish.  There are also promotional materials.

EDEN continues to partner in the campaign. Our materials are complementary to those found on the ReadyNPM site. You’ll also see two examples of member institution preparedness efforts.

 Do you have a success story or an idea for promoting preparedness? Please share it with us!

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Posted in Children and Disasters, Community Prepraredness, Family and Individual Preparedness | No Comments »